Top 10 Musicians on my iPhone in 2010

1. Johann Sebastian Bach
2. The Beatles
3. Paul McCartney
4. Ryuichi Sakamoto
5. Brian Wilson
6. Vampire Weekend
7. Muse
8. Kinoco Hotel
9. Gilbert O'Sullivan
10. L<->R

This year's new artists for me are 6,7 and 8.

Foreigners' Questions about Japan (3) Why is working long hours, with little vacation time, so important in Japan?

At first, I want to tell you that Japanese hate to work long hours. We like holidays and envy long vacations among many European workers.

However, Japanese workers can take only 5.1 days on average for summer holidays including Saturday and Sunday. Companies give 18 holidays per year but workers take only 8.5 days on average. Why do we work long hours and take short holidays?

I think the reason why is depending on two points as follows:

(1)Companies and workers fear losing jobs
If your client asks your company, "Can you finish this 48-hour job within these two days?", what does your company reply? Maybe all foreign companies don't accept this offer because it is impossible. But some Japanese companies will accept it. For them, it isn't an impossible order – if workers don't take a rest throughout the 48 hours. Such Japanese companies and workers think such work is convinient to their clients, and they try to avoid losing this precious work. If they refuse it, the work will be simply brought to another company which can accept it. And such companies are not rare in Japan.

(2)Mature people should bear hard situations and never complain about them.
If your daughter or son in kindergarten screams "I wanna eat something!" on a train, you say to her or him, "Hold on". Self-control is an expectation for mature people.
Japanese tend to adapt this expectation to the workplace. Refraining from taking holidays and to leaving your office on time are required for you as a mature people. They think that a person who says "I wanna take long holidays" is a child.

Of course, many Japanese workers think that this is an absurd notion. But unfortunately, most people are afraid of their co-workers or bosses thinking they are like children. Conformity is an essential element of our community. So people have a tendency not to take long holidays.

Other reasons: see my past entry "Why do Japanese businesspeople work till late?"

Foreigners' Questions about Japan (2) What is your favorite thing about Japan/Japanese culture?

I don't hesitate to admire social safety in Japan. According to OECD Factbook, Japan's victimization rates (Percentage, one year prevalence victimization except murder rates among the entire population) is the second lowest in all OECD countries. Rates in 2005: Spain 9.1, Japan 9.9, France 12, OECD average 14.5, US 17.5, and UK 21.
http://puck.sourceoecd.org/vl=19842971/cl=16/nw=1/rpsv/factbook2009/11/04/01/index.htm
As for murder rate among 150 WHO member countries, Japan is the second lowest.
Last year, I dropped my wallet which contains $700 / 530Euro / 475pounds at Tokyo. Three days later, my wallet was sent to my home in the same condition as when I dropped them. It was lucky case, but not rare in Japan.

Cleanliness and hygiene mind and punctual customer services (for instance, railways) in Japan make me feel comfortable.

I like some modern culture of Japan, but most of them are affected by western culture. But graphic novel, a.k.a manga is one of Japan-established culture which may be easy to be understood by worldwide people. I also like Japanese traditional culture – cooking, arts and architectures (for example, Buddha statues and temples) – but I think that some of them aren't easy to be understood for some westerners except as for orientarism-understanding.

Japanese people are tolerant for religions. The same person is celebrated by Shinto way, which is Japanese original religion, when after one month later he / she was born, He / she marries in Christian style – even though they never read the holy bible, and his / her funeral is conducted according to Buddhism rites. Many foreign people, in particular monotheism believers, may feel it ridiculous. But I think it was a good side of Japanese culture. Many Japanese seem to think that religious intolerance is an origin of serious conflicts, and I also agree with it.

For reference: newspaper findings
What characteristic of Japan do Japanese like best?
Safety, beautiful four seasons, diligence, delicious foods, glorious nature, moralistic mind, heritage, peace-oriented mind, non-class-based society, comfortable climate, cooperativeness

What characteristic of Japan don't Japanese like?
Closed-society, group mentality, intolerance, political system, opportunism, lack of creativity, irresponsiblility, indifference for others, homogeneous society, history during era of imperialism.

Foreigners' Questions about Japan (1) What do you think is the most misunderstood aspect of modern Japan?

Male chauvinism. When I told westerners that my wife was housewife, some of them thought that I forced my wife to quit her work. It wasn't true, quitting her job depended on her own will and a condition (our new house was far from her office.) I admit that male chauvinism still remain in Japan, in particular many elderly people and some younger people. But times are changing. Japan is behind western people about gender equality, however, it's getting to improve.

