JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Financial Advisor
- Select Asset Management KK, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥100,000 ~ ¥999,999 Paid Training Commission Based
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- Corporate Business English Trainers
- ACT Systems, Inc.（株式会社アクト・システムズ）, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥269,500 ~ ¥280,000 / Month
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- English Instructor (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe)
- Berlitz Japan, Inc. (ベルリッツ・ジャパン株式会社), Kansai
- Salary: ¥125,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month
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Seiharinokaze
I have no intention to disparage American culture, though I prefer MOS Burger to MacDonalds, Sora/Riku to Donald/Goofy.
But it's true such polemic writers as Benjanmin Fulford are giving some influence on the people here in Japan on how to think about America, apart from the question of whether what he argues is true or not. We began to see America quite objectively detaching ourselves from any sense of shared destiny.
Posted in: Anti-Americanism at record levels worldwide, report shows
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Seiharinokaze
Soothing the dead who died a very tragic death seems to have a dual meaning here. To sympathize heartily the dead souls for their cruel suffering. And at the same time we may be praying though perhaps unconsciously that they will not haunt or cast an evil influence over the place. That's what crosses my mind whenever I see a memorial site is set up for some dire tragedy.
Posted in: Praying at Akihabara
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Seiharinokaze
some14some
It's not a display to project any good image. But true it's sort of a damage control by soothing the victims' souls. Perhaps drinks are easy and handy to get in the neighborhood. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with thirst of the newly dead people.
Posted in: Praying at Akihabara
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Seiharinokaze
Is Japan's perspective on her security at in this region always the same as that of the US? Dangers that Washington identifies about Iran, for example, can really be fully shared by Japan? In a sense, doesn't Japanese leadership share some sympathy for American military leaders?
http://www.slate.com/id/2176122/
Posted in: Japan unlikely to follow U.S. on defense
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Seiharinokaze
apecNetworks
Thanks for your reply. But doesn't the U.S. know it? It's overdue in the Master Plan?
Though I do not necessarily agree with the nuclear option, I rather tend to share what Mr. Ohta thinks about this country. He says Japan is a dependency on the U.S. rather than her ally. Dumping the basics of diplomacy and security to the U.S. is the root cause for dereliction and corruption of the bureaucracy and politicians of this country. However I doubt if letting Japan be serious about herself is also in the Master Plan.
Posted in: Japan unlikely to follow U.S. on defense
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Seiharinokaze
OsssanULTRA
VoXman said it right by pointing out your argument in a different light. "As long as Japan depends on the U.S. for its security, it is FORCED to share the dangers in the region as identified by the U.S." Being forced to share something without being serious about it has been the politics of this country.
Posted in: Japan unlikely to follow U.S. on defense
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Seiharinokaze
apecNetworks
So you admit and just watch how Yoshida Doctrine continues? How do you think about Mr. Ohta Nobumasa?
Posted in: Japan unlikely to follow U.S. on defense
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Seiharinokaze
OsssanULTRA
As long as you let someone invincibly strong guard you, how can you be serious about your own safety?
Posted in: Japan unlikely to follow U.S. on defense
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Seiharinokaze
Reading the possible perspectives this column projected for any foreseeable future of this region, I am somewhat at a loss why Japan has to increase its military spending. The dangers that Washington identifies within the region cannot be fully shared by Japan as long as Japan depends on the U.S. for its security.
Posted in: Japan unlikely to follow U.S. on defense
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Seiharinokaze
Sorry I may have digressed. Anyway "Goshintai" such swords as housed in the shrine were never used during the wartime. The craftsmanship of the sword-smith in the film, the military action of Japan during WW2 and the worship object of Yasukuni have nothing to do with each other in themselves. But I agree we should see the movie.
Posted in: 'Yasukuni' opens under heavy security; gets mixed reaction
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Seiharinokaze
To amerijap:
It was not a one-way hostility. Japan had crucial interests in China in terms of trade and commerce as well as vested interests in the leased territories incomparable to those of other western countries as necessitated by geographical vicinity and resulted from the historical development. The Washington Conference which advocated international cooperation among its signatory countries with regard to China only let her disregard international rules and get more rude and hostile to foreign countries, above all to Japan. The U.S. instead of going by the spirit of the conference was patronizingly indulgent to China. This in fact let her take a more defiant attitude than ever neglecting to abide by international standards to the point Japan couldn't stand.
I'm not saying about China's current nationalism. I mean the one in the 1920's as the background of Japan's military involvement in China. The present weird nationalism of China against Japan is another matter. Perhaps it's the result of CCP's policy shift after the end of the Cold War. Anti-Japan ideologue might have been convenient to preserve the otherwise rather precarious legitimacy of CCP. In this sense Yasukuni has become a rather good political diversion for China after the Berlin Wall collapsed.
