The crossings are there because other countries have them. You are no safer on a pedestrian crossing in Japan than jaywalking on a German Autobahn. The only difference is the German drivers are less insane.

This morning the stakes were much higher than usual. Gacuette crossed the road to leave the waste paper at the designated collection point. On the way back, he raised his arm like the school children are taught to do when crossing the road.

He had only taken the first step when a car coming towards him sped up noticeably, instead of slowing down. It became a "fight or flight" situation; however, as it was a Wednesday morning, the author decided to let the car go first.

Wednesday mornings are never good times for being run over by a car on a pedestrian crossing.

But wait a moment, how could this be? Mustn't they let you go first when you raise your arm? The author always does. Suddenly it downed on him that he was wearing his gaijin style hat. Still, that was too aggressive, even by the Japanifik standards.

After an Earthquake, Don't Let Anyone Know You Are a Foreigner!

Later in the afternoon, Gacuette heard about the magnitude 6.8 Tohoku earthquake. He had always wanted to write a few lines about the quakes in Japan, and today was as good time as any. Here's what he discovered among other information:

[Quoted from Wikipedia]

,

The 1923 Great Kantō earthquake struck the Kantō plain on the Japanese main island of Honshū at 11:58 on the morning of September 1, 1923. Varied accounts hold that the duration was between 4 and 10 minutes. ...
Marunouchi after the Great Kanto Earthquake

The quake was later estimated to have had a magnitude between 7.9 and 8.4 on the Richter scale, with its epicenter deep beneath Izu Ōshima Island in Sagami Bay. It devastated Tokyo, the port city of Yokohama, surrounding prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Shizuoka, and caused widespread damage throughout the Kantō region. ...

A view of the destruction in Yokohama

Casualty estimates range from about 100,000 to 142,000 deaths, the latter figure including approximately 37,000 who went missing and were presumed dead. ...

Damage

Because the earthquake struck at lunchtime when many people were using fire to cook food, the damage and the number of fatalities were amplified due to fires which broke out in numerous locations. The fires spread rapidly due to high winds from a nearby typhoon off the coast of Noto Peninsula in Northern Japan and some developed into firestorms which swept across cities. This caused many to die when their feet got stuck in melting tarmac; however, the single greatest loss of life occurred when around 38,000 people packed into an open space at the Rikugun Honjo Hifukusho (Army Parade Ground) in downtown Tokyo were incinerated by a firestorm-induced fire whirl. As the earthquake had caused water mains to break, putting out the fires took nearly two full days until late in the morning of September 3. The fires were the biggest cause of death.

Desolation of Nihonbashi and Kanda seen from the Roof of Dai-ichi Sogo Building, Kyōbashi.

The Imperial Palace caught fire, but the Prince Regent was unharmed. The Emperor and Empress were at Nikko when the earthquake struck the city, and they were never in any danger. ...

Over 570,000 homes were destroyed, leaving an estimated 1.9 million homeless. Some evacuees were transported by ship to as far from Kanto as the port of Kobe in Kansai. The damage is estimated to have exceeded one billion U.S. dollars at contemporary values. There were 57 accountable aftershocks.

Metropolitan Police Office burning at Marunouchi, near Hibiya Park, Tokyo.

Post-quake violence

The panic and confusion created by the earthquake led to numerous false rumors spreading both inside and outside of the affected regions. Japanese newspaper articles carried confused stories, variously reporting the total annihilation of Tokyo, the Japanese cabinet getting wiped out, the entire Kantō region sinking into the sea, the destruction of the Izu Islands due to volcanic eruptions, and a monster tsunami reaching as far inland as Akagi (at the northernmost corner of the Kantō Plain, almost halfway across the width of the country).

The Home Ministry declared martial law, and ordered all sectional police chiefs to make maintenance of order and security a top priority. One particularly pernicious rumor was that ethnic Koreans were taking advantage of the disaster, committing arson and robbery, and were in possession of bombs. In the aftermath of the quake, mass murder of Koreans by vigilante mobs occurred in urban Tokyo and Yokohama, fueled by rumors of rebellion and sabotage. Some newspapers reported the rumors as fact, which led to the most deadly rumor of all: that the Koreans were poisoning wells. The numerous fires and cloudy well water (a little-known effect of a big quake) all seemed to confirm the rumors in the eyes of the panic-stricken survivors living among the rubble. Vigilante groups set up roadblocks in cities, towns and villages across the region. Because people with Korean accents pronounced "G" or "J" in the beginning of words differently, 15円 50銭 (jū-go-en, go-jus-sen) and がぎぐげご (gagigugego) were used as shibboleths. Anyone who failed to pronounce them properly was deemed Korean. Some were told to leave, but many were beaten or killed. Moreover, anyone mistakenly identified as Korean, such as Chinese, Okinawans, and Japanese speakers of some regional dialects, suffered the same fate. ...

More than 2,000 Koreans were taken in for protection from the mobs across the region, although recent studies have shown that there were incidents where army and police personnel are known to have condoned or even colluded in the vigilante killings in some areas. ... In some towns, even police stations into which Koreans had escaped were attacked by mobs, whereas in other neighbourhoods residents took steps to protect them. ...

The total death toll from these disturbances is uncertain ... Actual estimates range as high as 6,600 ... Three hundred and sixty-two Japanese civilians were eventually charged (for murder, attempted murder, manslaughter and assault), though most got off with nominal sentences, and even those who were sent to jail were later released with a general pardon commemorating the marriage of Prince Hirohito. In contrast, the actual number of Koreans who were charged for crimes during this period were 2 for murder, 3 for arson, 6 for robbery and 3 for rape.

All of those charged with the killings were civilians, despite the fact that some military and police units are now known to have taken part in the crimes, prompting accusations of a cover-up. ... On top of this violence, Socialists like Hirasawa Keishichi, anarchists like Sakae Osugi and Noe Ito, and Chinese communal leader, Ou Kiten, were abducted and killed by members of the police who claimed the victims had intended to use the crisis as an opportunity to overthrow the Japanese government.

The importance of obtaining and providing accurate information following natural disasters has been emphasized in Japan ever since. Earthquake preparation literature in modern Japan almost always directs citizens to "carry a portable radio and use it to listen to reliable information, and [not to] be misled by rumors" in the event of a big quake. [Charming!]
[End quote.]

Conclusion:

1. [Caveat lector] Not a lot has changed in Japan since 1923.

2. [General case] If you are foreigner living in Japan, don't let anyone know who you are afetr an earthquake.

3. [Special case] Don't wear a gaijin hat, or show your face when you walk on a pedestrian crossing after an earthquake!

See Main Entry: http://japanifik.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/you-do-this-to-the-japanese/
Follow up: http://japanifik.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/words-mightier-than-myth-of-samurai-swords/

When the author's and his spouse's bikes were vandalized in December 2007, the police said they wanted to see the damage before the bikes were fixed. They asked us to contact them before we repaired the bikes the next time (!) This time being the next time, we obliged.

After some huffing and puffing, coming and going, they said the type of damage was "unusual!!" [The rear tire was slashed. See Photo.] Now, they want to see a professional "damage report." They want to know why the bike tire was slashed, if the author understood the message correctly, with the knurled ring that holds the inner tube valve core in place still tightly screwed. Let's hope the bike shop mechanics are more up-to-date on forensic science than the police is. More on this story later.

Related Links:

• The words are mightier than even the myth of Samurai swords
• Paying the price for free speech in Japan!

• More Criminal Damage
• Foreigners Can Drive in Japan?
• Do Not Speak English in Japan!
  

• War Crimes, USA
• A Culture of Bullying, Sex, Suicide, Murder
• Fruits of a Repressed Culture

• A Culture of Bullying

Japanese professional wrestling promoters Zero 1 Max held wrestling matches at the Yasukuni Shrine (yes, that Yasukuni Shrine) last weekend in an oblational service for the divinities.

The event, dubbed the Yamato Kamisu Strength Festival, was held for a fourth straight year to help bring back the good old days of professional wrestling in Japan. The shrine's dohyo, or sumo ring, was rearranged to enable the installation of a special wrestling ring for 2,000 spectators. The sumo ring is located near an excellent spot for cherry blossom viewing, so at past events fans have been able to enjoy the refined delights of an o-hanami while cheering the choke holds. This year’s Strength Festival was held before the blooms opened, however. Children of junior high school age and younger were admitted free of charge.

The event was started in 2005 by Hashimoto Shinya, a professional wrestler who died later that year at the age of 40. This year’s card featured seven matches.

Ready for another one?

There is a long tradition of professional wrestlers fighting at Yasukuni Shrine. The most recent occasion before this series was April 23, 1961, when Japanese wrestling legend Rikidozan presided over a card that featured youngsters Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki, who would become stars in their own right. (Inoki also would later form his own political party and win election to a seat in the upper house.) The event attracted 15,000 people.

But the maiden event occurred in March 1921, when American wrestling legend Ad Sentel took on several Japanese judo practitioners from the Kodokan dojo, including Nagata Reijiro, and won all his matches. This story has an interesting background. Sentel took on judo fighter Ito Tokugoro in 1914 and beat him. Ito had publicized himself as a "Japanese judo champion", so Sentel claimed after his victory that he was the "World Judo Champion" (proving that professional wrestlers haven't changed much in the past century.) This prompted the embarrassed head of the Kodokan dojo to arrange the matches with Sentel at Yasukuni. The American's victories popularized what some call "submission wrestling" in Japan.

Holding wrestling matches for the divinities at a Shinto shrine is not as outlandish as it may seem. There is a very long tradition in Japan of festivals with competitive events at Shinto shrines. In addition to sumo, which is closely linked to Shinto, competitions at shrines include archery, tug-of-war, and, according to my reference, even cock-fighting. The idea is that the divinities will favor the more deserving competitor, and the victors in these events will have good fortune in the year ahead.

