My opinion of this week(381):

For the flag

Athens Olympic is starting in a week or so. In along with many other
events Japanese Baseball team is trying to get a gold metal by 
dispatching two best players from twelve professional teams in Japan.
The team was composed by Nanagasima, manager of all Japan, to win a 
gold medal. He said the team would determined to work for the flag. 
That's good, I praised it myself and expected that would  happen for 
sure. 

It was too bad that Manager Nagashima got cerebral infarction and 
could not go to Athens to lead the team after all. Not only he himself,
but also all players and funs were quite disappointed with it. I was 
disappointed, too. But I felt something wrong with what announced 
concerning this matter later on. 

The fact that manager Nagashima cannot participate in the Olympic 
should have been known much earlier. My first doubt about the issue
is why Nagashima and his families did not decide it much earlier.
The decision should have been made at least at the time when 
exhibition game with Cuba was made a couple of weeks ago. The matter
was still pending at that time.

My second doubt about the issue, is the fact that Manager Nagashima
is registered as the manager of the team regardless the fact that
he cannot not take any leadership in the team. Coach Nakahata will act
as a deputy manager in stead. I don't understand the reason why Nakahata
or other coaches will be appointed to the manager for the team not as
a deputy but as a formal one. The team is to be led by one absolute
leader from various point of views.  

That kind of arrangement would provide a kind of minus effects on the
psychologies of each players. They responded uniformly to the fact
saying they would bring back a gold medal for Nagashima by making best 
effort. That sounds fine and beautiful. But it is strange a little bit. 
The team is destined to work for the team and for themselves. Or  for the
flag as Nagashima himself advocated. Needless to say, it is for sure that
Nagashima would be very happy if the team can get gold medal as a result.
People's way of thinking involved with this matter seems to be upside down. 

I just wonder if Manager Nagashima and his families have made enough 
thought on this issue. Some may say that the issue is not such a big 
issue. I think that this is not a just a small personal matter but a big 
public matter of public organization.    

Japanese professional baseball world  is now facing a big problem of
reorganization of two leagues. I think this is one symbolic phenomena of
basic problems of the Japanese professional baseball as a whole.

2004/8/7
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion of this week(382):

Article 9 of Constitution

In the hustle and bustle of Athens Olympic, many more important news and
issues have been overlooked in one way or the other. The negotiation with
North Korea and serious accident of Mihama Nuclear Plant were some examples.
I read one other very important  article in Asahi Newspaper on Thursday. 
That was the comment made by the Secretary of State of United States 
concerning the change of Japanese Constitution. 

His statement was very clear. He said it is necessary for Japan to change
the article 9 of the Constitution if Japan wants to become a permanent
committee member of UN  Security Council. As a matter of fact, The Deputy
Secretary of the State Department was reported to make the same kind  of 
comment some time ago. But both Japan and US denied it saying that was just
a  personal views by the Deputy Secretary. But the message made by the 
Secretary of State at this time was very definite. I have not read any
official comments by Japanese Government yet. No big arguments have not
started yet between ruling and opposition parties in this country. Why not?

Yes, this is what US Government has really thought. Bush Administration
appreciated the fact that Japan was very cooperative by dispatching
the Self Defense Force to Iraq and by participating to multinational
force led by UN. But the SDF can only do some sorts of humanitarian works
rather than military works. That's not bad, but Japan should make more
military contributions in cases of international conflicts. 

I understand what the Secretary of States said. It does not make sense to
say that it is selfish for US to request the change of Constitution 
for it was originally  forced to Japan by US. While there are many 
arguments about the article 9 of Constitution, the article itself will
continue to be a big constraint whenever Japan should decide how she
can contribute to any international conflicts to be happened in the
future. There is no such country like Japan that keep debating all 
times  whether any of contribution to be made will conflicts to 
Constitution or not. 

It seems that it will take a lot more time before Japan can change 
Constitution, although many more people think the change may be 
necessary now. Many more arguments  are necessary before we get 
conclusion. But I believe we cannot wait so song any more.

We need to have a quick and a definite answer on this issue at any rate.
The Secretary of State said very clearly that Japan should decide her
way to go as soon as possible. If Japan wants to become a permanent 
member of Security Council of UN, she has to remove restraints which 
restrict participation to some military actions even with the consent of 
Security Council. 

