Yuichiro Miura--the same man who went down Mt. Everest on skiis when he was a younger daredevil--succeeded for the third time in climbing to the peak of Mt. Everest. He is now 80 years plus 7 months old, and is a veteran of heart surgery, broken bones, and joint pain. That makes him the poster boy (one of many, I believe) for challenging one's limits.
In a phone call to his daughter in Tokyo, here's what Mr. Miura had to say:
“I made it!” Miura said over the phone. “I never imagined I could make it to the top of Mount Everest at age 80. This is the world’s best feeling, although I’m totally exhausted. Even at 80, I can still do quite well.”
2013年5月24日金曜日
2013年5月17日金曜日
One more, and I'm done
Please remember these few facts about the now notorious Mr. Hashimoto, Mayor of Osaka:
1. Osaka is not a country. This mayor does not make foreign policy. He in no way speaks for Japan.
2. Mr. Hashimoto is chief of a splinter party. He is not a member of the ruling coalition, another reason why he does not speak for Japan.
With these points in mind, let us now sweep him into the dustbin of history and get on with real life.
1. Osaka is not a country. This mayor does not make foreign policy. He in no way speaks for Japan.
2. Mr. Hashimoto is chief of a splinter party. He is not a member of the ruling coalition, another reason why he does not speak for Japan.
With these points in mind, let us now sweep him into the dustbin of history and get on with real life.
Here's sand in your eye?
When a public figure as canny as Osaka's former mayor says something so totally removed from common sense as what Toru Hashimoto has said about the "needs" of military men, past and present, one has to ask why? It's like a street fighter throwing a handful of sand in his opponents' eyes to keep them busy while he gets his dirty work done.
What are we being distracted from seeing? Could it be that, all over the world, there are military people in places where they do not belong? Could it be that, all over the world, there are women being treated as conveniences rather than as human beings?
Look around. What are we not seeing when we are distracted by outrageous words?
What are we being distracted from seeing? Could it be that, all over the world, there are military people in places where they do not belong? Could it be that, all over the world, there are women being treated as conveniences rather than as human beings?
Look around. What are we not seeing when we are distracted by outrageous words?
2013年5月16日木曜日
Wake Up and Smell the Coffee
I am not going to dignify the ultra-rightist Ishin Kai's Mr. Hashimoto's remarks about soldiers and women by repeating them here. The point is, he is clueless about the basic issue: these military men (no mention of women in the military in the ultra-rightist lexicon) with their "unmet needs" should be home in their own countries, with their own friends and families, meeting their "needs" in socially-acceptable ways. They do not belong in Okinawa.
It's the 21st century, well past the age of colonizing foreign lands. It's time for foreign military personnel to wake up and smell the coffee--in their own homeland.
It's the 21st century, well past the age of colonizing foreign lands. It's time for foreign military personnel to wake up and smell the coffee--in their own homeland.
2013年5月5日日曜日
What, exactly, is TPP?
By now everyone in Japan has heard the acronym TPP, and we know the ruling party (and not its coalition partner) wants Japan to join, but no one seems to know what membership in it involves. According to the following excerpt from a report by an organization called Public Knowldedge, the lack of transparency is deliberate. More alarming, not everyone is excluded from the discussion--only We the People.
Does anyone out there really like the sound of "special interests" in the same sentence as "privileged access"?
Here's the salient part of the Public Knowledge commentary:
"The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement ("TPP") is a free trade agreement currently being negotiated by nine countries: The United States, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. Although the TPP covers a wide range of issues, this site focuses on the TPP's intellectual property (IP) chapter.
The TPP suffers from a serious lack of transparency, threatens to impose more stringent copyright without public input, and pressures foreign governments to adopt unbalanced laws.
Many of the same special interests that pushed for legislation like SOPA and PIPA have special access to this forum—including privileged access to the text as well as US negotiators."
Does anyone out there really like the sound of "special interests" in the same sentence as "privileged access"?
Here's the salient part of the Public Knowledge commentary:
"The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement ("TPP") is a free trade agreement currently being negotiated by nine countries: The United States, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. Although the TPP covers a wide range of issues, this site focuses on the TPP's intellectual property (IP) chapter.
The TPP suffers from a serious lack of transparency, threatens to impose more stringent copyright without public input, and pressures foreign governments to adopt unbalanced laws.