Ready for one more?

The primary draw this year was the appearance in the ring of the former sumo yokozuna Akebono fighting as one member of a six-man tag team match.

The term yokozuna is usually translated as grand champion, but it is best understood by describing it as the top classification in the sumo ranking system (which is somewhat similar to martial arts). Only the best of the best are elevated to yokozuna status. (Akebono was just the 64th rikishi to earn that rank.) Those chosen are not just the most successful athletes in the Japanese national sport, they are also expected to exemplify its living spiritual traditions, which are 2,000 years old.

For Akebono to become a professional wrestler, it is as if Michael Jordan decided to take up roller derby.

A decade ago, Akebono, who was born Chad Ha’aheo Rowan in Hawaii, was one of the foremost figures in international sport, in his or any era. Because sumo is followed by few people outside of Japan, and because rikishi compete under specially chosen names, his identity and accomplishments are unfamiliar to many.

Rowan was not merely very good—he absolutely dominated sumo during a career that lasted from 1988 to 2001 and set records in the process. And to scale the sumo summit, he had to leave his home in Hawaii to live in Japan and master a foreign language, the techniques of an unfamiliar sport, and the customs and traditions participation in that sport demands.

Rowan appeared in his first tournament in March 1988. There are six tournaments a year, and just 30 tournaments later, in January 1993, he became sumo’s first non-Japanese yokozuna. It was the fastest rise to this rank in the sport’s history. Further, Akebono was the only rikishi to hold the highest rank for nearly two years. Some have likened this feat to a Japanese who has never seen or played football going to an American university and winning the Heisman Trophy four years later.

Akebono’s career match record was 654 wins and 232 losses. He won 11 tournament championships, ranking him 7th in the modern era at the time. (After Akebono retired, another foreign rikishi, Musashimaru, racked up 12. Today’s fallen superstar, the Mongolian Asashoryu, later broke Akebono’s records for speed of promotion, and won 22 championships to place fourth on the all-time list. But that’s another story.)

His stunning competitive record was not the only reason for Akebono’s popularity among the Japanese. Participation in sumo demands an attitude and approach that is almost aesthetic. Unlike his fellow Hawaiian Konishiki, who whined that racism prevented his promotion to yokozuna, Akebono pleased even the most demanding purists with his demeanor. More than a few Japanese wondered if a non-Japanese would ever be honored with elevation to the top rank, as sumo is a conservative, traditional sport in a country that prizes conservatism in its traditions. But Akebono made history in January 1993.

Forced to retire due to a series of knee injuries, there were a wealth of opportunities to pursue. He could have opened his own training organization, as do many former famous rikishi. He could have parleyed his name and fame into television commercials, as did Konishiki. He could have married a trophy wife, as did Takanohana. Indeed, he could have done all three. He was well paid during his days in the ring, earning US$15,000 a month at his peak, not counting bonuses for tournament victories, and could have made a lot more in any number of ways.

So what did Akebono choose to do after retirement? He became a K-1 fighter.

I’m not sure how well known K-1 is outside of Japan, but in Japan it is an extremely popular fighting sport. Venues with a capacity of 45,000 have been known to sell out for matches in an hour. Conducted in a boxing ring, the sport’s promoters claim it combines the martial arts of karate, Thai kickboxing, tae kwon do, and kung fu. The matches seem to be above board, but all the commentators have a background in professional wrestling. Here is their official website.

But it was not just a case of Akebono deciding to become a K-1 fighter. He was a really bad K-1 fighter. Starting with his debut on New Year’s Eve 2003 against Bob Sapp, a fighter so well known in Japan that the bout was dubbed a dream match, the former rikishi was handed his lunch every time he stepped into the ring. His matches seldom lasted more than a couple of minutes against opponents that were often lightly regarded in K-1 circles.

Then the SmackDown! Xprofessional wrestling show made its way to Japan two years ago. Akebono attended and was invited into the ring by one of the wrestlers, The Big Show. The two shook hands and exchanged pleasantries before Akebono left. But Akebono didn’t leave it there. In a story familiar to anyone who has ever been a 10-year-old boy, there was a report that SmackDown’s announcer “tracked Big Show down backstage and told him word out of Japan was that Akebono wanted to face Show at WrestleMania 21 later that year in Los Angeles.”

Big Show accepted the challenge and the match was arranged. It was a sumo style match, which naturally gave Akebono an advantage. Perhaps the organizers did not want Akebono to flop as badly in professional wrestling as he did in K-1. Another possibility was suggested by wrestling commentator NormanB: “What’s going to happen: Akebono wins, because celebrity pseudo-wrestlers NEVER lose to sports entertainers. Examples: Lawrence Taylor, Jay Leno, David Arquette, Mr. T, Kevin Greene…”

During a weigh-in that must have used cattle scales, Akebono showed up at 504 pounds while the seven-foot-tall Big Show tipped the scales at a mere 493. The Big Show has a sense of humor about his size. He told an interviewer, “We have to take these small commuter planes, and I feel like I’m wearing the plane, not sitting in it.”

The interviewer asked him if professional wrestling was fake, recalling that another wrestler once told him the moves were choreographed but the pain was real. Here’s Big Show’s answer:

I’ve had Undertaker kick me in the nuts so hard in The Garden, I just about passed out on Triple H. The chairs are metal, and your ears will ring for about two days after a good chair shot. That’s the thing that people don’t understand. We put our bodies on the line to tell that emotional story.…I just hope that one day they have a Mac Truck wheel chair so I’ll be able to get around.

Once upon a time, Akebono was the most respected member of a 2,000-year-old tradition, a record holder, and a true pioneer after rising to the top as a foreigner in a world that is one of the most traditional of Japanese endeavors. Yet a little more than a decade later, he was challenging Big Show to a match in WrestleMania 21. The result? Big Show briefly picked up Akebono up off his feet, but after one minute and two seconds, Akebono shoved his opponent out of the ring. He was a victor again, though this time it was probably scripted. And I’m sure the pain was real.

Eight years ago, Akebono appeared in a sumo ritual at Yasukuni at the pinnacle of his professional fame. Last weekend, few even in Japan noticed as he threw his weight around once again to take down his opponents. He said he was nervous at first, but happy to be back.

He seems to have found his niche. He said he wants to continue his career as a professional wrestler as a single instead of being part of a tag team.

If the dramatist and author Rod Serling were still alive, he might call this Requiem for A Yokozuna.

Ordinarily Japan is the subject here rather than anything to do with me, but in many ways, to talk about Mr. Koga is to talk about grass-roots Japanese internationalism over the last quarter of the 20th century. To the extent that Japanese society, a former feudal domain that emerged from its self-isolation in a particularly unpleasant way, is now enthusiastically and pleasantly engaged on a variety of levels with the rest of the world, is due to people like Mr. Koga and thousands of people like him in cities and towns throughout the country.

The obituary in the newspaper noted that he was a pioneer (kusawake, literally grass-parter) of international exchange activities in the prefecture, and that doesn’t begin to describe it. The man was a veritable fountain of ideas, and he had the energy to pull most of them off and the persuasiveness to get people to go along with him. He was the founder of three different enterprises (all of which continue to operate today), as well as an instructor in Wado-ryu karate with his own dojo. (He was seventh dan.) It was not unusual for him to spend summer vacations leading a group of students to stay in a remote Thai village that lacked electricity or running water.

On one occasion some years ago, I was part of a group of people bouncing around ideas for solving his latest problem. He was trying to figure out how to find the money to ship two buses to Thailand that he had convinced the local bus company to donate to an orphanage in that country. It took him a while to get them there, but it was just the sort of thing he enjoyed doing.

He had created a scholarship fund for that orphanage, and there were two reasons for his involvement with it. First, he wanted Japanese to become more aware of Asia, and second, he wanted poverty-stricken orphans in rural Thailand to go as far in school as they could. In a country where uneducated country girls often wind up in the sex industry, that is a very big deal.

He convinced his hometown to form sister-city ties with a small town in the United States, and then served as the interpreter during the formal signing ceremony. He also could have interpreted had the ceremony been conducted in French. Ten years ago in Busan, I had a couple of late-night drinks with him in a pojang macha (I think they’re called), a sort of yatai, or street stall, but with the selection of a yakitori restaurant, and his conversational Korean was good enough for all the other customers.

He thought that too often for Japanese, foreigners = Caucasians, so he embarked on a one-man affirmative action program of hiring as English teachers people from such countries as Sri Lanka, the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Zaire whenever he could.

Here is the website of the Terra People Organization, the NPO/NGO he founded. (Only in Japanese, unfortunately) His greeting (which is a bit cosmic) and photo are on this page.

As if that weren’t enough, he was always coming up with ideas for projects on the side. For example, he conceived the idea of filming The Wings of A Man, the story of the only Japanese professional baseball player to die as a kamikaze pilot, and wound up borrowing money from the bank himself to finance the bulk of it.

He also had his eccentric aspects. I have seen him show up for events dressed in an informal men’s kimono, a black cape lined in pink, and a bowler hat. Apparently, he was like that as a young man, too. His first job was as a high school English teacher, and his classroom attire was a t-shirt, shorts, and sandals.

Oh, and did I mention he shaved his head like a monk? He said a priest gave him permission to do so.

The subheading to this site is "Japan from the Inside Out", and the reason I was allowed that vantage point is because he was the one who opened the door and invited me in. To be sure, participation in Japanese society as an equal (with no special favors) is exactly what I wanted, and that is exactly what he insisted upon from his foreign employees. Still, it is surprising even today that many foreigners who talk about internationalism and their interest in Japan and the Japanese are really just blowing smoke. It is also surprising how many Japanese still give them a pass.

But I continue to learn things from him, even indirectly. At the wake, his son delivered a short eulogy in which he said, "My father was like a storm who always thought what he wanted, said what he wanted, and did what he wanted. Many of you might have been engulfed by that storm and suffered some damage from it, but we ask you to forgive him."