Is Japan going to become a permanent member of Security Council? Is Japan
going to participate any sort of military actions once decided by UN? 
We all Japanese are now requested to decide our attitude about this very 
difficult and pending issues.

2004/8/14
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion of this week(383):

Lesson from gold medal rush

I came back to home from travel late last night. I underestimated 
crowd of the road traffic because Summer vacation is about to 
end now. But it was Sunday yesterday that worsen the situation. 
My wife and I were involved with serious traffic jam and came back to 
home more than three hours late than originally expected. I was so
tired and went to bed without checking any Olympic Game news on TV.

I opened a newspaper in the morning but could not find anything new.
But I was so excited to find the news that Mizuki Noguchi won gold 
medal in Marathon by opening a news site of Internet with several 
pictures and messages. That's great ! I became very happy and willing
to  work on some of my pending works to renew my homepage that is to
be done every Saturday. I have not done it yet as far as the latest 
one is concerned.

At any rate, what has happened for Japan ?  Why has Japan got so many
number of gold medals by now?  There were many assumptions as such by
mass media before Olympic started. Many people including myself were 
very suspicious and even cynical in a way for such optimistic forecast.
But the result was far more than such optimistic views. It is sure 
that total medals to be gained by the end of the game  will exceed 
total numbers of medals which have ever been gained in any of the 
past Olympic games. 

It is good for every people of Japan to become happy with this fact.
We have got tired of many of unpleasant international and national 
news such as Iraq Wars、North Korea and so forth recently. Nothing is 
more bright and happy one than such on Olympic games. People must have
been pleasant and happy in daily life whenever they see them and even 
start having some hope for the future. Don't say, it's just the matter
of sport contest. It is a great and symbolic international contest,  
though.
　
Well, then what is Olympics?  Why is it so great? To sum up, Olympic is
a momentum of sports events, symbol of most important stages for any
athletes. There are many other kind of international stages as such
in other fields such as arts and sciences. Nobel prizes, international
film festivals, music festivals are some such examples.
  
In many of such international stages and contest, many individual Japanese
will continue to work hard to participate to win medals of any kinds by
getting various support from country, business enterprises, NGO, NPO and
so forth.  The role of the nation is to establish the backup system  
as a total system  so that each individual players who participate in
each games of various fields can attain the best performance in any of
such international stages.

2004/8/21
Tadashi HAYESE

My opinion of this week(384):

Doping test procedures

According the latest internet news such Yahoo's and others, Hungarian
hammer throw winner Adrian Annus will be stripped out of his gold medal
for he did not provided  his urine test sample to IOC committee by the
designated time. He was asked to do it according to the IOC rule but
he did not do so. So, it is very provable that Murofushi Japan will
gain Gold medal replacing Annus. That's good news for Murohashi himself
and for Japan. But although it really happens, all people including 
Murofushi himself will have a nasty aftertaste with it.

This kind of doping case is not unique at all. There are many of such
cases before and even in this Athens Olympic. I really don't know why
this kind doping cases happen one after another. Why can't  they stop 
them? There are, of course, a definite rules and procedures to test 
doping cases. There is a news that some medical substance was invented
which is never to be detected  by ordinal doping test. That sounds 
awful as a matter of fact. Any test become meaningless once this 
happens. But the case at this time seems to be whether or not test
rules and procedures are conducted as they are specified.  

Hungarian discus winner Robert Fazekas, who shares the same coach as 
Annus, was stripped of his discus gold medal for failing to provide a
proper urine sample after his event. It is possible that a player may
provide other people's  urine sample as his urine. How can they do it? 
It seems the whole procedure itself is not so difficult at all to put
under a kind of strict control. But in reality, the whole procedure 
itself does not seem to be under strict control. It is natural that 
many  impropriety may happen from time to time under such condition.
 
Upon the request by Japan IOC member to make doping test again for 
Annus, the IOC committee doctor in charge said at first that the test
had been made properly denying to make second test. But the doubt have
been intensified by the fact that Annus's coach is the same as Robert 
Fazekas. 

It is true that there exists many difficult scientific test procedures
involved. But main issue here is not such scientific matter but rules
and procedures which are to be followed by IOC committee members. In 
other words, the quality and moral of IOC committee members in charge
 of this matter is the one most important factor in the end.

2004/8/28
Tadashi HAYASE