My opinion of this week(385):

Direct election of Prime Minister

In US, President Bush has been formally elected  to the candidate for
President for next term by Republican Party. President Bush will
competes with Mr. Kerry of Democratic Party in the election. The 
competition seems to be very severe and nobody can really forecast which
will win in the election. It is very interesting and exciting process 
even for us , non American citizens. It is, needless to say, very important
political process for all American people at any rate. 

Although there exists some unfair blaming process each others, both 
candidates and parties are making strict competitions in terms of
their political stances and policies. Especially the debate concerning
Iraq war started by US is a  key issue for all citizens of US and people
in the world. I think this is the way how such important election is to
be made. 

Let's look at the political situation of our country. Mr. Okada has
just been reelected as the President of Democratic Party ofJapan. It
is very important news as a matter of fact because Mr. Okada is 
possibly next Prime Minister of Japan. But it was not quite a big
concern at all. There were no candidates for the election and Mr. Okada
was reelected without any competition and debating as such concerning
any important policies which are pending at the moment.

Then what about are political situation of ruling parties i.e. Liberal
Democratic Party and Komei Party?  How are they doing? 

The illegal practice of money handling by Hashimoto group has been 
disclosed recently. The accountant who is in charge of contributed money
of the group was arrested by prosecutor office for his mal practice of 
the case. Former Prime Minister Hasimoto was investigated by the
prosecutor's office.

Regardless such a serious case, Prime Minister Koizumi who is the President
of the Liberal Democratic Party did not seem to care much about the case.
He just commented as if it had nothing to do with his own responsibility.
He is just very eager praising how he was excited to see so many gold medals
had been acquired by Japanese athletes in Athens Olympics by inviting
those medallists to his office.

Why is this? This is because there will be no change in power for sure
in next two years, provided that there is no change in the number of 
seats for ruling parties and opposition parties. The position of Prime 
Minister will never be lost even with the recent defeat in the House of 
Councils election and scandals within ruling parties.Prime Minister in 
Japan is elected by the parliament. So far as there is no change in diet
membership, there is no change of Prime Minister. 

There are many arguments in the past that the current Japanese political
system is to be changed so that Prime Minister should be elected directly
by the people rather than appointment by the parliament. I don't know the
reason why we don't see such argument any more in those days. 

I believe that it is very necessary to change the current system so that
Prime Minister of Japan, the top leader in politics will be elected
directly by the whole people of Japan to activate all political situation
of this country.

2004/9/4
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion of this week(386):

Strike by ball players was postponed

The strike by ball players scheduled starting at this weekend was postponed.
The Players Union decided not to go on strike at this time because they
got reply from the association of ball clubs that the plan to merge Kintetu
Buffalos and Blue Wave Orix is to be reconsidered for the time being. In 
addition, the association replied to consider to abolish high admission 
and participation fees which count total 6 billion yen or something to
join one of leagues.
 
The question of the legitimacy of strike to be done by ball players is
put aside for a while. The biggest issue here is how to revitalize Japanese
professional base ball world as a whole. The largest restraint for it
was the existence of very expensive admission and participation fees to
join leagues, which virtually shut the door for new comers. Such expensive
fees is not only problem. The bigger problem is very closed stance of Japanese
base ball world.  Kintetu Buffalo and any of ball clubs seemed to be very
closed.  They never open the door for a new commer such as LIVE DOOR as wee
saw it.  

I think it wrong that ball players union demand to freeze the plan to merge
Buffalo and Orix. What they should demand is the following two as far as
I see the situation.

・To promote participation of new club teams by taking all sort of means.
・To start interleague games between Central League and Pacific League.

Merger of teams is very basic business issue. That is not any basic
issue which ball players are concerned with. The most important and 
common issue for club team management, players and baseball funs is
how to revitalize the whole baseball world. 

Many teams of Central League in this respect are quite selfish. They
don't care for what is happening in Pacific League. If they want to
keep the present two league system, they should be more aggressive to
promote new participation and interleague game system at first. Secondly
they should be more aggressive to abolish the current very closed system
for new participation.

That is the way it is. Why association of club teams and players union
can't  work together more aggressively in this course of action?

The postponement of strike at this time is just to postpone this very basic
action.

2004/9/11
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion of this week(387):

I support the strike 

The negotiation between Nihon Baseball Game Association and Ball Players
Union has been broken down. The first strike will be made on Saturday
this week. I have expressed my objection so far to the strike to be made by
the Union which demands to postpone the merger of two ball teams in
Pacific League. That is not reasonable, I think.

At this negotiation, however, the Union requested to the Association
that they should promote admitting entry of new ball clubs into Pacific
League or Central League starting next season. That is quite reasonable
demand from any point of view. But the Association turned down the request
saying it is not possible to admit a new entry by starting next season
for there are many difficulties involved to process the matter. Why not?
Why is it so difficult? I never understand  why it takes so much time to
process the matter. I now strongly support the request of the Union by
all means.