That's when I learned that the Japanese can laugh at a funeral, as well as cry.

The final scene in the movie Leo the Last, made in 1970 during a period of global social upheaval, shows the star Marcello Mastroianni lying in a heap in the street with the neighbors after an explosion on his block. One of his neighbors tells him, "You can't change the world." Mastroianni replies, no you can't, but you can change your street.

Koga Takeo didn't change the world, but he certainly changed a lot more than his street. Over the years, he inspired more young people than I can count to expand their horizons, travel the world, and accomplish things they couldn't have imagined trying before they met him.

Before going to his wake tonight, my wife and I calculated how much time it would take to drive to the funeral parlor and set out accordingly. So many people came that it caused a traffic jam, and we arrived 25 minutes later than we planned. Goodness knows what it will be like at the funeral tomorrow.

He died 10 days short of his 58th birthday. May he rest in peace.

Update: I don't know how long the link will last, but here's a Japanese-language story about his funeral with a photo that appeared in the regional newspaper. Attendance was estimated at about 1,000, and that is no exaggeration. The prefectural governor delivered one of the eulogies, in which he said, "That a person such as him even existed is a marvel." That about sums it up.

(1) Material (a) and Human Logistics (b)

(2) A Structurally-Weak yen

One principal reason for the changing flows of people to and from Japan is the exchange rate fluctuations that have occured since the century began. Comparing rates (of the yen and others) from 2000 and 2007 we see that the Chinese Yuan, despite its government's controls, has risen by 19%, the Honk Kong dollar by 9.2%, the Singapore dollar by 25.1% - indicating that visitors from those countries have found that Japanese prices have dropped quite pleasingly in the last 7 years. For example, in the case of visitors from China - where people's wages have doubled - Japanese prices have dropped by 60-70%. (Taiwan is an exception, gaining only 3.7% on the yen since 2000.) Conversely of course, for the Japanese, Hong Kong and Singapore are not quite the 'shopping countries' they used to be; the writer reports that flights from Japan to Hong Kong after the New Year holiday are full of Hong Kong Chinese laden with designer-label-emblazoned shopping bags, quite the opposite of what used to be the case.

Even more extreme changes have taken place with regard to the Australian dollar (up 57.9% since 2000), the Korean Won (up 32.9%), and the Russian rouble (up 20.4%). Over 70,000 Australians visit the ski resort of Niseko in Hokkaido each year, and have started buying up chalets and villas, pushing up property prices. Russians seem to prefer the ski slopes of Niigata and hotels there are reporting a roaring trade. Meanwhile, the onsens of Beppu, in Oita prefecture (Kyushu), are supported by the visits of over a million Koreans each year. Once again, we see that 'exchange rate magic' is the underlying cause of this flow of people. In the case of resource-rich Australia - where incomes have doubled this century - visitors are falling over themselves to come and find Japanese prices now equate to a quarter of those back home.

(3) What has caused Japan to 'shrivel'?

Under the banner of 'economic stimulation', Japan has maintained - for 12 successive years - a 'super-low interest rate policy', with the bank discount rate breaking the 1% line. The Bank of Japan last year abandoned its zero interest rate , upping it to 0.25% in February last year (2007); it now stands at 0.5%. The Federal Bank of America's 'FF' rate reached a peak of 5.25% in June 2006, but has been cut 4 times since the sub-prime debacle broke in August last year and was set at 3.5% at the end of January this year (2008). So, the interest rate gap between Japan and America has narrowed, but a 3% difference still exists. When you consider that the European rate stands around the 4% level and Australia 6%, the Japanese level is conspicuously low.

Japan's individual financial reserves are said to amount to 1,550,000,000,000,000 yen (１５５０兆円), but this money is being pushed abroad by the low interest rate policy - the so-called 'yen carry' (yen are bought/borrowed and then used abroad to buy other currencies or financial products). The Yen Carry, in its strictest sense, as conducted by institutional investors is estimated at over $200,000,000,000, but in its broader sense, encompassing the investment activities of Japanese and foreign individuals and companies the figure is said in some quarters to be nearer $1,000,000,000,000 : not a fact the Japanese can be proud of. Mr.Terajima rounds this section off by pointing out that the money the Japanese people are working so hard to accumulate is being sucked out of the country (because of the low interest rate policy), often ending up being used by foreign institutions or individuals to attempt to buy out Japanese companies rather than to support business activity in Japan. Investment in Japanese companies thereby ends up benefiting foreign investors : 60% of trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange are conducted by foreign investors, and 28% of shares in major Japanese companies are held by foreigners (as of September 2007). With the fall in the stock market this year, foreign investors have been steadily 'selling Japan'; whereas the New York Dow's biggest drop was of 15%, the Nikkei plumetted by 31%, indicating the precarious nature of Japan's dependence on foreign investment.

Mr.Terajima concludes that the super-low interest rate policy has warped the Japanese economy, causing the market to fall to a third of its level at the peak of the bubble in 1989 (39,000yen), and its currency to flounder in relation to neighbouring countries. The Japanese have been stubbornly 'thinking inside the box' - as an export country of course a weak yen appears desirable, to stimulate the economy a low interest rate is desirable - and this has led to huge flows of capital out of the country. Japan needs to reconstruct its general strategy after looking carefully at the current state of its economy.

Every time a US marine or military personnel breaks the “rules,” some hotter than *@&% local people play holier than thou [our sons would never rape Ryukyuan women (!) see: A Word for ...] and get out of their depth to mete out “collective punishment” to Caucasian foreigners—judge, jury, executioner and all. Gacuette’s punishment last week was a kg of rotten eggs sold to him by a witch who runs the chicken factory farm up the road!

It doesn’t make a little bit of difference that Gacuette’s little ‘uns eat the same eggs and they could get seriously ill, or that their mother is Japanese. There are no moral values, social ethics, or rules of conduct. The traditional perceptions of good and bad, or right and wrong don't apply in Japanifik. Some of the folks here are just an emotional, unprofessional, unpleasant bunch of losers!

This is a clarion call for foreigners living in Japan, but much worse news for the Japanese because many more Japanese are working abroad than foreigners living here.

ALMOST A YEAR AGO, I wrote this post about the changes made to signs at Yushukan, the museum next to the Yasukuni Shinto shrine in Tokyo. The inscriptions on the first signs charged that President Franklin Roosevelt goaded Japan into attacking the U.S. at Pearl Harbor in 1941, using the subsequent American entry into the greater war as a means to bring the country out of the Depression.

Okazaki Hisahiko, the former Japanese ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Thailand, was directly responsible for making those changes, but his statements suggest his motivation was a newspaper column written by George Will. Here's what I said then:

The impetus for some of the changes at Yushukan might have been inspired by American George Will...If that is the case, it should not be lost on observers that the change was spurred by Will’s Japan-friendly, dispassionate presentation that eschews moralizing and blame. Some people fail to realize that the only thing finger-wagging harangues accomplish is to turn people off, but the scolds aren’t paying attention to their audience, anyway. Finger-wagging harangues are just the means to congratulate themselves on their moral superiority–one of their primary enjoyments in life. They’re not delivered with the intent of actually persuading people.

And now, a year later, friendly persuasion has again accomplished the objective when finger-wagging harangues did not.

Someone discovered one restaurant in Tokyo (home to tens of millions of people) with a sign that said "Japanese People Only" at the top in English and a large amount of explanatory Japanese text below.

Another person seized on the sign's existence as an opportunity to get into a lather, slip into his identity as The Caped Crusader, and fight for truth, justice, and the moral order of the universe. Two other people with common sense and human understanding used a different approach, however. A native Japanese discussed the matter calmly with the owner, and the sign was taken down. Matt at Occidentalism describes what happened in two posts--the first here, and the second here. This is an excerpt from his second post:

...The owner said that different customs led him to write “Japanese people only” on the sign. In addition to the foreign customers not being able to follow the written rules in Japanese, they also brought their own food to the restaurant, brought children to the restaurant but left the children alone in the restaurant while the parents went elsewhere which caused trouble for the staff, and some foreign customers ordering only one dish between 5 people, etc....At the moment there is (now) no sign, but the text of the sign may be changed to make it clear that it is non-discriminatory, unlike the old sign which easily leads non-Japanese speaking foreigners to conclude that the shop owner hates foreigners.

The problem was resolved when a minor and understandable transgression was handled with consideration and tact. It is likely that no hard feelings resulted. Had a more confrontational method been used, it could very well have set back the progress of international interaction in one corner of Japan, rather than promoting it.

Eldridge Cleaver once noted that you're either part of the problem or part of the solution. It is ironic that some people who claim to be part of the solution seem to be more interested in self-congratulation and the masturbatory thrill of controversy--making themselves part of the problem.

I know which method I prefer.

Postscript: Here's another post I wrote last October describing my views on alleged Japanese exclusionism.

The Japan Times eagerly suggests in its headline that Mr. Ozawa might upstage the prime minister by being the first to visit Mr. Lee. (The newspaper’s political orientation is such that they would be delighted if that happened.) Upstaging Mr. Fukuda might well be the DPJ president’s reason for making the visit, but the way Mr. Ozawa and the party behaved when he visited China in early December suggests another possible outcome: the visit could blow up in their faces like an exploding cigar.

Mr. Ozawa’s mentor was the late Tanaka Kakuei, the Boss Tweed of Japanese politics. Mr. Tanaka took a special interest in China, and this interest is shared by his protégé. The DPJ president regularly leads groups on goodwill tours of the country. During his tour last December, the group met with Chinese President Hu Jintao. Here’s the BBC report on his visit; the headline reads, “Ozawa beats Fukuda to China visit”, as if the article belonged in the sports section rather than the Asian news category.