A trip to meet two heroes for Japanese (2)

My family and I parted in the meantime. I went to Kouchi city to see a exhibition and museum of Ryoma Sakamoto, who is a hero among many Japanese.

He was a swordmaster, an entrepreneur, and a peacemaker in the last part of the Samurai era (1860s). Japanese think that he is one of the most important people of Japanese modernization.




What did he do? The Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum said as follows:
In short, Ryoma was a man who triggered the collapse of Shogun's feudal government. In the 1860s, the government had no power to refuse western nations' requests (for example, trading on unequal treaty) and lost power to control regional feudal lords. Some people thought that the government couldn't defend Japan from western nations, and therefore supported the overthrow the government and establishment of a new unified nation under the Emperor. He was one of those man.

Ryoma succeeded to make partnership between two powerful feudal groups even though they were opposing. Both groups thought to overthrow the government by force, but Ryoma thought to avoid civil war. So he proposed to a lord a plan in which the government returned political power to the Emperor. The lord proposed the plan and the government accepted it. In addition, Ryoma wrote the way of new government: establishing the parliament, new law system and modern navy, trading other nations on equal treaty (the old government shut down trade with any nations except China, Korea and the Netherlands for over 200 years.), etc.

His action and plans affected new Japanese modern government strongly. He was assassinated by an unknown person in December of 1867. The new government was established in 1868.

He is very popular among Japanese of all ages, especially this year. Because one of the most popular TV drama series this year picks up Ryoma as a main character. So there is a temporary exhibition displayed in front of Kouchi station.



Right: Ryoma. Left: Iwasaki, the founder of Mitsubishi. Iwasaki was a friend of Ryoma. Both of two were born in this prefecture, lower-class samurai. In particular, Iwasaki was very poor.



The Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum. It exhibits Ryoma's career, background and his letters.

My opinion about Ryoma is simple: If he didn't exist, there is a possibility that Japan would have failed to modernize peacefully, otherwise terrorism could have happened. Like many other Japanese, I also think he was great.

A trip to meet two heroes for Japanese (1)

My wife, three-year-old son, and I took a trip to meet a hero. Who was he? He was Anpanman, the most popular hero among Japanese pre-kindergarten kids.

Anpanman is a justice friend wearing a cape and flying in the sky like Superman. His item to help people is his face – it is made of bread! When he finds a starving person, he cuts off a part of his own face and gives it to him/her.. "Anpan" means bread with "an" which is Japanese bean jam.

The history of national star of Anpanman is very long. He was born as a picture book character in 1973. At first, it was popular among a group of kids. In 1988, this character was animated for a TV program, then he became a popular nationwide hero for kids. On the TV program, the original story was changed. It didn't include starving people but many characters based on meals. For example, a banana, pizza and a donut... Guinness book of world records admitted this program for the world's highest character count animation – 1,738. Of course now Anpanman is broadcasted all over Japan every Sunday morning.

Like other kids, my son likes him (his first word was "Anpanman") so my wife planned a trip to Anpanman sanctuary. It is the birthplace of the author of Anpanman where the Anpanman Museum was built.

We reserved the "Anpanman-train". Its walls, ceiling and seats are printed with Anpanman characters.






It took two and half hours by this train and 30 minutes by Ampanman bus to go to the Museum (the author's birthplace is rural).






The museum (left) and a hotel.



This hotel is fully furnished in Anpanman!



A settlement near the Museum also features Anpanman characters.

(Taking pictures of the Museum is allowed but posting them on blogs is prohibited.)
My son seemed very excited and satisfied by this hotel and museum. It was what my wife and I wanted.

(to be continued: the next entry will be about a hero of most Japanese adults.)

F. Scott Fitzgerald "Great Gatsby"

(This entry was written in 2006, soon after Haruki Murakami's Japanese translation was released.)

[Story]
In 1922, 30-year-old Nick moved to New York. He spent his life frugally, but lived in an area of many mansions. In such an area, Gatsby, who lived next door to Nick, had especially large land and a splendid house. Nick attended his party to know the mysterious neighborhood...

[My opinion]
This is a new Japanese translation by Haruki Murakami. With Murakami's many praises to this novel, I had been looking forward to reading it. In conclusion, this novel certainly met my great expectations.

