My opinion of this week(273):

The Government Tax Council

"The Government Tax Council has announced the plan to abolish tax 
deduction for spouse ...Yomiuri Newspaper May 28 ".
 
This kind of news concerning The Tax Council are found almost everyday.
I just wonder what the Government Tax Council really is. 

I remember one of such news last year end. The Council announced to
increase tax for tobacco and sparkling beer. But they withdrew the plan 
soon because they faced a big opposition from general public.

Another example they present recently is the deduction of inheritance
tax and gift tax which they have long stuck to preserve many years. They 
said consumption and investment would increase due to such measures.
And now this plan to abolish tax deduction for spouse. It seems that
there is no total vision and total direction for the future. They are
to be done just by hit-or-miss basis without any integrated tax plan
as a whole.

There are many tax professionals who believe they are so by themselves.
But all what they are doing are not well organized and harmonized
with various other government economic plans presented by many
other Government economic councils.
 
The main purpose of the Council is how to take various tax efficiently
and effectively from people of this country. But on the other hand, 
they try to introduce some measures of tax deduction to stimulate 
consumption to overcome economic recession. Without any total grand 
design for economy,  various conflicting measures are taken one after
another. The one is a plus to tax increase. The other is a minus to it.
And the other way around. 

The Government declared that the economic recession has hit the bottom.
So what? There is no obvious sign of increase of consumption and 
investment overall yet. Without waiting for the advice from other
countries, I believe that now is the time to make massive tax deduction
to stimulate consumption and total economy. 

Rather than doing such small and useless measures, the Tax Council 
ought to advice Koizumi Cabinet to conduct a large scale tax deduction
as soon as possible. 

Provided that the Tax Council could not make such advice they are the 
one to be abolished together with many useless taxes which still exist
these days.

2002/6/1
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion of this week(274):

Necessity of change of power

>Support rate for Liberal Democratic Party raised to 27% and for 
>Democratic Party to 10%, 1% increase respectively. 
> - Mainichi News Paper

>While support rate for Koizumi Cabinet has decreased so much,
>I wonder why there is no significant increase for support rate 
>for Democratic Party, No.1 opposition party at the present.
> - Fujiki

Support rate for Koizumi Cabinet has got down to 43%, while non-
support rate got up to 47% according to recent popular rate search
made by Mainichi News Paper. It is possible that general election
will be made in near future. 

Nevertheless, there is only a little possibility that the change of
power will happen in the political world. Why is this? 

Because many critics of mass media observe there exists no 
political parties which can replace the present ruling parties
in reality. Democratic Party, No.1 opposition power is not quite
dependable at any respect.

Democratic Party is now selecting a candidate for every constituencies
preparing for general election. But they have not finished selecting
enough number of candidates to get majority seats at Lower House
in coming election. They have to do it at first. 

Needless to say, the leaders of Democratic Party are responsible for
it. Most critics of mass media always blame inability of opposition 
parties, especially of Democratic Party while they criticize inability
of ruling parties at the moment. 

This kind of phenomena have been observed not only in the current
political situation but also in the past Japanese political history.
There were no change of power through general election between
ruling and opposition parties in the past except Hosokawa cabinet.

But this kind of tendency is no good to vitalize Japanese politics.
Regardless there exist some significant dissatisfaction about the
capacity of opposition parties, people should select a party which
is better although it is only a small difference. The change of
power may be realized through such judgment by people.

Any political parties which are in power will become  more competent
politically in every sense. I believe that this is the only and 
practical process  that realize political reform in this country.

2002/6/8
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion of this week(275):

Lack of sportmanship
 
It is now the final stage of primary league game  of World Soccer. Japan
beat Rissia and Tunisia.Japanse island exploded in exultation of the 
victory. Although I pretended indifference about the result, I was also
quite glad to see the victory of Japanese team like most other people.

At the same time, however, I had a concern about what happened so far in 
World Cup. Although I admit it a natural that people wish the victory of
their own country, it seems that kind of nationalistic feeling goes too
far. In Russia riots happened in several places because of the loss in
the game against Japan. I wonder why is this?