Technically or theologically speaking, the sword as the object of worship housed in Yasukuni has no bearing on what Director Li Ying implied in the film or what Mr. Kariya the sword-smith featured in the movie forged as Yasukuni-To (靖国刀). The objects of worship, Goshintai (御神体) in Yasukuni shrine are "Kagami (御鏡)" and "Tsurugi (御剣)" quite common objects of worship in Shinto shrines nationwide since ancient times including Atsuta-Jingu and Isonokami-Jingu. Tsurugi is different from what is generally known as a Japanese sword (日本刀). It has nothing to do with pride or harakiri suicide, still less with atrocity and death.
Both figures as the party leaders who actually fought with Japan perhaps have the right to say something about it too. And yet they would care less, I should think.
Posted in: 'Yasukuni' opens under heavy security; gets mixed reaction
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Seiharinokaze
It's not about the U.S. military strategy after WWII. It's about the unrealistically friendly attitude of the U.S. toward China in 1920's after the Washington Conference that tempted Chinese nationalism to go out of control and ultimately induced Japan's military involvement in Manchuria.
The Washington Conference aimed for cooperation among the western powers including Japan on how to deal with China in 1920's. And China was expected to behave responsibly in compliance with international rules and standards so that China might achieve her aims (such as the revision of unequal treaties) without discordance with other countries just as Japan had achieved by modernizing herself.
However the spirit of the Washington Conference was disregarded by China herself who thought the scheme of the conference as an occasion to claim her rights and disdain foreign powers outright rather than to try to abide by international rules. The U.S. also overlooked it and chose to ingratiate herself with China whereas gave the cold shoulder to Japan who had already crucial interests in China incomparable to other western countries and yet tried to conduct scrupulously according to the spirit of the conference. As a result it helped China's hysterically hyper-tense nationalism get more rampant with never ending boycotts of made-in-Japan products. On the other hand the Soviets warmly aided CCP to stir up anti-Japan violence. These were the background of Manchurian Incident of 1931, the eruption as it were of sword symbolism this movie tries to imply. Director Li Ying with all his critical view might as well have thought of how the sword had to be unsheathed too. Then would he wonder if Mao and Chiang Kaishek could care less about Yasukuni than any of their descendants and Li himself?
Posted in: 'Yasukuni' opens under heavy security; gets mixed reaction
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Seiharinokaze
Perhaps such nostalgia might be more aptly termed as the Tokyo Trial syndrome or something. In Japan's view or even some others' too, her initiation of military involvement in China could rather be outlined as follows: By having the Anglo-Japanese Alliance cancelled, the U.S. enforced on Japan the Washington Conference system (sort of internationalism of "Let's share China equally"), which the U.S. didn't observe herself yet trying to get into China's good book thus letting Chinese nationalism go out of control to the point which was more than Japan could stand. And quite nicely Japan was bogged down in China's civil war for the benefit of someone who would take control of the whole country eventually.
Director Li Ying might as well have shed a bit of light on this historical viewpoint in his movie, if he is a professed Japanophile (he says he is 愛日 rather than just 親日) who tried to present in-depth understanding of what the sword symbolism of Yasukuni as suggested in the film had to do with China. Probably Mao would take scarcely any stock of Yasukuni though knowingly.
Posted in: 'Yasukuni' opens under heavy security; gets mixed reaction
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Seiharinokaze
Everybody knows that CCP utilizes nationalism as its centripetal force to rule China. And it's been quite successful. Compared with decades ago, the Chinese people are now freer about how they speak and behave. By being enabled to give full play to their entrepreneurship and talent, they are getting richer and seemingly happier. No doubt theirs is a better government than its predecessors. So scarcely any reason for them to complain.
What bothers, however, or what feels weird to outsiders is the fact that they don't have voting rights yet. Suffrage was realized in 1925 in Japan, 57 years after the feudal system ended. In China no universal suffrage has been realized yet nearly 100 years after Qing collapsed. Does nationalism allow or blind it? Bottom line seems more aptly to be: No citizens exist in China but only the supreme ruler (CCP) and its people. It is their tradition and culture. The scheme of things don't change out there for thousands of years. So they may think as there're no political rights even for Han Chinese, what's the big deal about Tibetans?
Posted in: China urges 'calm' as anti-Western protests continue
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Seiharinokaze
Well they might think that they continue to import treasury bonds/dollars with green ink on them that might become junk any day and poisoned securities too and export, you know, daily necessities at cheap prices to places where you go on a spending spree endlessly without saving and invest or even are forced to invest by having loans. It's not so bad for Bush or anyone on the hill to be not as blunt.
Posted in: China demands apology from CNN after commentator calls Beijing 'bunch of goons and thugs'