Japanese Youngsters Scream on Mayday

Hi, everyone!! How's your holiday? It's 3:50 pm here in Japan and time to deliver my today's column:

"Don't throw away nonpermanent employees!!" "Pay overtime wages!!" "Pay the amount with which we can live!" "Don't rake off!!"

A demonstration by nonpermanent employees, mainly youngsters, was staged in Tokyo, Shinjuku on April 30 that was one day before Mayday. Japanese mass media reported it.

The Japanese youngsters who are said to be quiet have finally started to show their anger standing together. Many of them are dispatched workers or so called freeters (kind of part-time workers).

Current Japan's economy is largely supported by those who belong to dispatched workers or freeters, but their treatments are cruel.

In the article about this topic of Asahi newspaper today, there was an opinion of 50s man who lives in a park, "Recently, many youngsters have come to me to ask them to stay here one after another," He continued, "The life between living outside and not is getting near."

Thank you for visiting and have a blissful day!!

P.S. I am listing my debut volume, "Falling Japan ~On The Verge of Bankruptcy and Destruction" on ebay. Please take a look at the auction page.

The Reason Why Japan's "Companies" are Reviving

Hi, everyone!! How's your weekend? It's getting warm here. Okay, it's 7:13 pm and time to deliver my today's column:

Companies in Japan, especially big firms, are starting to talk tough. They boast the management efforts to make their businesses firm. However, it will be true that their efforts are concentrated on the hard reduction of labor cost that is skeptical thinking of the law.

Asahi newspaper reported today that Hitachi is under query that they may have done deceptive direct employment.

Reportedly, a factory of Hitachi has almost thrown away the labor management of contract workers who were changed from dispatched employees at the same employment agency. The wages and working conditions were same as before. It is said that Worker Dispatch Law is about to lose the meaning.

Yes, Hitachi is a well known company, but even this sort of company is using almost unlawful ways to reduce the cost and maximize the profit. That's why the stock index is getting strong, but consumer price will not get strong. Money does not run from companies to individual citizens.

Under this crazy condition, it may be difficult to complain some youngsters who say with no hope, "Workers are losers."

Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful day!

P.S. I am listing my debut volume, "Falling Japan ~On The Verge of Bankruptcy and Destruction" on ebay. Please take a look at the auction page.

Behind Statistics, What's Going on in Japan?

Hello, everybody in the world! It is 11:20 am here in Japan. I am gonna deliver today's column:

Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfares announced that current 20s-30s generation would be able to get pension (employee pension) more than 300.000 yen even though the low birth rate goes on as they expect. Hokkaido newspaper reported it today.

To put it simply, 99.9% of Japanese youngsters will never believe it. And furthermore, the article mentioned that the Ministry prospected that real wages will keep going up by 1.5%. How ridiculous! Their calculation said that the average wages of men after tax will be 620.000 yen per month in 2041 when current 30s reach 65 years old. Please somebody, call doctors!! Bring the government officials in their department to ER!! Soon!!

Whew...I cannot understand them, totally. Yesterday, I wrote about youngsters who have lost motivation to get ahead in society. Youngsters are completely fed up with the rotten society. How can the youngsters get motivated healthily? Fake and misleading information is enough!!

Oh, it may be, probably...possible that the dubious increase of wages in the future based on the ridiculous calculation is public declaration of bankruptcy that will cause hyperinflation...If so, the average wages will increase though it never means the true growth. Wow... Of course, I hope not...strongly...

Thank you for visiting and have a great day!

P.S. I am listing my debut volume, "Falling Japan ~On The Verge of Bankruptcy and Destruction" on ebay. Please take a look at the auction page.

Lost Motivation, What are Japanese High School Students Feeling in Current Japan?

Hi, everyone in the world! How're ya doing? It is 3:30 pm here in Japan. Please enjoy today's column as follows:

"We don't need to get ahead..." That is the typical opinion of current Japanese high school students. Mainichi Newspaper reported on April 24 that it was found that the motivation to get ahead in Japanese high school students is low, according to an investigation for motivation of high school students in America, China, South Korea, and Japan.