Many of the same special interests that pushed for legislation like SOPA and PIPA have special access to this forum—including privileged access to the text as well as US negotiators."
2013年4月26日金曜日
A Strange Thing to Say in Someone Else's Country
Isn't this a strange thing to say in the Japanese prefecture most dedicated to peace, in a country for which dialogue and win-win negotiations have traditionally triumphed over military bluster?
Japan learned a bitter, bitter lesson about military bluster some 60 years ago, while the American side hasn't seemed to learn a thing from Viet Nam, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc, etc. Instead of macho pep talks, maybe it is time for the US side to use the eyes and ears (of which there are two each) instead of the lone and ever-ready mouth.
It seems the US military is very much out of step with what most people in this part of the world are aiming for. When people really want peace, then peace is what they prepare for. Peaceful trade and tourism that includes China and Korea is what Okinawa lives by.
(for the full article, go to The Japan Times online)
Here's what the news says:
U.S. not backing down, Dempsey tells troops at Yokota
AP
Apr 26, 2013
America’s top military officer told U.S. troops based in Japan on Thursday that “the best way to avoid war is to prepare for it.”
Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, made the comments at Yokota Air Base amid heightened tensions in the region after repeated threats from North Korea.
In response, the U.S. has deployed an antiballistic missile battery to Guam, while the Japanese government has deployed Aegis-equipped cruisers and land-based missile interceptors around Tokyo.
While there has been a lull in rising hostility between the two Koreas in the past few days, prospects for dialogue dimmed after North Korea demanded the lifting of U.N. sanctions and the end of U.S.-South Korea military drills as conditions for resuming long-suspended talks aimed at defusing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
But Dempsey said the U.S. would continue military exercises with its allies.
“We’ll continue to do whatever exercises we need to do to make sure we have the right command and control, the right skills, the right collaboration, interoperability with our allies in the region in the event that there is a miscalculation,” he told the military personnel during the visit, his first to Japan since assuming his post in 2011.
Japan learned a bitter, bitter lesson about military bluster some 60 years ago, while the American side hasn't seemed to learn a thing from Viet Nam, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc, etc. Instead of macho pep talks, maybe it is time for the US side to use the eyes and ears (of which there are two each) instead of the lone and ever-ready mouth.
It seems the US military is very much out of step with what most people in this part of the world are aiming for. When people really want peace, then peace is what they prepare for. Peaceful trade and tourism that includes China and Korea is what Okinawa lives by.
(for the full article, go to The Japan Times online)
Here's what the news says:
U.S. not backing down, Dempsey tells troops at Yokota
AP
Apr 26, 2013
America’s top military officer told U.S. troops based in Japan on Thursday that “the best way to avoid war is to prepare for it.”
Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, made the comments at Yokota Air Base amid heightened tensions in the region after repeated threats from North Korea.
In response, the U.S. has deployed an antiballistic missile battery to Guam, while the Japanese government has deployed Aegis-equipped cruisers and land-based missile interceptors around Tokyo.
While there has been a lull in rising hostility between the two Koreas in the past few days, prospects for dialogue dimmed after North Korea demanded the lifting of U.N. sanctions and the end of U.S.-South Korea military drills as conditions for resuming long-suspended talks aimed at defusing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
But Dempsey said the U.S. would continue military exercises with its allies.
“We’ll continue to do whatever exercises we need to do to make sure we have the right command and control, the right skills, the right collaboration, interoperability with our allies in the region in the event that there is a miscalculation,” he told the military personnel during the visit, his first to Japan since assuming his post in 2011.
2013年4月18日木曜日
We like it. Why change it?
Editorials
Commentary
Reader Mail
Cartoons
This is from the Japan Times online. Serious business.
Editorials
LDP out to undermine Constitution
Apr 18, 2013
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party are stepping up a call for changing Article 96 of the Constitution, a clause designed to prevent an imprudent revision of the Constitution.
Their call shows that either they do not understand or they are deliberately ignoring the fundamental principle of modern constitutional politics, which is that a constitution is an important mechanism to prevent the power of the government from subjecting people to arbitrary policies or autocratic rule.