Starting at the Beginning

This story begins when the Dalai Lama visited Japan last November on a tour to raise the awareness of the Chinese oppression of his Tibetan homeland. DPJ Secretary-General Hatoyama Yukio held a joint press conference with him during his stay here.

You don’t need a fortune cookie to figure out how the Chinese responded. They wrote this letter to the DPJ, which is still up on the website of their embassy in Japan. Here’s a translation from the Japanese of the good parts:

“We express our great surprise and strong dissatisfaction with Secretary-General Hatoyama’s statement of support for the Dalai Lama at the press conference.

“Under the guise of religion, the Dalai Lama is an anti-Chinese political exile working to break up the country.

“Ozawa Ichiro, the president of your party, will lead a large delegation to visit our country early next month.

“We most firmly request that you extend all due respect to China’s position toward Tibet so that a similar event does not happen again, and that relations between the DPJ and China can continue to develop soundly in the proper direction.”

The DPJ’s Response

As it happened, Uyghur human rights activist Rebiya Kadeer, who had spent six years in a Chinese jail, and who was forced to divorce her activist husband by the Chinese government, was also in Japan at the time. She had been invited to attend a study conference organized by Makino Seishu, one of the DPJ's founding members with Kan Naoto and Hatoyama Yukio. A former lower house member, Makino has for years been an outspoken advocate for the Tibetans and the Uyghurs, and of democracy in Asia.

Ms. Kadeer (shown in the second photo with the Dalai Lama) soon found herself disinvited by the conference. A room for the meeting had been reserved since August in a building used by Diet members, but the party applied some pressure to Mr. Makino to avoid offending the Chinese. She did wind up addressing a study conference, but it was not one with direct DPJ involvement. That get-together was sponsored by three LDP members of the Diet instead: Nakagawa Shoichi, Eto Seiichi, and Hiranuma Takeo.

Those who attended heard about the Chinese imprisonment and execution of Uyghurs and their justification of their behavior by insisting it is part of the global war on terrorism.

Mr. Hatoyama admitted the letter had been delivered to the party, and that party leaders thought it best for the conference to be held at a different location. And so Mr. Ozawa’s Beijing junket remained on the schedule. He did miss a few days of the special Diet session extended to discuss the new bill for Japanese support of NATO’s mission in Afghanistan, but the DPJ boss is not one to let legislative affairs interfere with his other interests.

Mr. Ozawa Goes to Beijing

Alas, Mr. Ozawa didn’t do himself any favors in Japan with his behavior. The DPJ leader can be arrogant at times, particularly when he thinks he has the upper hand in a situation. Indeed, The Economist of Great Britain has in the past referred to him as a bully. But his behavior when he met with President Hu bordered on fawning obsequiousness, according to several sources quoted in the 20 December edition of the weekly magazine, Shukan Shincho.

Photographs of the meeting show the often haughty Japanese politician beaming and sitting up straight in his chair like a child anticipating a special treat. Reports suggest that in contrast to his normally calm and deliberate speaking style, Mr. Ozawa’s voice was high-pitched and squeaky, even quivering at times, as he spoke to President Hu. Instead of the standard bland diplomatic boilerplate, he offered President Hu thanks that came across to some as unctuous toadying.

Two of the magazine’s sources were members of his own party, and they were not shy about speaking on the record. Watanabe Hideo said he found the whole scene too embarrassing to watch, and added that everyone in the traveling party should be ashamed of themselves. Oe Yasuhiro described Mr. Ozawa as behaving as if he were pledging fealty to a feudal lord in an old-fashioned tributary relationship.

Mr. Watanabe recalled that Mr. Ozawa had once given a press conference in which the DPJ president claimed that Japan was too biased toward the US and too fawning toward China. He quoted Mr. Ozawa as saying, “I will say what should be said to both China and the US.” He also remembered that Mr. Ozawa once criticized two-track diplomacy by saying that the conduct of foreign relations is the exclusive right of the government.

It should be noted that both Mr. Watanabe and Mr. Oe were members of Mr. Ozawa’s now defunct Liberal Party. That generally conservative grouping was part of the Liberal Democratic Party’s ruling coalition during the Obuchi Keizo administration. When other LDP members blocked Mr. Ozawa's readmission to the party (to which he belonged for almost 30 years), he converted that into an opportunity to cross the aisle and join the opposition DPJ.

The two men are now among Mr. Ozawa’s harshest critics, perhaps because the latter seems to have blithely jettisoned his former political beliefs after becoming the leader of the generally more left-of-center DPJ.

Criticism from a Chinese Observer

Also criticizing Mr. Ozawa was the staunchly anti-communist Chinese-born journalist and critic, Shi Ping (third photo). Mr. Shi (who recently took Japanese citizenship) observed that the Ozawa-Hu meeting was given front-page coverage in the People’s Daily the next day. The article quoted Mr. Ozawa as using language that was both fulsome and excessively flowery to thank Hu for meeting him. In Japanese, his words were rendered this way.

日本国民は中国の最高指導者が日中友好に大変な関心を持ってくださったことに深く感動しています。

“The Japanese people are deeply moved that China’s supreme leader has favored friendly relations between Japan and China with his great interest.”

Mr. Shi characterized the Japanese visitor’s attitude as that of a Ginza hostess trying to curry favor with her customers. He thought that Mr. Ozawa’s approach was tantamount to positioning Japan as a Chinese vassal state, and that the description used by the People’s Daily was identical to those the paper prints when provincial Chinese government officials go to the capital to call on President Hu.

He also wondered how Mr. Ozawa could claim to represent the entire Japanese people, much less describe them as being deeply moved.

The account of the Ozawa-Hu meeting is noted with little more than a photograph in the English edition of the People’s Daily. Here is the Japanese version, which uses language more restrained than that described in the magazine interview. Mr. Shi, however, is talking about the Chinese-language version of the article, and the People’s Daily is known to change versions of their coverage depending on the language of the edition.

Is Seoul Next on the Travel Agenda?

But now Mr. Ozawa wants to visit South Korea in advance of Prime Minister Fukuda’s visit. What will he and the future South Korean president talk about?

The Kyodo article suggests one topic—Mr. Ozawa’s recommendation last week that voting rights be extended to Korean citizens resident in Japan for local elections. These Koreans citizens are the descendents of those ethnic Koreans who were either brought to Japan or came voluntarily to work.

In fact, what Mr. Ozawa actually said earlier this week was that he has favored for some time extending the right to vote in local elections to people with permanent resident permits, and that his party would introduce such legislation in the Diet later this session. The ethnic Koreans who would receive the right to vote are estimated to total about 600,000, while the figure for all foreigners with permanent resident permits, ethnic Koreans included, number about 950,000.

His suggestion was immediately seconded by the leader of the New Komeito Party, Ota Akihiro. This was significant because New Komeito is the junior coalition partner of the governing LDP. There has been speculation that Mr. Ozawa hopes to pry New Komeito loose from its ties with the LDP and entice them into a new governing coalition with the opposition parties.

New Komeito is the political arm of the lay Buddhist group, Soka Gakkai. A large number of their membership is thought to be ethnically Korean.

Japan’s citizenship laws are based on the legal concept of ius sanguinis, or nationality on the basis of family origin. This contrasts with the legal concept of ius soli, or nationality on the basis of the place of birth. In other words, the ethnic Koreans who were born and grew up in Japan, speak only Japanese, and often have never set foot on the Korean Peninsula, do not have local voting rights unless they become naturalized Japanese citizens.

Should Ethnic Koreans Have Japanese Voting Rights?

It is not the business of foreigners to recommend to the people of another country with a democratic system to whom they should or should not extend the right to vote. That includes me, who, as the holder of a permanent resident permit in Japan, would gain the right to vote if the proposed legislation were submitted and passed.

But to briefly summarize the pros and cons, those in favor would say that most of the ethnic Koreans born in Japan are virtually indistinguishable from a native-born Japanese with the exception of their passport. Those opposed, however, would assert that citizenship choice is in very real terms a pledge of allegiance. Though Japanese citizenship is relatively easy for ethnic Koreans born here to obtain, those who choose not to do so are pledging their allegiance to another country. In some cases, that country is, de facto but not de jure, North Korea rather than South Korea. Why should people who make that choice be able to vote in Japanese elections?

The Japanese public is of course aware of how easy it is for ethnic Koreans to obtain Japanese citizenship, so Mr. Ozawa deliberately tried to soften the impact of his proposal by including all permanent visa holders rather than specifying Koreans. Doing so would have the drawback of enfranchising some people with a deficient working knowledge of the Japanese language.

But why is this the business of future Korean President Lee Myung-bak, and why should Mr. Ozawa feel the need to discuss this issue him? Does he intend to fawn before the South Koreans too? Does he seriously think this will earn him goodwill from the new government in Seoul? Or is he simply running in a pointless one-man race to meet Mr. Lee before Prime Minister Fukuda does?

The Onus in Foreign Relations is Not on Japan

Many foreigners urge Japan to improve its relations with China and South Korea. The unspoken premise of their urgings is that the Japanese are somehow to blame for the state of the respective bilateral relationships not being as good as it could be. It is as if the Chinese and the Koreans were anxiously pining for Japanese friendship with open arms, while the Japanese are unable to respond because they cannot overcome some obsolete notion of tribal superiority.

If anything, the reverse is true. Both China and South Korea have partly defined their contemporary identity by demonizing Japan for its past behavior; China continues this policy even as Japanese generosity underwrites to a significant degree China’s economic growth. And if anyone in the region cannot overcome the obsolete notions of the past, it is the Koreans. Some members of their government and media seem to encourage anti-Japanese attitudes out of a spiteful desire to indulge the uniquely Korean sense of han, or grudges over past wrongs.

There is very little positive to be said about today’s China, other than the fact that some Chinese know how to make a lot of money. They are manipulated by a brutal, oppressive regime contemptuous of the concept of human rights.

