My Opinion This Week�|March 1997

My Opinion this week(8):



Disclosure of Information



   A local court ordered the Saitama Prefecture Government to disclose details 

about the use of the prefecture's food expenses to entertain central government

officials. The prefecture has disclosed so far various cases of food expenses

but refused to disclose the name of person whom are entertained for the reason

that it may obstruct the interest of the person involved. The same kind of

court judgment made in Tokyo and Sendai before and the judgment of the 

Seriatim court this time will encourage the greater disclosure in the future.



  There are many unjust public money spending cases happening  in various 

prefectures these days. Four and five billion yen of big money was spent 

unlawfully. They are, for example, false travel expenses which never

existed in reality. Another example is false overtime work pay allowance which

was never spent actually as such accounting item. What a low moral standard

it is!



  The judgment of a local court seems to be quite right. We don't understand 

why local government officials must entertain central government officials. If

it is really necessary what is it for?  For example, they may treat central

governmentofficials to get higher budget allocation for a certain project. 

Sometimes, it may be necessary to entertain central central government 

officials just for social and a kind of diplomatic reason without any specific

purpose. That's what nobody will deny the necessity.



  Any public spending are usually checked by auditing functions which exist in

each local governments. But different from such official functions, any

citizens and citizen group have a basic right to check any of such public

spending in anytime. And in any of such checks, all details should be 

disclosed to such citizenOmbudsman in charge. 



  In order to check such public spending some politician insisted the need for

creating a certain auditing function in the legislative body or in the diet

apart from administrative organizations. That's no good at all according to my

belief. That's something like making another roof on the roof already existed.

Some extra cost is necessary to create such function while any of such 

administrative cost is trying to be cut to proceed administrative reform.



  Disclosure of information is surely one of the most important action to

attain administrative reform. If disclosure of information is proceeded 

further in thisway, some of unnecessary public spending will be cut 

automatically. Any of the administrative process will become more efficient

due to further proceeding of the information disclosures. This is what 

information disclosure is for.



1997/3/1

Tadashi HAYASE

My Opinion this week(9):



Miserable bachelors



�@This is the season of transferring positions at various offices not only

in government sectors but also in private firms. In Japan fiscal year ends

in March. Many private firms also follows the same financial calendar as

government sectors. Then a number of people move around during this time

of the year. Some will be promoted to new positions. Some will be transferred

to some other sections. Some are transferred from one place to another 

remote place. Such transfer are not unique to Japanese organzations.That

is  observed in any other countries regardless the time of transfer.



  In Japan such transfer to remote area mostly end in creating business

bachelors. If the person in transfer is a single, there is no problem. 

He will be transferred to some new places by himself. However, if he is

married, he has to be moved with his family. But in Japan , he will be moved

to some new places by himself leaving all of his family at the former place.

There are several millions  of such business bachelors existed in Japan.



 In Japan, it is not rare at all that some spend almost 50% of the total

30 years services at a company as business bachelor. It is neither the case

that people want to be as such nor the case that any firms do enforce 

people to move alone. In most of the case, it is the only alternative they

can choose. In any foreign countries, any business men move alone for some

period of time. But it is rather rare that they are left alone for such

a long year as 10 to 20 years during his business career. 



  There are a few obvious reasons why many Japanese business men move by

themselves. The one is a Japanese housing situation. A man buy a very

expensive house by borrowing a high housing loan. Then he is ordered to

go some other places. He cannot sell his house so easily and then he has

to move alone leaving his wife and children at a new house.



  The second reason is a Japanese education system. In Japan children

cannot move so freely from one school to others especially in high schools

and colleges. Children are obliged to stay in the school until they

graduate from them. As a result of such inflexible Japanese education 

systems, a father must move alone in many cases.



  There are some other reason why there are so many business bachelors

in Japan and I think it a kind of miserable situation. Some one come

back to his home once in a month if they are lucky. Some can only be back

to home in two to three months. I wonder how they satisfy their family

life. They may loose the important bandage of family without their 

father. Any such father will loose his status as a father sooner or

later. From any educational and economic points of view,  it does not

make sense.



