My@opinion of this week(459):
Why is a female emperor not allowed?
Based on the advise by the professional advisory committee, the present
the Imperial House Law will be revised so that it allows women to take
the throne. A number of law makers started saying objection against the
revision of the Law. There are even several cabinet members who are
against the revision and some political uproar like postal administration
issue which occurred last year may happen again.
The objection group is encouraged very much by the objection presented
by a member of the imperial families. A few day ago, Asahi Newspaper
insisted in their editorial that he should stop saying such objection
for the matter is to be decided at the diet after deliberate discussion.
Asahi mentioned further that even the emperor and the prince have never
mentioned anything on this issue.
I felt that Asahi's editorial is wrong. Whatever assertion is right or
wrong, any ones including imperial families, lawmakers, academic
professionals, critics, and general public can and should express their
opinion from various point of views. But the issue itself seems to be
discussed first at the imperial families. The will of emperor and prince
should share more important role to decide the issue. I wonder why the
issue will be discussed and decided only at the diet.
There were several questionnaire done by mass media on this issue in the
past. Majority of people said yes to admit female emperor in those
questionnaire as far as my memory is concerned. My honest impression
concerning those questionnaire is that people are not quite interested in
the issue itself. People seem not to have so much interest and
understanding about historical background and reason why throne should
definitely go to a male rather than a female. When I mentioned this
there would arise a lot of argument that this is why those objection
group people insist the lack of education on Japanese history after
the World War II.
After the World War II, the Emperor became the symbol of the country.
Most people including myself accepted the concept although there still
remains some issues concerning constitutional position of the emperor.
People tend to compare the existence of emperor with various other
kingdoms which exist many other countries in the world. Take an
imperial family in England , for example. The Queen Elizabeth reign
the country at the moment. There were another queens in English history.
The same is true with other countries which are reigned by kingdom
system. What's wrong with the fact that a female emperor may also exist
in Japan in the future ? It is very simple logic, isn't it?
I really don't understand why many historians object a female emperor
based on their historical theory. I don't know the difference between
Japanese emperor system and kingdom system which exist many other
countries in the world. It is true that this is because people in our
age were not educated much about Japanese history about old ages.
But once this discussion starts, the discussion will come back to the
basic point as to whether or not such historical view is right.
The conclusion to admit a female emperor by professional advisory
committee must have covered all sort of views i.e., political, historical,
and cultural factors. Although argument start again at the diet, I
don't believe that a certain clear cut consensus will be gained by
two different views.
My personal forecast is rather pessimistic as far as such agreement
is concerned.
2006/2/4
Tadashi HAYASE
My opinion of this week(460):
Why courts did not admit their mistakes in the past?
I knew the word "dismissal" first time in the news paper on Friday.
The Yokohama District Court dismissed pleas Thursday on behalf of five
people now deceased in a retrial over the wartime "Yokohama Incident,"
in which journalists and others were convicted of promoting communism.
By dismissing the case, the court avoided any judgment on whether the
five were guilty of violating a notorious 1925 law. The sentences were
handed down in 1945, shortly after the end of World War II.
The families had hoped to clear the names of the five via a retrial.
Rehabilitation of their honor seemed to be necessary for it is clear
the court decision at that time was surely wrong from any point of views.
In addition to seeking acquittal, the relatives had demanded that
the court acknowledge the existence of torture by the special
political police at that time and the state's responsibility for
participating in improper trials.
But Presiding Judge Shoichi Matsuo supported the prosecutors' claim,
saying there is no good reason to judge on the case, given that the
law was scrapped and the five were pardoned.
The families of five were very disappointed with the judgment and they
would appeal the case to upper court. I understood what they have done
so far to recover the dignity of those five people who were already
dead. But the court tried to end the appeal by using the word "dismissal".
It is very clear that the case was serious mistakes made by the court
and by the country at that time. I don't understand why the court
did not admit that mistake done by the court and the state during the
war time.
The mistakes done by anyone including individual or any public entities
including courts, prosecutors or any kinds should never be dismissed
according to my belief.
2006/2/11
Tadashi HAYASE
My opinion of this week(461):
Indifferent society
I lost an interest to open morning paper every morning these days.
The news headline is almost same everyday. They are so called three or
four set of news such as deceptive earthquakeproof cases, deceptive
treatment of BSE, illegal bid rigging cases by public servants, Livedoor
cases and so on. Such happy news about emperors family was also turned
into a political issue.