One of the questions was, "Do you want to succeed in the world?". The percentage of students who answered, "Yes, I strongly think so." was as follows: 34.4% in China, 22.9% in Korea, 22.3% in America, 8% in Japan.

I can quite understand this situation. People, especially, Japanese youngsters are quite suffering and struggling under a stodgy society. They are sensitive enough to know that current society and coming future are quite different from the past Japan where relatively majority of citizens could live positively by getting a wave of steadily growing economy.

When youngsters start to give up for their futures, it will be the time for the country to slip into a melancholy decline.

P.S. Having said that like above, actually, I don't think that Japanese youngsters are totally paralyzed. I can feel some buds in the depth of their mind that may be next theme of my second book.

Thank you for visiting and have a nice day!

P.S. I am listing my debut volume, "Falling Japan ~On The Verge of Bankruptcy and Destruction" on ebay. Please take a look at the auction page.

Today's Column from Japan:Towards a Beautiful Country?

Current Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe is setting a policy called, "Towards a beautiful country". However, many cases that are opposite to the policy are swirling around.

Today's case is one of them. It was found that a well-known firm dealing with frozen food, Katokichi, was suspected that they had been doing fake round transactions just on bills for 6 years until 2006. The total amount is said to be more than a couple of ten billion yen.

Umm...This sort of cases is no more surprising to Japanese because it's been happening quite often recently.

One of the problems that makes Japanese youngsters headache in finding a job is that they have to find a company that is earning, "ethically".

How about in your country?

Thank you for visiting and have a nice day!

P.S. I am listing my debut volume, "Falling Japan ~On The Verge of Bankruptcy and Destruction" on ebay. Please take a look at the auction page.

Farmers in Australia Furious Over Common Sense of Japanese Public Servant

Hi, everyone in the world! It is around 3:50 pm here in Japan. This is the second column today:

Recently, public servants in Japan have been disparaged by general Japanese citizens as tax eaters or unreasonably protected group. Those who lost words to them were not only Japanese but also Australian farmers.

According to an editorial in Nigata Nippo dated today, a Japanese government worker in Farm Ministry made Australian farmers angry over the extravagant treatments that they had to pay.

The editorial reported their comments, "Why business class though he is even not a minister? We paid a lot for restaurants or sightseeing excursions. Is it common in Japan?"

In the past, Ruth Benedict who was an American anthropologist mentioned about Japan that Japan has a culture of "shame". However, she may have missed observing the culture of government of Japan. To their shame, they don't have sense of money that they think it given from sky naturally although it is paid by general citizens.

When you notice the structure of Japan's society, you will know that why this country has the worst debt among all the developed countries.

Thank you for visiting and have a nice day!

P.S. I am listing my debut volume, "Falling Japan ~On The Verge of Bankruptcy and Destruction" on ebay. Please take a look at the auction page.

Today's Column From a Modern Japanese Samurai: Normal Before Being Mentally Ill--Why Did the Virginia Tech Shooter, Seung-Hui Cho get mental illness?

Hi, everyone! It is around 11:50 pm here in Japan. What's up? Here is my column today:

A couple of days have passed since aberrant shooting was done, and now, the images Seung-Hui Cho sent to NBC is controversial.

The aberrant way he took reminds us of the horrible terrorists of 9-11. They also used mass media fully to declare their curses to the society. What made them so mad?

It was said that Seung-Hui Cho was quite bullied in his school periods, and stayed at home a lot. And it can be guessed that he had been accumulating too much negative emotions. This negative clod must have distorted him gradually.

Seung-Hui Cho and terrorists must have been normal when they were born as well as other human beings. What they lacked along their ways is positive emotions that will let us know that living is not bad though tough.

Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful day!

P.S. I am listing my debut volume, "Falling Japan ~On The Verge of Bankruptcy and Destruction" on ebay. Please take a look at the auction page.

Be Blunt, A Prime Minister Who Took it Straight

Hi, everyone in the world! It is around 2:50 pm in Japan now. It is the time to deliver my today's column:

Ex-Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Koizumi recommended current Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe to be blunt. It seems that Mr. Koizumi encouraged Shinzo Abe not to care about the low approval rating so much when he said it. However, Mr. Shinzo Abe may have taken it at face value.