Those who have eyes cannot fail to see that the Chinese are intent on reestablishing their ancient hegemony in the region in an East Asian version of manifest destiny. Meanwhile, North Korea has turned itself into the political equivalent of a suicidal religious cult.

If any politicians or diplomats in the region need to adapt to contemporary political realities, it is those of China and the Korean peninsula. They are the ones who need to readjust their behavior and attitudes toward Japan, whose actions—unlike theirs—have been exemplary for the past sixty years. To assert otherwise is to view the world through the wrong end of the telescope.

To suggest that the Japanese need to change their outlook and behavior toward their neighbors is to suggest that the Japanese need to conduct a regional foreign policy based on appeasement. Such a suggestion cannot have been made by clear-headed observers.

Is it the case that Ozawa Ichiro has fallen under the spell of appeasement? Why else would his party placate the Chinese after their leaders had the effrontery to talk to the Dalai Lama or a representative of the Uyghurs? Why else would Mr. Ozawa behave in front of the new Chinese emperor like a pupil being given a gold star at a student assembly? Why else would he travel to Seoul to discuss the voting rights of Korean nationals in Japanese elections?

Events over the past six months have demonstrated that it is not as likely as it once seemed that Mr. Ozawa will become Japan’s prime minister--or that if he does, his term in office will not be appreciably longer than that of, say, Abe Shinzo, without Mr. Abe's unheralded accomplishments.

But if he does become prime minister, the reports of his recent behavior in China and the justification for his possible visit to South Korea do not bode well for Japanese foreign policy under an Ozawa administration.

I had paid my phone and internet bills (￥12,600/60 quid), window shopped in Uniqlo, bought a folder in the ￥100 shop and was going to eat dinner at an Italian restaurant when I met some foreigners. Seeing anyone other than Japanese pensioners or school kids on the country roads is a rarity so when I see a foreigner (someone who doesn’t look “Japanese”) I usually talk to them.

These two guys were from Australia and, I think, America. They had been in Japan for about 6 months and would be here for a further year and a half traveling around, working in different locations.

They asked if I was religious, I told them I wasn’t. They said that was cool. They told me they were Mormons. I said that was cool.

I have to admit that I am not an expert on the Mormon religion. Until recently I had often confused them with those guys from that Harrison Ford movie and Kingpin, but as they didn’t appear to be carriage driving techno-phobes I could confidently reason that they weren’t Amish (also cool).

They said there were a number of Mormon places in Japan and they would be putting in work at most of them during their two years. They were off to teach English and I was going to study Japanese so we said our goodbyes. They told me their names but I can only remember the first part of each, which was Elder. The two Elders were good people.

Substitute Japan for Korea, and the same article could have been published in any of the English-language dailies in this country. Heck, I could have written it.

It's curious; I've talked to a lot of Asians here, from countries as far away as India, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia, and I've never heard a negative comment about Japan from any of them. Meanwhile, snide Japan sniping, couched in the fashionable irony that passes for wit and repartee in some countries, is as common a conversational topic for many Westerners as the weather.

One has to wonder when the same sort of people are saying the same sorts of things in South Korea.

Some people--again, mostly Westerners--think McDonald's, Coca-Cola, and popular music are symbols of cultural imperialism. That's silly, of course. Those are just consumer goods purchased freely by people with other choices for spending their disposable income.

The real cultural imperialism is the attitude.

Officials are investigating how a scheme adding a language requirement for long-term residency visas and work permits could be implemented.

Capital idea!

As with every question, there are of course pros and cons.

The pro:

Officials say Japan's Foreign Minister, Komura Masahiko, has long held the view that it would be better if long-term visitor (sic) could speak Japanese. Mr Komura says...it would improve their quality of life, and society as a whole here would benefit too.

He hits the bulls-eye with the first reason.

The con:

But some here fear that requiring all foreign workers to learn Japanese before they arrive could harm Tokyo's efforts to attract international business and to compete with other Asian cities like Singapore and Hong Kong.

Requiring language proficiency of all foreign workers would definitely cause problems for the businesses in every sector in which they are employed. It would not cause serious problems by demanding the same of long-term residents, however.

But this is the BBC, so they will find a way to cast Japan in a negative light. Here's how they conclude their report:

Last year an opinion poll carried out for the government found that more than half the foreigners who live in areas where they mix with Japanese people would like more opportunities to interact with them. But only one in 10 of the Japanese living in the same areas wanted to talk to someone from abroad.

That raises more questions than it answers. "More than half of the foreigners"? How much more than half? This suggests that a significant percentage of foreigners don't want any more opportunities to interact with Japanese than they already have.

If that's the case, one has to wonder what they're still doing here. They can't all have been assigned to work in Japan against their wishes by their employers.

And how was that last question for Japanese worded? Were Japanese-fluent foreigners specified, or just foreigners?

If it were the latter, it would be understandable. Who wants to hang out with someone you can't understand? (Only the adventuresome, the bored, or the inebriated.)

I doubt very much it was the former. Japanese-fluent foreigners get to talk to everybody. Most Japanese are thrilled to be able to converse with a foreigner who understands Japanese. I take a brisk, hour-long walk every morning before starting work, and I can't count all the people I wind up talking to: The guy who runs the hardware store on the corner down the block, a young guy doing the laundry for a hotel, an old man running a bicycle shop, a young woman going to work at the supermarket, the entire track team from a local girls' high school (and their teacher/coach), grade school kids on their way to school, and the other people out walking the same course at the same time.

And I don't consider myself any more gregarious than the average person.

But of course, people aren't stupid. If I were part of that category of foreigner who wasn't interested in more interaction with Japanese, all of those people would sense it without having to talk to me.

And that just might edge them into the category of Japanese who didn't want to talk to anyone from abroad.

Ostensibly, the article has two major points:

1. The Japanese face the most serious demographic crisis of any nation in the world today. The country’s population could shrink to 42 million by this time next century.
2. Japan chooses to deal with the looming labor shortage through the development of robots, not through immigration.

But even a casual reading of the article makes it apparent that the two points Mr. Harden really wishes to present are these:

1. The Japanese face the most serious demographic crisis of any nation in the world today. The country’s population could shrink to 42 million by this time next century.
2. Japan is still too racist, xenophobic, and ethnocentric to allow the problem to be solved by immigrants, and working women don’t want to have children because the country’s men are still too sexist to help with child-rearing and the housework. The Japanese are such dweebs they'd rather develop robots instead.

Pay attention and you’ll have no trouble spotting the standard techniques: Mr. Harden finds some people who support the idea he wishes to present and inserts their quotes at points chosen for maximum effect. Knowing that newspaper readers often will not finish an entire article, he places the mitigating information toward the rear. He then rebuts the mitigating information himself with more tailor-made quotes, and gives the rebuttal substantially more space than the counterargument.

And most typical of all, Mr. Harden unobtrusively inserts the real point of the article at other carefully chosen points. He finds a Japanese to propose immigration as the only “rational” solution to the problem—without a rational examination of its ramifications—and then slips the knife into the Japanese in the last clause by claiming they won’t consider it (emphasis mine):

What ails this prosperous nation could be treated with babies and immigrants. Yet many young women here do not want children, and the Japanese will not tolerate a lot of immigrants.

He does it again here:

Highly restrictive and aggressively enforced immigration laws have broad support from the Japanese public, which blames immigrants for crime, impolite behavior and untidiness.

He gets this quote out of a foreign observer:

"(Robots) are a nice excuse not to address the issue of immigration. They do not cause crime. They are not foreign people.”

Does he make a solid case that immigration would work? If he does, it certainly eludes me. Japan has a serious demographic problem, but the author has not made the effort to consider the real-world implications of the solution he clearly supports. Perhaps he is too enamored of the multicultural fantasy to recognize its inherent flaws. Or perhaps, as we’ve seen before, a negative view of Japan is the default position of the Washington Post.

Foreign residents in Japan

But consider this: Japan has no problem admitting educated foreigners with job skills and permitting the long-term residence of those foreigners who have demonstrated a willingness to acclimate themselves to life here. In fact, I am a de facto “immigrant”—I've lived in the country nearly 24 years, I own a home, my business is in Japan, and I have a permanent resident visa. No one in Japan placed any obstacles in my way for any of this, and most of it was achieved with Japanese encouragement and support. All it took was a willingness to stay employed, obey the law, and learn the Japanese language.

And I’m not alone--there are plenty of non-Japanese of all nationalities here doing exactly what I'm doing.

But Mr. Harden is using a proxy to make the case for the admission of "at least" 10 million immigrant workers. (Elsewhere, that proxy has suggested 20 million immigrants.) It is unlikely that he, or anyone else who advocates that solution, has given serious thought to what that would entail.

An ill-considered solution

The work for which robots are being considered is the simplest of manual labor. If three- or four-generation households were still common in Japan, the task of feeding an enfeebled older person, for example, might be handled by any child older than 10. A sophisticated set of job skills is not a requirement.

Therefore, the people the proponents of massive immigration insist Japan should admit would largely be unskilled and uneducated labor.

Where would they come from? Well, some would come from China—ambitious Chinese have emigrated all over the globe for years. The next most likely source in East Asia would be The Philippines. But ten million people is roughly 8% of Japan’s current population. Where would Japan find the rest of the hired help?

I’ve worked in three municipal jurisdictions as an interpreter for prosecutors interviewing overseas manual laborers caught while being smuggled into the country by Korean fishermen, so I know from experience where many of them would come from: countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

In essence, what the immigration proponents and their cheering section in the Western media are proposing is that Japan should embark on the biggest planned immigration program in history by importing and assimilating 10 million unskilled, and by definition uneducated, workers ill-equipped to handle the tsunami of culture shock awaiting them. Here’s what Mr. Harden's Japanese proxy suggested:

"Robots can be useful, but they cannot come close to overcoming the problem of population decline," said Hidenori Sakanaka, former head of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau and now director of the Japan Immigration Policy Institute, a research group in Tokyo.
"The government would do much better spending its money to recruit, educate and nurture immigrants," he said.

