My opinion of this week(318):

Heisei revolution

I usually watch Report 2001 of Fuji TV every Sunday morning. At the show
of last Sunday, there were two topics. The first one was on nuclear weapon
issue of North Korea. That is not something new at all. The second one was
talk between Kazuo Inamori and Taichi Sakaiya as how to recover Japanese
society by getting out of obstructed stage at the moment. That was very
interesting for me.

According to Taichi Sakaiya , current lame duck stage of Japan is
due to domination by bureaucrats in Japanese society. Although Prime
Minister Koizume call for the need of reform , no fruits have ever been
attained because of continued regime of bureaucracy.

Kazuo Inamori shared the same view  with Taichi Sakaiya. Although he 
agreed with the issue and the analysis by Sakaiya, he said now is the time
for action. Nothing will happen just by wait and see. Many people including
Prime Minister Koizumi say the necessity of reform in many ways, but what
is necessary is revolution not reform to change the ancient regime of
Japanese society.

We know a typical example of such revolution according to Kazuo Inamori. 
That is Meiji Restoration done in 1868 by overthrowing Edo shogunate 
regime. Modernization of Japan was achieved as the result of it.

Revolution sounds like a little dangerous. But I entirely agree with 
Inamori's view. Although we call it revolution, we never assume now such
one as French Revolution which is not realistic. Those who established Meiji
Restoration were little known young such as Ryoma Sakamoto and others
rather than ministers in shogun regime or federal lords of local
area. Those young people could do it because they had  no strings attached  
with the ancient regime. Inamori said he is now trying to train young people
so that some of them will be able to establish the same thing in near future.

That's sound reasonable. We really wish that would happen.  But I just 
wonder how soon that could really happen.

2003/5/7
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion of this week(319):

National emergency legislation

After long talk and negotiation, National Emergency Legislation is about to
pass the Lower House of diet. Although people of this country realize some
problems concerned with this legislation, 60% of them admit the necessity
of such bills according to recent survey of public opinion. I also agree
with it. I wonder why those politicians took so many time and could not
get any conclusion on them yet, although many amendment may be necessary
through discussion at diet.

Some opposition parties such as Social Democratic Party and Communist 
Party are against the bill insisting that the bill is  against constitution
which prohibits for the nation to involve with war. Their argument is
out of question as far as my view is concerned. The point here is response
of Democratic Party as to how they approach issues related with the bill. 

There are many views and opinions among lawmakers of the party on this 
bill. The party consists of various groups of lawmakers. Some are from
former Socialist Party, from Democratic Socialist Party, and from Liberal
Democratic Party. So the Party had a difficult time to present a 
counter plan to the bill requested by ruling parties because of big 
discrepancy on the issue inside of their party.

However,  There is one common position of the party against the bill.
The party have insisted to insert statement of guarantee of basic human
right in the bill as guaranteed by constitution. Ruling parties have not
agreed with it so far. 

But at this final stage of negotiation, ruling parties have decided 
to compromise to put a certain statement in one way or the other 
guaranteeing basic human right even at the time of emergency. 

It seems that ruling parties might have thought that it will not make
much difference even if they put such statement in the bill that will
become a kind of abstract any way. They think passing bill first is 
important.

I personally do not understand why Democratic Party insists to insert
such general articles in the bill. Needless to say, guarantee of basic
human right is very necessary in any cases when and where it is 
possible. But the situation is different as far as emergent cases are
concerned. 

Emergent cases means existence of the nation or any local communities
is at stake. They must be saved first rather than worrying about
basic right of individual people involved. We can easily imagine such
case that some basic human right will be limited for the sake of
total defense and security of nation. 

I think such Democratic Party's demand is a palpable fraud. I agree
with the importance of basic human right in any occasion. But 
emergent case means that emergent action may be taken first to protect
basic human life itself possibly sacrificing some parts of human right
at that moment.

2003/5/14
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion of this week(320):

Public fund

Government will invest 2 trillion yen on Resona Bank to help their over
debt financial situation. The bank will virtually be nationalized. 
Government official said it was a necessary measures to protect the market
from possible financial crisis. Although there are some criticism against
misadministration of Koizumi Cabinet on economic policy, they also 
admit necessity of injecting public fund at this time. People in general
accept it as a necessary measure to protect their own nest eggs at various
city banks, too.
 
That was my first reaction as a user of that bank as well. I personally
have an account at Risona Bank including some amount of time deposit. 
No body will deny the necessity of that kind of action to avoid immediate 
financial crisis.   

But in the last few days, many people of ML wrote about their basic
doubt why such a failed bank as Resona is to be saved by public fund. 
Their management practice has failed regardless their excuses. In any 
other industries, if that happens, any firms will go bankrupt and possibly
be dissolved at the end. Why will it not happen to city banks? 

I entirely agree with those views and have expressed the same opinion
several times in my opinion of this week. Any city banks should be gone
bankrupt and dissolved if there were no possibility for them to revive.

What is really necessary is to reform  indulgent management practice of
Japanese banks in order to stabilize financial market of Japan. It is
necessary to let learn  the principle of market economy. The only way
for them to learn the principle of free competition, they will 
also be eliminated from the market if they fail.

I entirely disappointed with the comment by the president of Resona
Bank at the news conference. He said the reason why they faced this
financial difficulty due to the change of rules of accounting audit
by a auditing firm.

2003/5/21
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion of this week(321)

National Women's Education Center

It rained on 26th and I drove to Ranzan City, Saitama Prefecture
to visit National Women's Education Center where special PC training
session is scheduled to be held on 29th and 30th of May. I went there
to check various facilities of Multi Media Room of the center including
PCs and other audio visual equipments. I almost knew about them 
because the same kind of session was held at the beginning of last
December. I wanted to reconfirm those hardware and software to avoid
any troubles during the session.

The room was equipped with several very convenient machines and tools.
An instructor can use his own PC and can project his presentation
two big screens at front. There are 30 units of PCs on the desks of
students all of which are connected with internet on line. It is really
a good setup to proceed PC training far beyond the environment of
our training session being done in our own city. 

In our PC club, there are no PCs, no projectors, no screens and 
so forth. The only facilities available is a room which is new. 
The city holds only 25 note PCs which are only allowed to be used 
in old and narrow  annex rooms of City Hall. Furthermore, to reserve
the room itself is very difficult. So usually,  people who have note
PCs bring them into a room and others watch the operation beside those
PCs. 
 
We wish we could have a PC projector at least. But it is too expensive
to buy as an individual basis. 

The facilities of this Women's Center in this respect are very
good indeed. If it is much closer to our city, we will use them more
often, at least once a month. But we cannot do it because it takes too
much time for to and from the destination. 

As I also wrote earlier, many of public facilities in Japan are so 
called "hakomono" boxes and containers and of that sorts. They are 
buildings and rooms. There are not much of software and hardware 
which can be used by citizens to learn PCs and others. Our city is
no exception as a matter of fact. 

The question lies in the fact that there are no movement at all
on the side of city authority to improve such situation as far as
our city is concerned.

2003/5/28
Tadashi　HAYASE