The Japanese publisher of this new translation labeled this copy "a sorrowful and noble story". Such words fit this work more than other novels, I think. The vanity of luxurious parties, love affairs among men and women, unmeasured indiscretion of people who have power, sudden tragedy and Gatsby's rarefied will and behavior of his will – these factors were described by very classical sentences. This "classical" means high quality, neat and having value that may not be lost overtime. I think it depends on Fitzgerald's original sentences but also Haruki Murakami's spirited translation.

After a long interval, I encountered an overseas novel which I now want to read many times. The intrinsic value and power of this story are deserving.

After reading, I saw the book cover of this novel and felt very sad, even though I never gave heed to it before reading. It is merely a picture of a withered leaf floating in water. This difference of feeling may show the power of this novel.

Hannah Arendt "Eichmann in Jerusalem"

He was a man who proceeded the Nazis' Jewish extermination plan. He escaped from Germany to Argentina after WWII, was then captured by Israeli Mossad, and was executed in Jerusalem. I had limited knowledge about Adolf Eichman, before reading this book.

This book is the record of Eichman's Nazi work, his Jerusalem court trials and Arendt's observation.

After I finished reading this book, at first, I felt sorry for Eichman, partly. He read Zionist's books, was impressed, and seriously considered the extraordinary plan to move Jewish people from Germany and Europe to Madagascar and establish their nation. He felt bad to see the execution of Jewish people. "I moved Jewish people to concentration camps by my boss's command. I only obeyed the command." said Eichman repeatedly in Jerusalem courts. I think it may be true.

On the other hand, his loyal attitude is a good example for workers especially in organizations, I think. Normal organizations don't command murder or execution, but there is a possibility they might command some illegal actions. What do we do when in such a situation?

Arendt comments that Eichman deserves the death penalty in any situation. My conclusion hasn't been decided yet.


My viewpoints points of this book are as follows:

Eichman's position wasn't very high. The reason why his position became more important was that the Jewish problem gradually became more important in Nazi ideology. On this point, I think that many other people are to be punished.

In Germany and her occupying nations, Jewish organizations became the "Nazi's tool". For example, 103,000 Jewish people were moved to an execution concentration camp by the support of the Jewish council. High class Jewish people were the exception, however, they were in "insensible accomplices", Arendt said. I may also be an "insensible accomplices" in some situations without noticing.

There were many variations of responses to the Nazis' Jewish policy in Europe. Danish government clerks told Germany that they would quit their work if Germany asked them to commit any kind of Jewish suppression. In Italy, the government established an exception of the Jewish suppression law for the Jewish people who had family members who belonged to the Fascist Party. The rule covered most of Italian Jewish people. Bulgaria even turned down Jewish Badges for six months. On the other hand, those who supported the Nazis' Jewish suppression in a full scale were the eastern peoples (Ukrainians, Lithuanians, and some Russians), even though Nazis thought them also to be lower human beings. In Romania, Jewish people were killed by suffocation by stuffing up to 5,000 people in cargo trains as the trains travelled around the same railroads. Sometimes the bodies were then displayed at Jewish butcher shops.
Why were there such differences? The book didn't have the answer. I understand that this book isn't for thinking over this question, so if I find a book about this problem, I want to read it.

It took more time to read than usual this book because the sentences were difficult to read smoothly. I don't know the reason why is either the original sentences were difficult or the translation was hard. Anyway, this book deserves such time.

Gran Torino

[story] A ex-Korean war soldier Walt Kowalski spent his life in solitude because of the death of his wife and conflicts with his sons. His only pleasure is his 72 Ford Gran Torino. One day, an Asian Hmong family moved next door. Walt, who was a racist, didn't like this situation, but communication between the two began by accident...

[my impression] I don't hesitate to admire the director Clint Eastwood. This is a masterpiece, not only the part of describing the importance of communication between different culture and the question of "What can I do when I am elderly?", but also the deeply impressive ending. It was not heavier than "Million Dollar Baby", but this work also has heavy a "true theme" after the middle part which features a heart warming scene. At the ending, I felt a deep resonance and I was moved. Eastwood's work always leaves an impression on me. Because of this work, I ranked him up at the top of my director's ranking.

After a brief interval of my appreciation, I felt that Eastwood asked me "What can I do when I am elderly?" I'm 39 now, which means that I am not a man like Tao (a Hmong boy who learned many things from Walt), but a man like Walt. In the rest of my life, what will I hand over to younger people, including my son? Will I get it right about incidents involving me like Walt? In my everyday life, I don't think about such a theme. This film gave me that theme.