A city mayor in Nagasaki Prefecture was barbarously shot and killed. With regard to the cruel tragedy, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a comment at his office, "I hope that the truth can be unfolded." Referring to comments made by top officials in both ruling and opposition parties, NishiNippon Newspaper blamed it in their editorial dated today saying, "His remark was too light."

The reason why general Japanese citizens, especially youngsters, are disappointed very much at the politics may be because the politicians cannot empathize with suffering citizens at all.

Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful day!

P.S. I am listing my debut volume, "Falling Japan ~On The Verge of Bankruptcy and Destruction" on ebay. Please take a look at the auction page.

An Afternoon Column from Japanese Modern Samurai: Is It Unique to Japanese?

Hi, everyone in the world!! How are you doing? It is 5:47 pm here in Japan.

Surfing on internet in Japanese website, I found an interesting article that said, "There are many people (Japanese) who do not buy products from the affiliated links."

It seems that many of them tend to buy the products not entering the shopping sites from the links on blogs intentionally though they came to know the items on the websites.

The article said that it may be because of kind of jealousy thinking that they do not want the owner of the blogs to earn money…

It seems ridiculous, but I can slightly understand as a Japanese. I mean that I know the personality of Japanese (I don't like the village mind, though). It can be seen in a proverb, "The nail that sticks out gets banged down."

Yep, it may be one of the reasons why I feel more free and comfortable on ebay, and the open-mindedness will encourage the creativity.

Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful day!

P.S. I am listing my debut volume, "Falling Japan ~On The Verge of Bankruptcy and Destruction" on ebay. Please take a look at the auction page.

No Sweets! Watch Out!!

Good morning everyone! How're ya doing? It is 11:50 am here in Japan now.

I am just a beginner on ebay, and I've not got any bid yet… This morning, finding a message to my auction, I was just a little bit happy to think that a person got interested in my auction, but it was just a strange message…

The person asked me to help him/her to transfer MONEY! I know that it will be a highly possibly scam. The person mentioned me that I can get some money as a commission.

As I have known and heard, there seem to be a lot of tricks on ebay. We've got to be careful always!

Thanks a lot for visiting!! Have a nice day or good night!!

Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful day!

P.S. I am listing my debut volume, "Falling Japan ~On The Verge of Bankruptcy and Destruction" on ebay. Please take a look at the auction page.

A Nightly Column from Japan: Another Shooting Tragedy that Happened in the Country Where Gun Ownership is Prohibited

Good evening, everyone in the world! How's it going? It is around 11 pm here in Japan, and now is the time of nightly column from Japan:

A shooting tragedy that a city mayor in Nagasaki prefecture of Japan was shot by a gang cadre occurred in Japan in the next day of Virginia Tech Shooting that horrified the United States and whole country.

Gun possession is illegal in Japan, but the law is not perfect, especially for gang groups.

As I mentioned in the last entry, to control gun by law will not work as expected though it will decrease the possibility of crimes related to gun. Force cannot win always.

The stability of society is up to each individual's mind that will be bolstered up by each person's happiness.

What is the happiness? Umm... It will not lie in the external world of us, but it's inherent in us. We have to just discover it in the travel of life.

It's not easy, but if possible, the sooner the better. The sooner we could find it, the sooner we will reach the happiness.

Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful day!

P.S. I am listing my debut volume, "Falling Japan ~On The Verge of Bankruptcy and Destruction" on ebay. Please take a look at the auction page.

Samurai's Daytime Column From Japan: Human is NOT a Computer. What Can Be Thought From the Tragedy of Virginia Tech Shooting?

Hello everyone. It is 12:10 pm here in Japan. I want to talk about the horrible tragedy of Virginia Tech Shooting today.

I was so sad and scared to know the tragedy of the shooting this morning. As a general Japanese view, I thought, "Oh, again, gun…gun…gun shooting. Sometimes, this happens in America where gun ownership is prevalent."

Of course, I can never know the motivation of the criminal, and it will be difficult for me to say that if American society had a gun control policy by law, this sort of tragedy did not happen because the criminal may have chosen another way to cause the tragedy anyway though the probability of tragedies may be lowered.

