December、 2010、My Opinion of this week

My opinion of this week(703):

"That's a good question! " :  Keywords-of-the-Year 

There is one good TV news analysis show provided by TV Asahi called '''Akira
Ikegami's News Learning'''. Akira Ikegami used to be a caster for NHK news 
show for children several years ago. This TV Asahi program became one of 
a hit program this year for Akira Ikegami's good and easy explanation on
various news and his good response against any questions provided by TV
variety program talents selected for the show. To any kind of questions 
from show talents, Akira Ikegami answered questions very properly often
starting a phrase, "That's a good question!". 

The phrase have been accepted very well among TV talents there and TV viewers.
It seems that it is another reason why that TV program have kept rather high
audience share such as 19% untill recently. And the term was selected as best
ten of "Keywords-of-the Year". 

That's fine. I have no intention to raise any complain about what happened.
All I want to point out is the fact that this praise is very popular and
formula word itself in other country such as in US. Many American will
be surprised to see the fact that the become best ten Keywords of the Year
in Japan.

"That's a good questions" is a kind of most popular and basic words used
in colleges and any level of school in US. Teachers in school often use
this word in their class to promote questions from students and to promote
discussion for any propose in their class. The term is also used in any
other places such as in business and any other social life. People use
this term to promote good debate and to keep good communications each other.

Most Japanese don't know this because they were educated in Japanese school
in which they were  not necessary educated to make many questions. I noticed
this big difference between Japanese school and US school 	when I learnt
at US college when I was young. 

This difference is very big. The reason why Japanese students and Japanese
in general lack in debating capacity in any situation compared not only with
Americans but also with Koreans and Chinese come from lack of question 
capacity. They rarely make questions in any situations for they are not
educated that way through their life.

This is the reason why Ikegami's approach to start answering question with
this term has been accepted very well among people their in the TV show
and TV viewers all over the country. That looks very unique and fresh.

I think it very important to educate Japanese children to make many more
questions in their classes. Teachers should learn to use this term more
frequently. 

As a matter of facts any children, especially infant children are basically
very good questioners as a matter of facts. Every parents and grand parents
must have some experience to have a very primitive but a very basic questions
from their children and grand children in their infant days. 

While playing in a park, they ask: "Why is sky so blue?", "Why is white cloud
there in high sky?" and so forth. 

Not many adults can make any good answer to those questions. But point is here
is not whether or not adults can make right answer. The important point is
let children to continue to have such basic questions in their mind and to
continue to make any questions in any situations whenever they have those in
their mind.

2010/12/4
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion of this week(704):

Cool Japan

When my wife came back from outgoing yesterday, she asked me:"Do you know
the word , 'Cool Japan' ? One of my friend asked me, so I answered:"Cool 
means cold. So that means Japan is now cold in temperature. Am I right ?"

I replied it with a serious look."Sure you are right. Japan was so warm 
until middle of November and it got very cool and cold since then. Cool 
Japan means it. " 

It was a joke, of course. I knew myself that means something quite different. 

'Cool Japan' means today: Japan is a wise, clever,smart or convenient sort
of country. Primary meaning of 'cool' is, of course, cold, quiet or of that
sort.But today word 'cool' is often used as the term which means wise and
smart in nature. 

Honestly speaking, I did not realize it  until I coincidentally watched NHK
BS TV program  titled 'Cool Japan' about a year ago. The main guests of the
program are foreigners who live in Japan. They talked about their experience 
about many good Japanese goods, foods, and customs and even life style which
they never had interfaced before in their own countries. The most recent 
example in TV program is a convenience store in Japan. There are a number of
convenience stores also in other countries but those foreigners talked a lot 
how convenient and smart Japanese convenience stores are compared with those in
their own countries. 

Today, there are number of Japanese original foods and goods, animations,
novels and other hardware and software are exported to many foreign countries
and accepted very well in various parts of the world. Japanese people should 
know this and appreciate what that means for us Japanese and Japan. 

Many of those goods and software are quite common for us and we Japanese 
have never thought those are accepted as unique and excellent sort of things
by  foreigners. It must be a good surprise in many ways. 

People of Japan have lost confidence in many ways today. Japan was No.2 
economic power in the world until quite recently. But Japan lost position
by China. China's GDP get bigger than that of Japan this year. Many of their
economic and social indices show Japan is loosing its power as economic and
cultural country. Japan is cooling down not only in temperature but all
in economic and cultural terms as I start to talk about this topic of this
week.

It is Douglas McCray, American Journalist who started using the term 'Cool
Japan' in his thesis in 2002. I quote the beginning of his thesis to explain
the background of the theme today. : "Japan is reinventing superpower again.
Instead of collapsing beneath its widely reported political and economic
 misfortunes, Japan’s global cultural influence has quietly grown. From 
pop music to consumer electronics,architecture to fashion, and animation to
cuisine, Japan looks more like a cultural superpower today than it did in the
1980s, when it was an economic one. But can Japan build on its mastery of 
medium to project an equally powerful national message?  By Douglas McGray"

Yes, the last message of Douglas McGray summarize what I try to say in my
opinion of this week. 

Japanese politics today is in a state of confusion. The politics cannot show
any long range plan for the future. But Japanese people should have more 
confidence with their total cultural power as Douglas McGray pointed out. 
Japan can do a lot to vitalize economy and total social life from now on in
long range economic growth plan based on this total cultural power.