  In some case, people refuse to move alone and choose to live with

family by losing important jobs. But in most cases, any people are

forced to listen to the order of firms to protect their business career

and to protect their families.  It is one of big social issues in Japan

although not many people recognize the issue as such. It is not 

exaggerated to say that it is a miserable phase of a Japanese society

due to the closed Japanese education system and underdeveloped phase 

of housing environment of Japanese society. They are definitely to be

improved to solve this critical social problem.



1997/3/8

Tadashi HAYASE

My Opinion this week(10):



Damnable Budget



  The fiscal 1997 budget bill has passed the House of Representative 

without any amendment and has been sent to the House of Councilors for

further deliberations. However, it is sure that fiscal 1997 budget will

take effect in 30 days regardless of the Upper House decision according

to the Japanese constitution.  The ruling Liberal Democratic Party  and

the government expressed their contentedness saying that the budget is

now a key concern for the nation because of its role to recover business

recession. The big problem is, however, the ingredients of the budget

itself.



  There are so many problems as far as this budget is concerned. This

budget is referred to as an alcoholic. Without any proper self-control,

men keep drinking alcohol regardless its necessity and limit to follow.

Just like alcoholic, some great amount of money is being spend regardless

their real needs and the balance against the revenue in the past budgets.

It has been noted that such overspending is no good because it has created

a tremendous financial deficits in the past.



  In order to attain the administrative reform and financial restructuring,

the most important concern for the nation at the moment is that there

should be some fundamental change and reorganization of the budget different

from the past pattern. More concretely, it is necessary to make some

significant cut in public construction investment and in the general

expenditures in order to attain financial restructuring. But 1997 budget

continues to increase such public spending including 10 billion yen

Shinkansen project and 43 trillion yen of general expenditure as in the

past year's budget. No strong scheme and determination is observed in this

budget to decrease such huge financial deficits exceeding 400 trillion yen.



  If the nation is a private firm, it is already in bankruptcy. In the case

of private firm, however, it will make every effort to decrease such

financial deficit by cutting new investment and all sort of expenses to

attain the balance between revenue and expenditures.  After the bubble

economy, all private industries has conducted all sort of necessary actions

to improve their business and financial conditions.



  The nation is just like a corporation. Without keeping a sound financial 

conditions , it will go bankrupt. The nation today owes some great debt to

all people of the country. The country owes 200,000 yen per person. And

regardless such big borrowings , no quick and fundamental action plans have 

been reflected in 1997 budget. The call for fiscal reconstruction without

tax increase has just changed to tax increase without fiscal reconstruction.

The tax cut made in the past two years has discontinued and consumption tax

will be increased to 5% from 3%  starting April 1, 1997.



  We understand the administrative reform and fiscal reconstruction are not

so easy. We also understand that they will take time. But every advanced 

countries which lead world economy today are already taking some more

concrete actions to improve the same kind of issues at each nations. It

seems that only Japan is far behind this tide in the world today. This is

the time to present a tax statement to the tax office. This message will

be attached to the statement.



1997/3/15

Tadashi HAYASE

My Opinion this week(11):



Cherry Blossoms Front



�@March 20th is the day of Spring Equinox and I enjoyed tennis in clean

and sunny weather. Needless to say, it is more pleasant and comfortable

to play tennis under a warm and shiny sun than to play in cold and windy

weather.  From now  to the end of May, it is the most beautiful and the

best season of the year. All trees start to blossom and leaves turn into

green. The flower of plum trees are about to end and some cherry tree

started to blossom in southern part of Japan. 

 

  Compared with the average year, Cherry Blossoms Front has started two

weeks earlier. Normally in Japan, Cherry blossoms starts at the end of

March in the far southern part of Kyusyu. Then the blossoms territory 

gradually go up toward northern part of Japan and end at the far northern

part of Hokkaido at the beginning of May. It is referred to as Cherry

Blossoms Front just like rain front in June and autumn rain front at the

beginning of autumn.