Ten million of them? To plan and build the infrastructure for recruiting that many unskilled laborers to perform menial tasks, educating them to become self-sufficient in one of the most difficult foreign languages to learn—an effort that would require the better part of a decade, assuming they studied in earnest—and “nurturing” them to enable them to survive comfortably in a country with a distinctive culture vastly different from their countries of origin, demands a massive, prioritized effort by the national government that would render it incapable of devoting its attention to the real matters of state.

And there is no guarantee that such an effort would even succeed. The only countries that have successfully accepted and integrated large numbers of immigrants are those countries founded by immigrants to begin with.

Post-immigration Japan

But as we’ve seen in Europe, the progressive multiculturalists would respond to these difficulties by demanding that Japan itself change to accommodate the immigrants and allow them to retain their own languages and culture. Indeed, a hallmark of European multiculturalists is that they do not want the immigrants to assimilate. That would be much too judgmental and nationalist. (For additional reading on this subject try the articles under the category of Islam and the West on the website of Bruce Bawer, author of the book While Europe Slept.)

I have some experience with this too: I give informal cultural advice and English information to a local primary school teacher charged with handling a child who can speak only English. The boy’s Japanese mother gave birth to him overseas in an English-speaking country, got divorced, and returned to Japan. She refuses to speak Japanese to the child and insists that he be taught in English. For some reason, the local school system has acceded to the mother’s demands.

Multiply that by ten million. Then, in addition to English, which many educated Japanese can handle to an extent, factor in the complications of teaching children in Tagalog and Urdu.

Sayonara, Nihon

There is, of course, one other aspect to this issue. Many of the immigrants would come from Muslim countries in central and southern Asia, and they would demand the provision of Islamic education and religious institutions. Japan today has very few mosques. But the Saudis would surely be happy to lend their financial support, infecting Japan with the same Wahhabist bacillus that has gained a foothold in Europe.

Shall we ask the Europeans how well their plan to allow Muslim immigration to augment the labor pool is working out for them?

What the immigration proponents are suggesting is nothing short of Japanese national suicide. Yes, Hidenori Sakenaka and some other Japanese favor the immigration scheme, but every country has its harebrained schemers. For an idea of what the likely result of massive immigration would be, try this description by Mark Steyn in the New Criterion:

Much of what we loosely call the western world will not survive this century, and much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many if not most western European countries. There’ll probably still be a geographical area on the map marked as Italy or the Netherlands— probably—just as in Istanbul there’s still a building called St. Sophia’s Cathedral. But it’s not a cathedral; it’s merely a designation for a piece of real estate. Likewise, Italy and the Netherlands will merely be designations for real estate.

Substitute Japan for Italy and the Netherlands, and the Ise Shrine for St. Sophia’s Cathedral, and you get the idea.

To be sure, the Japanese may yet commit national suicide without anyone's help if current demographic trends continue.

But here’s the choice: invest a substantial portion of the national assets and energy into an unrealistic proposal to "recruit, educate, and nurture" 10 million immigrants, or to put the money, technical skills, and intelligence to work to develop robots. The Japanese already utilize 40% of the world's industrial robots, so their success is not out of the question.

If I’m in a position of authority in Japan, I know which scheme I pick.

This should be obvious for anyone who bothers to think it through, instead of indulging in self-congratulation by demonstrating one’s moral superiority at the expense of a falsely assumed Japanese backwardness.

Endnote: The Mark Steyn article requires registration. I urge Japanese visitors in particular to register and read the entire article. This is a critical international issue, but I have seen very little discussion of it yet in Japan.

The exhibition, called Legacy of the Tokugawa, is divided into two sections. One contains the shogunate hardware, if you will--weapons, armor, helmets, and other military equipment. The other focuses on the software: items related to culture and the arts.

While the exhibit seems outstanding, the article describing it is less than satisfactory. Mr. Dunn seems to have done some history homework, but there are doubts about the accuracy of his claim that Tokugawa Ieyasu died from the aftereffects of wounds suffered during the siege of Osaka Castle.

This information apparently comes from a book published in 2006 called Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns. This is a revised edition of the original translations and memoirs of Isaac Titsingh, edited by Timon Screech. Titsingh was in charge of the Dutch trading mission at Dejima from 1779 to 1784, more than 150 years after Ieyasu's death. He claimed to have mastered Japanese in two years.

In the linked review of the book, C.B. Liddell says that Titsingh's historical accounts have been superceded by more recent research. (Another complication is that Liddell has his own eccentric ideas about Japan, and usually writes about the arts. Is there any country anywhere more ill-served by foreign observers than Japan?)

It is suspicious that this theory on Ieyasu's death is the only one mentioned in Wikipedia, a source I would not rely on if I were writing something for publication. In addition, modern Japanese sources, who have studied the matter in much greater detail, are not certain how Ieyasu died. (A previous theory of food poisoning from tempura seems to be out of favor, and other theories are stomach cancer and venereal disease.)

Further, Mr. Dunn does the exhibit no justice by conveying the information in the sort of prose one sees in reviews of classic rock music on Amazon.com. (Writers should bury the word "haunting" until they can come up with a better single-word synomym for "lingers in the memory".)

The real problem, however, lies in the last sentence:

Looking at politics today — and what passes for democracy — there are surely some who would see merit in reinstating them.

By them, he means the shoguns, who were military dictators.

Some questions come to mind after reading this sentence.

Why does Mr. Dunn presume that people reading an article about an exhibit on the Tokugawas care what he thinks about contemporary Japanese politics?

Does he really believe that Japan has a bogus democracy? There are millions of people in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, not to mention more than a billion in China, who would be thrilled to have "what passes for democracy" in Japan.

If he suspects some Japanese would see merit in reinstating a military dictatorship, why does he not present evidence that such people exist? If such people do exist, where is the evidence that suggests their numbers are significant enough to merit mention in an article about a museum exhibition?

Must newspaper readers be subjected to the irrelevant figments of an immature imagination every time they pick up the paper?

Weren't there any adults at the editors' desk at the Japan Times to redline this journalistic juvenalia?

Meanwhile, newspaper readership in the United States continues to plummet like a rock. A recent report states that the circulation of the New York Times fell nearly 5% in the past six months alone.

And that brings us to the final question:

Can't these people put two and two together?

Philosophy can provide a comforting perspective for the man trapped in such a situation and who chooses to remain civil. For example, it is reassuring to recall the words of British essayist William Hazlitt in On Common-Place Critics:

A common-place critic has something to say upon every occasion, and he always tells you either what is not true, or what you knew before, or what is not worth knowing. He is a person who thinks by proxy, and talks by rote.

Those of a funkier turn of mind, however, might reflect on the observations of The Rolling Stones in the song, Stupid Girl:

Like a lady in waiting to a virgin queen
Look at that stupid girl!
She bitches ‘bout things that’s she’s never seen
Look at that stupid girl!

Whatever option he chooses, modern man must show more forbearance than his ancestors, who would have either laughed in the woman’s face or punched her in it.

Speaking for myself, “thinking by proxy and talking by rote” about covers it. Adult Japanese women don't take marching orders from anybody, much less their husbands, as any one of us married to them will attest. The complaint is just a poorly disguised combination of ignorance and—let's make no bones about this—jealousy, so there's nothing much to do but shrug it off.

Yes, it's unfair to paint with such a broad brush, and yes, there are always exceptions on both sides, but there are still some significant differences between Japanese women and Western women that make most of us in “international marriages” glad we wound up married to one of the former instead of one of the latter.

Explaining the reasons would not be easy, would require too many generalizations to be meaningful, and she wouldn’t believe any of it anyway, so discretion is, as always, the better part of valor.

But this newspaper article on a subject entirely unrelated to Japan contains a comment that so clearly highlights the difference, it’s worth mentioning here.

The article appeared a while ago in the Washington Post about a career minor league baseball player named Rick Short who was having the season of his life. Short had spent about 10 years in the minor leagues without ever playing in a major league game until he was called up briefly twice to play for the Washington Nationals. He was one of those players good enough to get hired every year by a minor league team (and twice by Japanese teams), but not quite good enough to play in the major leagues. He didn't hit many home runs, and hitters like that need to play very good defense.

Short was the subject of this article because he was having a tremendous season—he nearly hit .400 for the year, though he wound up with a .383 average. Hitting .400 for a full season hasn’t been done in the major leagues since Ted Williams pulled it off in 1941, and in the minor leagues since 1961 by Aaron Pointer, who had some famous singing sisters.

The reporter interviewed Short's wife about their life together. Mrs. Short was not much of a baseball fan before they got married, but this is what she said:

"You have no idea how many people have told me, 'I wouldn't let my husband play that long without getting to the big leagues,' " she says. "I would say, 'You never say never.' I can't make him quit; this is what he loves."

There you have it in one sentence. Many women tell Mrs. Short, "I wouldn't let my husband…" Oh, you wouldn't? And when did women become the final arbiters of their husband's career? As I said, generalizations are dangerous and there are always exceptions, but I can’t imagine many Japanese women presuming to take this attitude about their husbands' career choice.

That isn't to say they meekly roll over for everything their husbands do or want to do. For example, my wife would never let me hang out with seedy characters, spend the monthly house payment on pachinko, or have an affair with the lady next door. To be more precise, if I did, I would soon be wifeless. By the same token, if my wife had refused to allow me to become a freelance translator and insisted that I become a salaried drone at some company, she would have soon been husbandless.

Mrs. Short’s comment, You have no idea how many people have told me… suggests how commonplace that attitude is among women in the West. In my experience, however, Japanese women are often quite different.