To find a way to prevent this kind of tragedies is not easy, but there is a good grass-roots way to reduce the crimes from our society. It is that each of us has to be happier to live.

In this sense, "happy" does not mean an effortless life where human beings can get food from heaven sitting down without doing anything, but it is kind of generous heart that will bring cooperativeness and compassion to our society.

Of course, we cannot just smile always. It rains or we have stormy days sometimes. That's natural. It is the emotion that we own. However, if we have fine days, we can be more generous naturally. We have capacity to smile in fine days more than in rainy days. So, let's take turns.

Let's try to drop a happy seed even a tiny one if we are in the fine days. Anything will be all right such as giving a smile to people or dropping a happy word somewhere like blog. And let's try to keep the happiness more than 50% everyday in the whole world. If so, it will be more difficult for us to live unhappily because we are a creature affected by environments.

And someday, the seeds may grow strongly and brilliantly to embrace us gently.

This is a project to make the most beautiful flower in human history ever bloom that every one of us can join anytime, anywhere for free.

Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful day!

P.S. I am listing my debut volume, "Falling Japan ~On The Verge of Bankruptcy and Destruction" on ebay. Please take a look at the auction page.

Samurai's Daytime News from Japan: Say good-bye to "Hello Work"

Hi, everybody! It is around 3 pm here in Japan. How are you doing? Now is the time of Samurai News from Japan. Please enjoy reading the following news:

Unemployment office called "Hello Work" run by Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has been making resistance to the privatization. Sankei Shinbun (newspaper) reported it in their column today, April 16, 2007.

For Japanese, it is quite common that government workers in Japan are unreasonably treated well and protected by government, and this policy by government is one of the biggest reasons why Japan have accumulated huge debt that is the worst standard in developed countries and keep upgrading the worst record.

It is reported that the unemployment office is run by 23,000 government workers in Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. The total budget allocated to the unemployment office is 190,000,000,000 yen. And their job performance is terribly low. The newspaper said that the rate for them to let the job seekers successfully get the job is just around 20%.

This is the truth why Japan's society is filled with sense of deadlock that foreigners cannot feel it just observing from the recovery of stock price of Japan.

A titanic that is burdened with rotten stones is about to get a big crush. Japanese general citizens are feeling the air.

Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful day!

P.S. I am listing my debut volume, "Falling Japan ~On The Verge of Bankruptcy and Destruction" on ebay. Please take a look at the auction page.

Unpaid Total Amount of Life Insurances, 28.4 billion yen

38 Life Insurance Companies in Japan had not paid 28.4 million yen from 2001 to 2006. Japan newspapers reported it.

The investigation has not finished yet, and it is said that the total amount will go up more than the amount reported.

Financial Services Agency will highly possibly impose an administrative punishment on them.

Corporate scandals are flooding in Japan. This is just one of the cases. It is true that private companies should try to earn a lot of profits, but it seems that they start to lose the ethics.

I suppose that if even a tenth of the efforts that the workers in the insurance companies made when they got contracts was poured to their customers AFTER they sold, the matters like this time were not supposed to happen.

I cannot deny that this sort of corporate scandal with their having lost the ethics has eroded the society of Japan. And the Japanese youngsters are quite fed up with these problems.

What is ridiculous is to get the profits losing something important instead.

Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful day!

P.S. I am listing my debut volume, "Falling Japan ~On The Verge of Bankruptcy and Destruction" on ebay. Please take a look at the auction page.

An Opening Ceremony

I am starting this blog to celebrate myself on having debuted as a writer.

Basically, I'm going to write social matters happening in Japan or things that can be seen and thought in the matters from the perspective of a general Japanese citizen in his late 20s.

Now, Japan is in a dynamic period of transition that has started to cause many problems. I want to look into them and provide some positive lights or learning materials for you.

I hope that this blog can contribute to make a better world even a little by learning a lot of things together.

Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful day!


P.S. I am listing my debut volume, "Falling Japan ~On The Verge of Bankruptcy and Destruction" on ebay. Please take a look at the auction page.