Only one concrete example of such long range economic growth plan is to 
vitalize sightseeing business in this country. A lot more millions of foreign 
people will be invited to come to Japan to have their experience on 'Cool Japan'.
2010/12/11
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion of this week(705)：

Doggy bag dinner 

A main dinner of my home last night was Japanese noodle with mix tempura
( a Japanese deep-fried food). I ate it with a kind of mixed feeling 
although the noodle itself was quite tasty. The reason why I had some
mixed feeling is that tempura I ate with the noodle was the one which
I brought back in a doggy bag from a Japanese restaurant  where several 
members of PC club got together to eat lunch on that day. 

Several members of PC club used to go to the Japanese food restaurant
for lunch on regular meeting day of PC club. When we visited there on
Thursday, most people ordered a set menu of mixed tenpura which contained
several kind of chokings with rather big mixed tenpura. Many of us could
not finish eating  that mixed tenpura. Some said:" I am sorry for this 
waste."

I suddenly remembered one word and talked to a female waiter who are walking
around our table:"Sorry. Would you please give me a doggy bag? " She 
didn't understand what I said. I said it as a kind of joke but I had to
explain her what I meant by that. As a matter of fact, I never expected 
any affirmative answer from her, but she understood it and came back with
a plastic container that are used at any super markets whenever we buy
tempura kind of foods. I was a kind of shy for what happened but one other 
of my friend also asked the waiter the same thing. 

I explained people there the meaning of doggy bag. I explained my experience
of learning the word in my business career in US. When I visited to meet 
American business people, they often brought me for dinner at some restaurant.
The food provided by American restaurants are usually tend to be big in
volume for us Japanesee. They are too much even for Americans sometimes. In
that case, some people ask waiter for a paper bag to bring back their leftover
to their home. They call it a doggy bag but most of them to bring them back for
their families rather than for their pets. I was quite impressed with that fact
and remember that word whenever I encountered to that kind of situation.

There was that kind of custom even in Japan. But many Japanese restaurant
refuse  to provide  doggy bags for possible serious food accidents. I 
understand it personally. 

But I think that any guests who bring leftover back to their home are 
responsible 100% for it by themselves for any reason. It is the reason 
why the bag is called doggy bag. The food is for dog not for a human being.

I had no trouble at all for that dinner Thursday night, of course. I decided
to make  some study on it by internet next morning. I was quite surprised
with the fact that the word 'doggy bag' is now much more popular than my 
expectation. Many doggy bag sort of goods are now sold at retail shops in
town and net shops like Amazon. There exists a kind of NPO organization 
called 'Doggy Bag Promotion Comittee' in Japan. 

I don't need to write more about it the reason why there exists now such
NO organization. Japan is a worst country of food waste in the world. So
much of food waste happened everyday in this food shortage situation 
worldwide. 

I am quite pleased to see the existence of such NPO in Japan and ask
people to pay many more attention on the meaning of doggy bag in our
life. 

Doggy Bag
Promotion Committee

2010/12/18
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion of this week(706)

Coming back to original principle to  raise kids

The one most important manifesto for DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan)
is kid raising subsidy, although Kan Cabinet drew back this manifesto
to some great extent due to the lack of money to attain  original idea to
provide \26,000 to each child in households that holds some numbers of
infant children. Hatoyama Cabinet started giving any households \12,600
a month for each infant child from last April. 

The subsidy policy has not worked so well as expected. All opposition parties,
including LDP (Democratic Party of Japan) have criticized the system as 
dole-out policy, for it has not worked so well to help young mothers who
had babies by their marriage. Opposition parties have insisted that what they
really need are more or less day care centers for children rather than 
such small amount of subsidy money as a matter of facts. 

Kan Cabinet is facing a serious financial difficulties and try to
decrees subsidy for changing basic policy of providing \26,000 subsidy 
per head per months. They tried to expand day-care centers to take care
of infant children while their mothers are out for their work places.
That's fine. There is no objection about it. A lot more people stared 
to believe that subsidy money is just a kind of dole-out policy rather 
than some effective means to help raising kids under the present situation. 

The point here is not which are more important policies, subsidy or
improvement of infrastructures for mother who must engage in nursing
care for infant children. Both is important as a matter of fact. But
the most important principle for raising kids is that kids are to be
cared by their mother by themselves rather than cared by day-care centers.

Why do only little politicians, social critics and so forth emphasize this
important principle? I have had a great doubt about it until quite 
recently. I have had some great concern about the fact that all most no
lawmakers in any political parties including ruling fronts seem to 
believe this basic principle that children should be cared by their
mother by themselves. That's an ideal case, of course. That is obviously 
the best way to bring up infant children in any sense. 

Under this circumstance, I was very pleased  and satisfied to find the article
which was written for voice column by one young female teacher at school in
Yokohama in Asahi News Paper on December 24th. The title of the voice is: 
"Is women's work an absolute value?" What does she mean by it?

She wrote: " For any women, the most valuable work is to deliver a baby and
raise a baby into a good adult human. It seems people and women misunderstand
this and believe working as a career woman at work place is one most valuable
sort of thing. Those women who get babies would bring them to day-care nursing
centers to attain their absolute value. That's wrong. Of course, we should not
blame any women who are obliged to work to earn for their life by asking their
babies to be taken care at day-care centers during their working hours."

I agree 100% with this voice. She is quite right. Prime Minister Naoto Kan
should read this voice and believe that the voice is the one most important
message from general public concerning kid raising subsidy now in question in
many ways.

2010/12/25
Tadashi HAYASE

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