  No such words appears either in any of formal weather charts or in any

of other formal announcement made by Weather Forecast Bureau, but the

word seems to be one most important weather indicator which closely

relates with our life today. The Cherry Blossoms Front will be announced

from time to time in newspaper and other mass media. It is very pleasant

to watch it and to forecast when the front will visit the place where we

live. Incidentally, it is predicted that people will enjoy the full

blossoms on and around March 25th in Tokyo area in this spring.



  Based on this forecast, people start to make various recreational plans.

In this weekend or in two weeks , people plan to go on a picnic to see the

cherry blossoms with their families.  Many groups of people in firms plan

to have drinking party under cherry trees at some parks in the neighborhood.

It is a kind of unique Japanese scene to have a cherry blossoms watching

party sitting under the cherry trees to eat and drink.  Freshmen of  each

groups will usually be dispatched to the park to keep the good place to

have a party in night, freeing him from daily duties at the office.

Eating, drinking, and singing by a portable Karachi set are their main

purpose and they usually pay little attention on cherry blossoms itself. 



  It is an established custom or way of life for Japanese people today

regardless you like it or not. It is fine if that is a happy event for 

the people. Picnic with families under the cherry trees must also be very

enjoyable,too. In this week, I happened to see various cherry blossoms

and sightseeing information in Internet . Various sites introduce 

information on cherry blossoms  throughout Japan including the best 100

places and some live scenery of cherry blossoms , etc.



  That's good. There is no complains about it. But there might be one

thing that we should not forget. This is a very precious nature. We

should pay the utmost attention to keep their beauty and to conserve

without deteriorating them just to have an temporary amusement in our

daily life.



1997/3/22

Tadashi HAYASE

My Opinion this week(12):



Small VAN before Big Bang



  My wife lost her purse in the evening several days ago. Only about

10,000 yen cash was in it, so it was not any big loss. Problem was

a bank cash card and four credit cards. A cash card was the one to

get cash from ATM machines in the town which was issued by the local

bank we deal with. 



  It was about 8 PM in night, so there was almost no worry that those

cards would be abused. But we decided to call the bank and credit 

cards companies to make sure. We had no such experience before. We 

tried to find the telephone numbers to call in such emergent case.

We could not find any specific number to call for each places except

the one for D Credit Company. I called the number for D Credit Company

which was in 24 hours service. A man answered the call  and assured to

cancel the use of the card immediately. He also promised to send us 

the new card in a couple of days. D Credit is an American firm. We have

used this card for more than twenty years. We were completely satisfied

with their good care and service.



  The service of other firms were very bad on the contrary. No telephone

numbers to call in such emergent cases was indicated anywhere. We called

the branches and main offices of each firms but there was no answer at

all. It was 8 AM in next morning when we could finally get contact with

the bank. The man answered seemed to be a guard man and he transferred

the call to the department in charge. A man of the department said he

would take a necessary action to stop the use of the card, but he con-

tinued to say that we should go to the branch office with some identi-

fication and the seal used for the deposit note at the bank to get new

cash card. What's more, I should go there, not my wife, to get the card

for my wife for I am the owner of the deposit.



  The cases for other three Japanese credit cards companies were worse.

We could succeed to contact them after 9 am when business hours started.

Some extra steps were also necessary to get new cards after abolishing

the lost cards. We must have endured several extra procedures to take. 



  Today, all financial firms are facing some big change in their 

business systems. The change is referred to Big Bang. Due to the develop-

ment of computer networks and cash less system, all such banks and credit

cards firms are asked to change the old system and to improve their 

service to meet increasing competition in the global market. Why then,

there are even no 24 hours call service available for Japanese banks and

credits firms?  



  Without improvement of such small but basic service, I wonder whether

or not they can survive in coming a big change of the financial system

in the global market.



1997/3/29

Tadashi HAYASE