Although there were no riots, there were a number of whys and wherefores
in many games between two countries. They were, for example, England vs.
Argentine, Korea vs. US and so forth. There were some conflicts before.
The one has a grudge against the other and tries to retaliate against
the other by winning the game. 

The source of conflicts are racial issues, international politics, 
conflicts in other sports, and so on. The one who got suffering tries
to retaliate the other at this time. Many mass media write a kind of 
sensational stries about them out of mere curiosity. That's a source
of problems.

I think mass media are partly responsible for many of such extravagant
confusions happenend in Word Cup. Many sport newspapers are especially
responsible happenings for they write many of such inside stories 
rather than facts about the game themselves.

I believe that players in any teams are just working hard and calm. They
know the principle that they cannot make a good play based on grudge 
against the other. Many of riots and happenings outside of stadiums 
are caused by stupid fans who just stick to the result of games without
understanding about fairness of sport.  

Any sportsmen know it. It is fine that they work hard to win. But they
never make any of such misconducts although they lose the game. When
they lose, they will think over why they lose and correct ways to go
work hard again for a next target. That is the sportsmanship.

World Cup is a big event, for sure. I understand that people cannot put 
their mind at ease about the result. But we should never forget the 
fact that it is just one sport event. People should be much cooler 
about winning or losing about in any sport events. Why don't they have
a passion about something else rather than soccer only? I hardly 
understand the existense of such crazy supporters. 

Through such world wide sport events, I believe that we must learn something
else rather than just winning and losing. That is fairness and graciouness
as well as fighting spirits.

2002/6/15
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion of this week(276):

Meaning of World Cup

Honestly speaking, every Japanese including myself felt frustrated
to see the victory of Korea in the final tournament while Japan
lost the game against Turkey. All Japanese were really disappointed
with the lost of the game. But no Japanese got angry with it. All
sent a warm handclap to players after some moment of disappointment.

It is a good nature of Japanese that they are very generous about
losers. I felt entirely same way as other people.

Soccer World Cup is just one sport events. There are many more 
things which our nation must battle and compete with other countries
and other people such area as politics, economy, and culture. 
 
Japan is now in national malaise. We must break this stagnant mood
by working hard competing others in many fields. We must be humble 
and modest even when we win in any games. At the same time, we must
hold our head up even when we lose those games. All we have to do is
that we try to do our best in any games.

I am very glad to see that mind of Japanese is united into one in
this World Cup. It was also very meaningful that many people could
make interpersonal exchange with many foreign people. That is the
most significant fruits we could get through this World Cup. 

Be humble and modest even when we win. And be kind and generous with
any defeat and loss when the best effort is done. Let make our country
that way. Let's become that kind of people.

That is, I believe, the way how our country should live in this turmoil
world. 

2002/6/22
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion of this week(277)

Meaning of computerized vote

The first computerized voting system was introduced for the election of
ａ mayor and diet members at Niimi City of Okayama Prefecture. The system
itself was found very successful by cutting the time to count ballots
to some great extent. Many observers from various local cities visited
Niimi City to see how the system worked out. 

Mr. Katayama, Minister of Public Management, also visited the city to check
how it worked. He commented that the Government would consider to 
introduce the same kind of system in national elections in near future.
That's good move, indeed.

There already exists various cases of computerized ballots in other
countries. I have been wondering how soon such system will be introduced 
in Japan. There are many rules and restrictions concerning election laws 
that make it difficult to introduce computerized ballot. Niimi City has
made a great job in this sense. 

Computerized ballot system is just an example of rationalization that
Central and local governments must realize in order to solve serious
financial deficits in their offices. The rationalization of their 
office works is a top priority for any public sectors. 

The rationalization of office works at private businesses is going on
drastically due to severe competition in the market. On the other hands,
office works at public sectors remain inefficient in every sense. A
red tape, bureaucratic bungling still represents the word to express
inefficient style of office works at public sectors.

Computerization is one key word for rationalization of office works.
Networking is another key word. A lot of papers, a number of sealing
works and slow managerial decision process are three evils of office
works at public sectors.

Speed and efficiency is now requested for any office works at central
and local government. All leaders in any publics sectors are now
requested to understand the necessity of computerization and networking
of their office works in order to solve their serious financial 
situation.

2002/6/29
Tadashi HAYASE