Article 96 says that amendments to the Constitution must be initiated by the Diet, through a concurring vote of two-thirds or more of all the members of each House, and then must be submitted to the people for ratification, which requires the affirmative vote of a majority of all votes cast at a special referendum. Mr. Abe and the LDP want to change the article so that amendments to the Constitution can be initiated with a concurring vote of a simple majority in each House.
Article 96 at present makes it difficult to change the Constitution. Its purpose is to prevent politicians and political parties from eliminating the Constitution’s most fundamental clause, which states that sovereignty rests with the people, and from weakening crucial constitutional rights — freedom of thought, speech and expression, the right to choose public officials, freedom of assembly and association, freedom from arbitrary arrests, etc.
The Japan Restoration Party supports the stance of Mr. Abe and the LDP on Article 96, and both parties are striving to win the coming Upper House election so that proconstitutional revision forces can win two-thirds or more of the Upper House seats to enable the Diet to initiate a revision of Article 96.
The current situation in which politicians and political parties are casually talking about changing Article 96 is highly dangerous. Citizens should be wary of the rhetoric and moves of these politicians and parties.
The argument that the Japanese Constitution is too difficult to revise is wrong. Constitutions of many developed countries including the United States include a mechanism that prevents haphazard constitutional revisions.
The LDP’s call for weakening Article 96 without officially making proposals in the Diet to change particular constitutional articles is just an act of public deception. The party’s draft constitution, which proposes changing the war-renouncing Article 9, enables Japan to deploy the “Defense Military” overseas for military actions almost without any restrictions. The draft also restricts freedom of assembly and association and freedom of speech and expression by prohibiting activities and organizations “that harm public interests and public order.” It even intrudes into the sphere of citizens’ private lives by saying that “family members must help each other.”
It cannot be emphasized too much that the LDP is trying to impose a constitution that runs counter to the principle of modern constitutional politics as well as postwar Japan’s no-war principle.
Commentary
Reader Mail
Cartoons
This is from the Japan Times online. Serious business.
Editorials
LDP out to undermine Constitution
Apr 18, 2013
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party are stepping up a call for changing Article 96 of the Constitution, a clause designed to prevent an imprudent revision of the Constitution.
Their call shows that either they do not understand or they are deliberately ignoring the fundamental principle of modern constitutional politics, which is that a constitution is an important mechanism to prevent the power of the government from subjecting people to arbitrary policies or autocratic rule.
Article 96 says that amendments to the Constitution must be initiated by the Diet, through a concurring vote of two-thirds or more of all the members of each House, and then must be submitted to the people for ratification, which requires the affirmative vote of a majority of all votes cast at a special referendum. Mr. Abe and the LDP want to change the article so that amendments to the Constitution can be initiated with a concurring vote of a simple majority in each House.
Article 96 at present makes it difficult to change the Constitution. Its purpose is to prevent politicians and political parties from eliminating the Constitution’s most fundamental clause, which states that sovereignty rests with the people, and from weakening crucial constitutional rights — freedom of thought, speech and expression, the right to choose public officials, freedom of assembly and association, freedom from arbitrary arrests, etc.
The Japan Restoration Party supports the stance of Mr. Abe and the LDP on Article 96, and both parties are striving to win the coming Upper House election so that proconstitutional revision forces can win two-thirds or more of the Upper House seats to enable the Diet to initiate a revision of Article 96.
The current situation in which politicians and political parties are casually talking about changing Article 96 is highly dangerous. Citizens should be wary of the rhetoric and moves of these politicians and parties.
The argument that the Japanese Constitution is too difficult to revise is wrong. Constitutions of many developed countries including the United States include a mechanism that prevents haphazard constitutional revisions.
The LDP’s call for weakening Article 96 without officially making proposals in the Diet to change particular constitutional articles is just an act of public deception. The party’s draft constitution, which proposes changing the war-renouncing Article 9, enables Japan to deploy the “Defense Military” overseas for military actions almost without any restrictions. The draft also restricts freedom of assembly and association and freedom of speech and expression by prohibiting activities and organizations “that harm public interests and public order.” It even intrudes into the sphere of citizens’ private lives by saying that “family members must help each other.”
It cannot be emphasized too much that the LDP is trying to impose a constitution that runs counter to the principle of modern constitutional politics as well as postwar Japan’s no-war principle.
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