Rwanda's Genocide and their population pressure from Jared Diamond "Collapse"

I read this book again. (My former memo: "Twilight at Easter", "One island, two peoples, two histories" and "Martha's Vineyard Island") And I would like to write down another part of the book; Chapter 10 "Malthus in Africa: Rwanda's Genocide" The author Jared Diamond says his theory as follows in this chapter:

Rwanda (and neighboring Brundi)'s 1994 genocide is the second biggest massacre, per population since 1950s, next to Cambodia. There are many presume statistics but many people say the death rate was 10% of the entire population of Rwanda.

Why did many people kill neighborhoods suddenly? Generally speaking, the main factor was the hatred between Hutu and Tutsi (and the ex-host country Belgium's policy to make it). However, we can't attribute all topics to this factor. In the northwest area of Rwanda, Hutu people killed Hutu people. And in other areas, with decreasing Tutsi population, Hutu killed Hutu people. Why?

Admitting this hatred factor and many other factors, additionally, Diamonds mentions Rwanda's population explosion and the destruction of environment as a result of this explosion. In short, high population growth made an agricultural land quite smaller per person. My question was "Is it true killing neighborhoods because of such a reason?"

In Rwanda, after their independence, the government continued their conventional agriculture method and didn't try an innovation to enhance productivity. They also didn't go ahead with family planning. The author's friend found this proceeded environmental destruction in 1984. He saw the lack of basic and important agricultural methods: the whole country land was like banana orchids, not in terraced fields but ordinary fields along the steep land (it was a danger for the fields to be flushed away by heavy rain), not aerating the soil by covering it with grass (which is bad for soil).

As a result, the population density of Rwanda and Brundi is the world's highest, the worst of Africa, ten times that of neighboring Tanzania. Other highly populated countries, such as Holland and Belgium use highly efficient agriculture and have other industries. Bangladesh is transferring from a conventional agricultural method to the new "Green Revolution" method. But Rwanda didn't change their method.


Rwanda's agricultural land per person was 0.09 acres (360 square meters) in 1988 and 0.07 acres (280 square meters) in 1993. In the state of Montana in the USA, one family needs over 40 acres of land. So, you can understand the seriousness regarding the lack of Rwanda's land.

I say it again, the author doesn't say that the population explosion is the only reason for Rwanda's genocide. If this is true, genocide would occur in Holland and Belgium (in Bangladesh, genocide occurred - smaller than Rwanda), but it hasn't. In less densely populated countries - the Third Reich of German and Cambodia - people experienced genocide. However, along with other factors, population explosion can be a big factor of genocide. It is the author's conclusion.

In my opinion, the author's theory gave me some convincing explanation to my question "Why did such a tragedy happen?" after seeing the movie "Hotel Rwanda" and reading "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda" by Philip Gourevitch. But this tragedy is still beyond my imagination. I want to understand it, I need to, but I don't understand.

My 2010 resolutions

1. Health

Take no day off due to catching a cold.

Concrete plan: I will go to my fitness club 1.5times a week on average. Sleeping over 7 hours every day.


2. Learn cooking more

Concrete plan: Learn how to two cook meals.

I can cook only five menu items to help my wife who looks after our three-year-old son. I have to learn how to cook more.


3. Begin to make my ideal room

Concrete plan: One of my dreams is to make my ideal room. It will be a paradise in which I can enjoy reading books, listening to music and appreciating movies. This year, I purchase my family's own house instead of a rental flat, so I can start my idea. To begin with, I will select good speakers for my PC, which is like a juke box with thousands digital tunes, a HD Display and a high-spec PC for editing my son's HD movies.


4. Select one theme and study it for this year

Concrete plan: I will make summary sheets of this study and show them to my friends (sorry, in Japanese)

I studied the Japanese government tax system and the amount I pay and the government uses. This year, I still haven't decide the theme, however, I want to study something appropriately help my political vote or my job (I am a consultant of practical using / improving / constructing call centers.)


5. Be able to play a new tune on piano

Concrete plan: I will upload my playing to the web.


6. Keep TOEIC score above 800 and 400 for the listening section

I would like to maitain my English ability and improve listening ability (last year, I got 370 listening score in 820 total score.)


7. Reform my website (Japanese Version)

Concrete Plan: I will update all "under construction" pages except music, movies and books critics.