The new entry was expressed by a few groups such as Livedoor and Rakuten.
Some prefectures such as Miyagi and Osaka welcomed the move of such new
entry if a new clubs comes to their hometown. Under such circumstance, 
I really don't know why admission of new entry is so difficult for the
Association. One club team of Pacific League is going to disappear for 
sure for the merger. There exists good enough ball players to form at 
least one new club team.  

When it comes franchise issue, the situation seems to be better than the
present circumstance. Livedoor expressed the plan to make a new club team
which franchises in Sendai. Governor Asano of Miyagi Prefecture welcomed
the plan. But the Association  expressed some  concerns about  Miyagi Ball 
Game Stadium saying whether it is feasible or not. It seems that the 
Association is not aggressive enough to admit new entry. They just try to
protect the present interests of their own.
 
I am quite surprised to hear the news that Mr. Negoro, Commissioner of 
the Association expressed his resignation from the position without 
really making any effort to improve the situation. Why is this? 

Mr.Ichiro Ozawa wrote his opinion in a column of a newspaper concerning
this issue as follows:

"In many occasions,  I have pointed out the limitation of consensus-building 
style society of Japan. The present confusion of Japanese Baseball world
is another typical example of it.It is not the time that both the Association
and the Players Union are demanding each other to protect vested interests of
each sides in the very closed system. The Association side should make the
best effort to remove very high charges for new entry to make the world
more open. 
  
In a back-scratching relation, there exits no strong leaders who take no
leadership and responsibility to make change. No one can really take any
strong leadership to show what is to be done to go ahead for bright future.
The current situation of Japanese baseball society is another example of
such obstruction of Japanese society."

I agree with Mr. Ozawa.  This is what I have kept saying about this issue.

Commissioner Negruro's word for resignation is very strange. He said he
didn't want to express his personal views on which side is right or wrong.
But he did not accept the action like the strike which is against his
sense of value of his own established in his long life. 

What a great word it is !  What did he do so far?  Why did he say that he 
would  try to do his best to realize the new entry so that the whole 
Japanese baseball leagues could make a new start in next season. 

Why is it so difficult ?  I hard to understand the reason why obstacles are
so high to realize the new entry

2004/9/18
Tadashi HAYASE

My opinion of this week(388):

What do you think about Koizumi's English speech at UN?

My message put on BLOG and ML:

I personally agree with the contents of address made by Prime Minister
Koizumi at General Assembly of UN concerning Japan's permanent membership
of the U.N. Security Council. But I have some question about why he made
the speech in English. 

I did not have a good impression about it. He did not speak so well and
looked unnatural when it comes to his English skill. I have scarcely 
heard his speech in English in various  occasions of political activities 
in Japan and other countries. He is rather a good speaker as a Japanese
statesman when he speaks in Japanese. 

Negative comments put on BLOG : 

His pronunciation was no good and the speech was  rather hard to 
understand. He tried to make a good performance by making a speech in
English at such an international stage but the performance itself was 
not quite successful. Makiko Tanaka, the former Foreign Minister is much
better in speaking in English although her Japanese speech is not so
good. tak

I agree with tad san's comment. His English speech was not quite natural
and good compared with his ordinal speech in Japanese. Fujiki

Positive comments put on ML:

I positively appreciate Koizumi's English speech. In such international
stage, English speech has stronger impact for audience because Japanese
is very minor language at any rate. In order to avoid some misunderstanding
distribution of English  briefing text is normally made. Hara

I agree with Hara san. Koizumi's English speech was good enough. Although
there are some words  which were hard to understand, I think the speech 
was totally not so bad. Iwatubo

Regardless whether it is good or bad, it is true that  English speech
might have stronger impact than Japanese speech. Fujiki

My summary: 

・I don't intend to evaluate only about the skill of English of Prime
  Minister.  I rather want to talk the total effects on Prime Minister's
  speech at such situation. 

・Prime Minister tried to appeal a very neutral and independent position 
 of Japan as a permanent member  of Security Council of UN even different
  from any other the present permanent members of Security Council. If so,
  he should not speak in English. Any speeches to be made by other permanent
  members were never made in English except US and UK. They are to be made
 in French, Russian, and Chinese.

・Historically Japan has got so many  cultural effects from non English 
　speaking area as well as English speaking area. Japan is not English 
  speaking country at all. Japan must get the support from many other 
  countries which are non English speaking area of the world as well as
  English speaking area. It is not good idea from strategic point of view
  that Japan is mainly affected by such major English speaking countries 
  such as  UK and US.

I would appreciate to hear more about your comments on this summary.

2004/9/25
Tadashi HAYASE