There were no good news which cheer up people and most of them were dark
and bad news. The news about natural disaster such as heavy snow fall
is also bad one but those can be gotten over.
But many of those recent man-made disasters are not to be forgotten. They
are evils and illegal acts made by top leaders of private firms and public
servants. Those set of news appeared one after another and people tend to
get tired of reading such unpleasant news everyday.
This is true with me, too. I felt angry at first when I read and watched
such news . But I tend to become indifferent about them while there are so
many such news everyday.
President or top leaders of private firms, top executive of central or
local government offices appeared in TV and they bowed their head saying
they were very sorry for what they had done. How many times we had seen
such sight!
It seems that they just bow their head very mechanically without any
passion. People who watch TV tend to feel no passion or sense as well.
I think this is a kind of dangerous phenomenon as far as I see it.
The important thing is people's mind to obey laws or rules in our society.
Compliance is the word for any enterprise or government people to follow.
But it seems mind of compliance is being lost everywhere in our societies.
A president of hotel chains appeared in a press conference when his firms
had been accused for deceptive treatment about construction laws. He said:
"Well, I recognized the case but that was not any serious one at all as
far as I understood. We just run 67 kilo meter per an hours while the
rule is 60 kilo meter an hour on highways. " I was quite surprised with
it.
It is now important to strengthen organization or system to follow laws
and rules. But it seems it is more important to let people to resume to
have some basic ethical standard or norm about what is right and what is
wrong.
How can our society do it? It is one most important theme of education
which should be handled as 100 years educational program in this country.
2006/2/18
Tadashi HAYASE
My opinion of this week(462):
What a poor party!
Lawmaker Hisayasu Nagata of Democratic Party of Japan expressed his
resignation from the position for his mistake of presenting fake e-mail
at the diet session. He showed the mail which was sent by Takafumi Horie
to his man advising to transfer \30,000,000 to the second son of Tutomui
Takebe, Secretary General of Liberal Democratic Party of Japan. The case
came up as an big issue, of course. But no evidence have not shown so far
that the mail is a real one and lawmaker Nagata and DPJ itself are now in
trouble.
Top leaders of DPJ decided not to admit his resignation for the time being
for he was hospitalized for serious mental distress. While some members of
the party admit some serious mistakes done by Nagata and the party, some
others including Seiji Maehara, President of the party, insist the case
is still pending and it is not necessary for Nagata to resign from
the diet. They just postponed the decision to be made much earlier.
I was quite disappointed with the news. Is this the way to take for
the major political party such as DPJ in Japan ? It is now very obvious
that the mail is just a fake. It is natural that Hisayasu Nagata should
resign from the diet membership. Some top leaders including President
Maehara should take some kind of responsibility including resignation
from the position. That is very a fundamental mistake done by a major
political party.
There were so many scandals caused by lawmakers of DPJ in the past
several months. Such scandals were more with DPJ rather than with
ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Why is this?
Personally I am not a supporter of DPJ at all. But I have stressed
the importance of the existence of DPJ in Japanese politics. They
have to become bigger and share major role of Japanese politics in
along with ruling LDP. I believe that two major party system is very
necessary in this country to improve the current poor political situation.
I was quite disappointed with result of the general election last summer.
LDP made an landslide victory over DPJ.
But the political situation started to change since then. Koizumi
administration started to lose the popularity for so called four sets of
issues such as deceptive treatment of quakesafe structure, BSE, Livedoor
and rigged bidding by Defense Facilities Administration Agency. Under this
circum stance, popular vote for two major parties is getting closer.
But the mood seemed to have turned back again. While the opponent made
several serious mistakes in the game, DPJ have made some bigger mistakes
such as the case at this time. It seems there is little chance for them
to gain major popularity for the time being as far as their recent behaviors
are concerned.
They seem to have lost the one most important strategic stance as a political
party. The key issue is a policy debate not a revilement of scandals.
Their policy debate capability is not necessarily strong enough to compete
with that of ruling LDP.
Fortunately or unfortunately, there is no election in near future. DPJ is now
in pinch but now is the time to start all sort of basic reform so that party
will reborn again to to become another major power against LDP in Japanese
politics.
2006/2/25
Tadashi HAYASE
English Home Page
Japanese Home Page