Closer to Home

For example, another translator I know in Tokyo studied for his university degree at night in the States on the GI Bill while working full time during the day. He became friendly with several other men at school doing the same thing, but he was the only one of the group who stuck it out and graduated. All the other men were forced to quit school by their wives because they weren't spending enough time at home. His Japanese wife was the only one of the women with enough foresight to realize that being patient until he earned his degree would pay off handsomely for the whole family down the road.

In my smaller city, there's an American who married a local woman more than a half-century ago when he was in the Navy. They lived many years in America before moving to Japan after he retired (the second time). He once told me that he had an arrangement with his buddies in those days to go bowling and have a few beers one night a week. He said that along about 10 o'clock, he would suggest having another beer, but all his friends would look at their watches and reply, "Naw, it's getting late, I'd better be getting home."

Here’s what they really meant: If I don't go home now, my wife will kill me.

That isn't to say his wife thought it was just ducky for him to be hanging out at the bowling alley drinking beer, but she wasn't presumptuous enough to say anything about it, especially considering that it was only one night a week and he wasn't leaving his family starving and barefoot. And of course, if he came home with a hangover, he knew better than to look to his wife for sympathy. "Don't complain about it to me. You're the one who decided to drink that much."

That might as well be my wife speaking, and I suspect that's just what the other translator’s wife would say, too. Perhaps the difference between Japanese women and Western women is one of a certain amount of respect for one's partner as an individual. It would be ironic if that were the case, as Western women usually are the ones to complain about the lack of respect shown by their husbands to them as individuals. And Westerners often assert (among themselves, of course) that respect for the individual is a characteristic of Western nations, not Japan.

Japan? Are you out of your mind?

Speaking of presumptuous behavior, I'll bring up another brief article that once caught my eye in The Japan Times. It was just a short bit of filler they ran on Saturdays called The Japanese Experience, so it wasn’t on line. The idea behind the column was that foreign residents would write a brief note about their life in Japan. This particular column was only five paragraphs long, and it was called Going Home Satisfied. The author spent 2 1/2 pleasant years in this country with his wife and children and was about to return to the United States. Here's how he starts the second paragraph:

We came here because of a job opportunity of my wife's. Many people back home thought we were crazy or running away from something when we told them we were moving to Japan.

As an American, reading that sentence makes me cringe. I wonder how many Japanese people would say the same thing to a friend or acquaintance in a similar situation?

People who live outside their native country for a long time eventually wind up shaking their heads and wondering whether their country has changed that much since they've been away, or whether they were the ones who've changed. Of course it’s a combination of both, but in most cases, the change within themselves has been greater than the change within the country of their birth.

Speaking for myself, I'm thankful it happened. And I'm keeping the change.

But here's an article that offers no help whatsoever to the linguistic novice.

The islands of Japan have many dialects, and students of the language often realize these variations are not taught in classrooms.

"Often realize"? Are there some students of the language who don't realize dialects are not taught in classrooms? In the unlikely event any such people exist, what is it they think they are learning?

Foreigners, and Japanese, learn "standard Japanese," which historically is closest to the dialect spoken in central Tokyo.

Let's see...the foreigners...the Japanese...have we left anyone out? So, we've established that standard Japanese is just that--standard Japanese understood by everyone in the country.

And the proper way to squeal when you see something "cute" is not the ubiquitous "kawaii" one hears constantly on TV, but "menkoi."

Instruction in the proper way to squeal is usually provided in the home, but sometimes children with negligent parents require tutoring.

Q: And what about Okinawan? Is that a separate dialect or a separate language?
A:...Many people, especially in Okinawa, believe it is.

Believe it is what? A separate dialect or a separate language?

It's so like the Japan Times to hire a language expert to write an article about dialects, and then have an editor check it before publication.

Most young Okinawans now can speak standard Japanese...

Except for those locked in a broom closet by their parents and prevented from watching television or going to school.

Japanese-language schools tend not to offer special classes in regional dialects.

The reason schools "tend not to" offer special classes in regional dialects is the same as the reason they "tend not to" offer special classes in ancient Sumerian. They're unnecessary.

I live in an area with a distinct dialect, and the only classroom where the local dialect is regularly spoken is the one for a small group of people studying local drama, called niwaka.

Q: I'm in a place where there is a strong regional dialect. Do I need to learn the regional dialect as well as standard Japanese?
A:...As to mastering a dialect, there seem to be two schools of thought.
The first is the "just learn standard Japanese" school. The logic here is that standard Japanese can be used in most parts of Japan and in virtually all major cities, and is considered polite everywhere.

Logic has nothing to do with it--it's just reality. A more accurate sentence would read: "Standard Japanese is used everywhere in Japan, with the possible exception of some isolated islands you're unlikely to visit, and no foreigner will ever be at a disadvantage for using it."

"Virtually all major cities"? There is a major city somewhere in Japan in which standard Japanese isn't understood by everyone?

This author is in desperate need of a style manual that warns against the excessive use of qualifiers, adverbs, and needless words.

Speaking in a regional dialect is sometimes frowned on in other parts of Japan in the same way certain Londoners dislike a Newcastle or York accent, or some Americans outside the South look down on those who speak with a southern drawl.

That's a novel theory, albeit incorrect. A foreigner speaking a regional dialect even in the region where it is spoken is likely to be viewed by the natives as a pretentious airhead at worst or a performing seal at best. It should not be forgotten that a foreigner is unlikely to ever sound natural using the vocabulary or accent of the dialect. In any event, we already know it's unnecessary.

The first thought of a Japanese encountering a foreigner speaking a regional dialect outside the region where it is spoken is likely to be: Who is this twit?

Those foreigners who want to live in Japan for more than a year or two, and wish to be taken seriously by the Japanese, would do well to avoid dialect altogether. An exception would be the occasional--very occasional--joke during casual conversation.

As for Americans looking down on Southern accents, most have been cured of that personality disorder now that people such as Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton have won national elections. Perhaps a small colony of sufferers still exists somewhere in an isolated pocket of Manhattan.

In contrast, I know a Japanese woman who studied in England and loved the accent. She became very good at imitating it. (She can speak normally when she wants to.) Foreigners are charmed the first time they meet her. They're ready to gag by the third time they meet her. Here's the interesting part: the people who dislike it the most are the British.

The second school of thought says it's all very well to study standard Japanese in the classroom and to understand TV.
But if you're not living where it's used on a daily basis, you'd better master the local accent if you expect to truly communicate, or if you plan to live in that region for a long time.

You can count the number of adherents to the second school of thought on the fingers. Hasn't the author already stated that all Japanese learn standard Japanese?

Foreigners are unable to "truly" communicate with a Japanese only when their knowledge of standard Japanese is insufficient. (And I include myself in that statement.)

And there is also something to be said about speaking and understanding a regional dialect that few of your friends, foreign or Japanese, can follow.

Yes, something indeed can be said: Don't waste your time.

This open season on gaijin, as well as on terrorists and carriers of contagious diseases (which somehow also means the gaijin), has gone beyond fomenting the image that non-Japanese are merely untrustworthy. It has created policy creep. Gaijin-hunters in their zeal are stretching or breaking established laws.

And put a bib on him while you're at it:

Sure, policymakers are treating non-Japanese residents as criminals, terrorists, and filth columnists of disease and disorder — through fingerprinting on arrival, gaijin-house ID checkpoints, anonymous "snitch sites" (ZG, March 30, 2004), DNA databases (ZG, Jan. 13, 2004), IC chips in gaijin cards (ZG, Nov. 22, 2005) and now dragnets through hotels and paychecks.

Don't forget the pacifier. Anything to keep him from making suggestions such as this one:

Japan needs more lawyers, or at least more lawyerly types.

I'm going to need a diaper if he keeps coming up with ideas like that.

One would have hoped that the author of the article would have tried to examine all the aspects of his argument before putting it in writing , but alas...

But in practice, the policy stretch has already begun. For example, Regular Permanent Resident immigrants — who have no visa restrictions placed on their employment and cannot possibly "overstay" — must also be reported.

One resident of the town in which I live is a self-employed English teacher from Morocco. I used to run into him at a particular bar every once in a while. He went for the specific purpose of getting drunk and picking fights with people--both verbal and physical. He was married at the time to a Japanese woman and has a permanent resident's visa.

They eventually got divorced, but his visa allows him to stay in Japan. He returned briefly to Morocco and came back with a new Moroccan wife. He has since gotten religion again, stopped drinking, and started praying five times a day.

Considering this man's inability to control his anger and his renewed interest in Islam, you can bet this gaijin is glad the police will keep tabs on people with a permanent resident's visa.

The author of this article seems to be auditioning for the role of Spotless Gaijin Avenger. Get someone to illustrate it, and it would make a dandy Marvel comic.

Well, it's time for the real point of the exercise. Let's give him what he wants. All together now...

"Debito! (sigh) Our hero!"

Perhaps I shouldn't be so harsh. Without the Caped Crusader looking after our interests, we all would be utterly at the mercy of this racist and fascist police state.

It reminded me of another story I read some years ago about foreigners in Japan being denied admission to commercial establishments or refused service by taxicab or bus drivers. The story appeared in the early 1990s in the JAT Bulletin, the monthly publication of the Japan Association of Translators, of which I was once a member. I spent a lot of time today digging in my stack of back issues of the Bulletin for the story, but couldn’t find it. (I know it’s in there somewhere!)

The article was written by William Lise, a technical translator who often does patent translations and also has worked as a court interpreter. Mr. Lise has spent all but a handful of the past 40 years living and working in Japan. At the time of the article’s publication, Mr. Lise was an officer of JAT and a frequent contributor to the Bulletin.

I got in contact with him by e-mail, and he gave me permission to use the story. Since I can’t find the text version, however, I’ll have to retell it and hope I do justice to the original.

As is the case with most of the resident foreigners of this country, Mr. Lise has frequently heard non-Japanese complain about getting stiffed by the Japanese service industry. One of the most frequent gripes is being ignored by cab drivers with an empty back seat. And of all the complaints about cab drivers, many involve the tendency of cab drivers working in Tokyo’s Roppongi district on weekend nights to ignore foreigners flagging them down for a ride home at the end of the night. (Roppongi is known for its night clubs, eating and drinking establishments, and popularity with foreigners.)

Mr. Lise would be the first to admit that he was something of a bon vivant and frequently visited Roppongi to socialize on weekend nights. He was puzzled by the stories about being ignored by cab drivers, however, because it had never happened to him during his many years in Japan. Cab drivers always picked him up. There was a sharp divergence between the stories other foreigners told him and his own experience. Naturally, he began to wonder why.

He finally grew curious enough to ask the cab drivers that picked him up on weekend nights in Roppongi if they had ever passed up a foreigner hailing them for a ride. Many freely admitted they had done so, and this prompted Mr. Lise to ask them why. Their answers were very revealing.

As Mr. Lise described it, the cab drivers explained their refusal in several different ways, not always lucidly. But he detected a common thread in all the drivers’ answers: they sensed from the body language of the people they chose to avoid a lack of confidence in their ability to communicate in Japanese with the driver.

I’m sure some of you will scoff—how could a cab driver gauge a foreigner’s fluency by a glance on the street? It’s preposterous!

Well, it doesn’t pay to be too cocksure about that, for two reasons. First, there seems to be a consensus among researchers that as much as 80% of all communication between people is non-verbal. People can sense either confidence or its absence, particularly when their livelihoods depend on it. There’s plenty of information about this on the Web, so I don’t think I have to reinvent the wheel here.

The second reason is my own experience in Japan. I studied the Japanese language at the university level for three years before coming here in March 1984. Mr. Lise’s story rings true to me because from the day I arrived here to the present, I have never—never!—been ignored by a cab driver or a bus driver, or refused service in any business establishment.

I do not mean to claim that I was perfectly fluent in Japanese on the day I arrived in the country—I wasn’t. Still, I had spent a lot of time in language labs at school and with homemade kanji cards at the kitchen table, so I knew from jump street that my Japanese ability was functional. If I stood on the corner and caught a cab, I would be able to explain to the driver where I wanted to go. If I walked into any commercial establishment, I knew I would be able to explain to the proprietor or employees what I wanted. If I went looking for some fun at an eating or drinking place, I knew that I would be able to get along after a fashion with the other customers without using a word of English.

The closest I ever came to having a problem was circa 1985. I was living in an apartment with a small bathtub, so I used to go to a nearby public bath instead. I became a regular customer for several reasons. The public bath was bigger and a lot more relaxing than my facilities, it had a sauna, I love baths and hot springs anyway, and it’s easy to have a lot of interesting conversations with guys when you’re all naked and sitting in hot water. Besides, having conversations with Japanese people was exactly why I came to the country in the first place!

One night, two semi-tough young guys came in and saw me sitting on the couch outside the bath. They were upset about my presence there and demanded that the lady at the front desk throw me out. It seems they were concerned about catching AIDS, which the Japanese were just beginning to find out about in those days.

The woman, who ran the bath with her husband and children (it had been in the family for a few generations), just laughed and informed the two men that I could understand everything they said. They told her they would never return to that bath again unless they refused me service. She laughed again as she turned back to the portable TV set on a ledge mounted on the end of the wall dividing the men’s and the women’s baths. The two men left, and I stayed.

I also do not mean to claim that some Japanese have not behaved badly and arbitrarily refused service to foreigners, even some perfectly fluent in Japanese. It’s just that I wouldn't know about it. It's never happened to me—and I live in a provincial town of 180,000 people, which one might think would be more likely to shun foreigners than a supposedly more sophisticated metropolis.

I’ve also never been turned down when applying to rent an apartment or get a credit card. In fact, I’m now a homeowner with a mortgage from a Japanese bank, and those arrangements presented no problem either.

It does seem that some people run into problems more frequently than others. I can’t say for certain why that happens, but I do have a few sneaking suspicions. It has been a tenet of esoteric religions of the East (and of the West, for that matter) that people tend to attract their own circumstances. It might be that some people, for whatever psychological reason, expect (or even want) to have those problems—so of course that’s exactly what they get.

Some might also argue that language ability notwithstanding, the Japanese service industry has the obligation to deal with those foreigners, based on their right to receive service. They won’t get any agreement from me. No one in his or her own country has the obligation to speak a foreign language, nor do they have the obligation to deal with people who don’t speak their own language. Nor do foreigners have the right to expect that they can go to a foreign country without knowing the language and interact with people in the same way they would at home. (Obviously I’m not talking about people on short-term business trips staying at major hotels with on-site restaurants.)

I’m sure many will disagree with me (and with Mr. Lise’s observations), and we could all argue about it until we’re blue in the face, with no productive result. Undoubtedly others have had unpleasant experiences, but it is also a fact that in more than 23 years in Japan, I have yet to be denied service even once. I’m also certain that the main reason for this isn’t luck, or a fluke—it’s that I knew I was functionally fluent in the language from my first day in the country, and was somehow subconsciously communicating this to other people without even trying.

And here's another sneaking suspicion--I was probably communicating that I was willing to accomodate myself to them and their customs and practices instead of demanding that they accomodate themselves to me.

And that brings up one last question--are the esoteric religions right when they say that people attract their own circumstances?

I’m a believer!

UPDATE
Mr. Lise e-mailed me with his comments on this post, and promised more later. Here's what he had to say:

"There are some things I would like to change and add. One is that it is probably more accurate to say that I am not refused any more than a Japanese would be refused. Taxi drivers refuse people for a number of reasons. Fearing not being able to communicate is one. Another is fearing that they would pass up a long fare for a shorty. Although it is less true than it used to be, this is the reason that some taxi drivers think twice before stopping for women, since they are less likely to be hard pressed to get home to a suburban home 1.5 hours (and 10,000 yen) away as would be a well-dressed 55-year-old bucho type. They can read those signs pretty well also."

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?enablejs=true&file=http%3A//blip.tv/rss/flash/438099&feedurl=http%3A//oniazuma.blip.tv/rss/&autostart=false&brandname=oniazuma&brandlink=http%3A//oniazuma.blip.tv/" width="600" height="455" allowfullscreen="true" id="showplayer"><param name="movie" value="http://blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?enablejs=true&file=http%3A//blip.tv/rss/flash/438099&feedurl=http%3A//oniazuma.blip.tv/rss/&autostart=false&brandname=oniazuma&brandlink=http%3A//oniazuma.blip.tv/" /><param name="quality" value="best" /></object>Part 2

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?enablejs=true&file=http%3A//blip.tv/rss/flash/438874&feedurl=http%3A//oniazuma.blip.tv/rss/&autostart=false&brandname=oniazuma&brandlink=http%3A//oniazuma.blip.tv/" width="600" height="455" allowfullscreen="true" id="showplayer"><param name="movie" value="http://blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?enablejs=true&file=http%3A//blip.tv/rss/flash/438874&feedurl=http%3A//oniazuma.blip.tv/rss/&autostart=false&brandname=oniazuma&brandlink=http%3A//oniazuma.blip.tv/" /><param name="quality" value="best" /></object>Filmed 1996-2000. 1 hour 36 minutes 17 seconds -

Real Life Documentary on 4 years of life in Japan for 2 Chinese Students. 1 is Jibin Wong, a 19 year old woman and the other So Kan a 26 year old rich man whose father is a governor and mother a mayor. After spending his life savings in about a month, Kan quickly realizes that in Japan he is among the poorest. Wong too must work long hours to support herself. Documents the true story of Chinese Students working hard amid poverty. Their stories are totally different than Foreign Students from other nations with stronger currencies - these 2 arrive in Japan nearly penniless.

NOTE watch to very end after the song. there is a important message at the end.

I didn’t know what to say at first. This was a college town, so dealing with the affected attitudes of my fares was an occupational hazard, but she didn’t seem to be that kind of person. It was more likely that she had never spent a lot of time studying a foreign language. People who do study a foreign language with the objective of fluency quickly discover it's impossible to learn another tongue without learning a lot about that country's culture. But instead of giving her that kind of answer, I just let it go and said, yes, I was studying the culture too.

After reading this article in the Japan Times, however, I realized it was possible for apparently intelligent people to become fluent in a foreign language without understanding much about that country’s culture. Roger Pulvers writes about the belief among some Japanese that their language is the most difficult in the world. He relates a conversation with a Tokyo cab driver in the mid-80s about this subject.

"Oh. Japanese is the most difficult language to speak in the world, you know. Isn't it?"

Well, for the 15-minute ride home I strove to persuade my driver that this, in fact, did not seem to be the case. I pointed out the fiendish difficulties of the languages that I had studied in my life, Russian and, particularly, Polish being much more complicated in grammar and pronunciation, at least for a native speaker of English, than Japanese. I finished my discourse as we rounded the corner by my house.

"I mean, Polish, for instance, has elaborate case endings for adjectives, and even has a special one for the nominative plural of male animate nouns!"

Having listened attentively to my passionate, if pedantic, foray into the esoterica of comparative linguistics, the driver stopped the cab by my front gate, turned his head around to me and smiled broadly.

"Well, anyway," he said, "Japanese is still the most difficult language in the world!"

. . .Why did my taxi driver at Seijo Gakuenmae persist in perpetrating the myth of difficulty?

Here was my first thought after reading this passage: This guy is writing fiction. As a translator, I know more than a few foreigners fluent in Japanese, but I’m not sure any of them can spout such phrases as the Japanese equivalent of "the nominative plural of male animate nouns" off the top of their head. No doubt there are a few somewhere w