mytest

Hello folks. On the road in Tokyo. But that’s no excuse to avoid sending a

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER
JANUARY 25, 2007

This week’s topics:
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1) IVAN HALL NOV 3 2006 JALT SPEECH ON DEBITO.ORG
2) ENDGAME FOR JAPAN’S QUEST FOR UNSC SEAT?
3) METROPOLIS ON INTERNATIONAL CHILD ABDUCTIONS
4) AP PRIMER ON J IMMIGRATION ISSUES
5) HUMOR…
a) How to deal with Japanese police ID checkpoints: have personalities.
b) Amorously noisy bathers cause trouble at onsen. Ban them too?
c) Yunohana’s “Japanese Only” sign copied into online video game.
d) First Debito.org Dejima Award: Town approves university only if no foreign students allowed

and finally…

“JAPANESE ONLY” T-SHIRTS ON SALE AGAIN AT DEBITO.ORG
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Collated by Arudou Debito (debito@debito.org)

Updates in real time on my blog at https://www.debito.org/index.php
(accessible when it’s not being inundated with hits
from cyberelements allegedly defending “freedom of speech”)

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1) IVAN HALL NOV 3 2006 JALT SPEECH ON DEBITO.ORG

Dr. Ivan P. Hall is author of seminal work CARTELS OF THE MIND (Norton 1997), which described the systematic ways Japanese “intellectual cartels” in influential sectors of thought transfer (the mass media, researchers, academia, cultural exchange, and law) shut out foreign influences as a matter of course.

It was he who coined the important phrase “academic apartheid”, he who inspired a whole generation of activists (myself included) to take up the banner against imbedded “guestism” in the gaijin community, and he who has been a great personal friend and encourager in many a dark hour when all seemed hopeless in the human rights arena.

Now in his seventies and entitled to rest on his laurels, we at JALT PALE proudly invited him to speak and bask in the glow of the next generation of activists.

He gave a marvellous speech in Kitakyushu on November 3, 2006. It is my pleasure to premiere the full text to the general public on debito.org:

https://www.debito.org/ivanhallPALE110306.htm

—————EXCERPTS BEGIN———————–
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[By writing CARTELS] I wanted to advertise the striking parallel to Japan’s much better known market barriers. In an era of incessant trade disputes, the foreign parties seeking to open Japan’s closed market were for the most part unaware of this complementary set of “softer” intellectual barriers that powerfully reinforce those “harder” economic barriers. They do so by impeding the free flow of dialogue and disputation with the outside world, and through their encouragement of a defensive, insularist attitude on the Japanese side

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What about the attitude involved here? The way of thinking behind the exclusionary system of 1893 was best stated by Inoue Testujiro, the well-known Tokyo University philosopher and Dean of the Faculty of Letters in the 1890s, reflecting back on that time:

“In principle, professors at Japanese universities should all be Japanese. Accordingly, we managed to dismiss the foreign instructors from the Faculties of Medicine, Law, and Science, so that there was not one of them left. Every field should be taught exclusively by Japanese staff–the number of foreigners should gradually be reduced and ultimately eliminated altogether.” [Cartels of the Mind, p. 102]

Foreigners, Inoue continued, were to be hired only for the one thing they presumably could do better than the Japanese–to teach their own native languages.

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One university trend clearly in sync with Japan’s rightward ideological swing is the now well-advanced barring of native speakers from the decades-long practice in many places of having them–as enrichment to their language instruction–convey some substantive knowledge about their own countries and cultures as well.

One of the leaders of university English language instruction in Japan is the Komaba campus at Todai, where there is great distress about the way PhD-holding foreign scholars are now strictly forbidden to digress from the new textbook. I have a copy here–it’s called On Campus–and it’s full of lessons on subjects like “Walking off Your Fat,” “Coffee and Globalization,” or “Why is Mauna Kea Sacred to Native Hawaiian People?” Not only are these teachers being forced to serve up something close to intellectual pap, but, more significantly, a pap that is devoid of any reference to the history, society, or culture of the English-speaking countries themselves–matters which I understand are deliberately downplayed if not off limits.

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There is one area, however, where those of us fighting these issues are constrained only by our own lack of intellectual resourcefulness, honesty, and courage–and that is precisely this crucial arena of ideas and public persuasion. This means, more than anything else, writing–and, above all, the writing of books, for the simple reason that only books can be so thorough, so long-lasting, and so widely disseminated and reviewed (as long as you and/or your publisher work hard to promote it).

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In a word, what I am urging here is a much more active “protesting against the protest against protest”– if you follow me! That is to say, a much more active counter-attack on the apologia for continued discrimination– including all those special pleadings, culturalist copouts, and wacky non-sequiturs (some of them even from the judicial bench) that have gone without challenge for so long as to have gained the status of common wisdom– thereby inflicting real damage to the cause.

—————EXCERPTS END————————-

Read it all to see how the history of thought unfolded towards the foreign community in Japan, afresh from a world-class scholar and an eyewitness.
https://www.debito.org/ivanhallPALE110306.htm

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2) ENDGAME FOR JAPAN’S QUEST FOR UNSC SEAT?

I have the feeling that Japan may be approaching checkmate on getting its permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Using the appointment of Ban Ki Moon as the new UN Secretary General as an opportunity to put some wind behind their sails, the GOJ has gotten their ducks lined up: the major world powers (sans China) are falling for Japan’s arguments of quid pro quo.

Opening with a primer article from Drini at Inter Press. Then Japan Times on Europe’s and Bolton’s support. Comment from me follows.

—————EXCERPT BEGINS———————–
Japan’s eyes still on UN seat
Asia Times January 3, 2007
By Suvendrini Kakuchi
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/IA03Dh01.html

…Analysts contend that the resumption of the drive for Security Council reform this year, which follows the disastrous rejection in 2005, reflects several important developments in Japanese diplomacy after the election of former leader Junichiro Koizumi and Abe, both conservatives…

Indeed, Abe, along with conservative policymakers, argue that Japanese contributions to the UN are almost 20% of the annual budget, second only to the United States, which should make a permanent seat in the Security Council along with the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China, which pay lower fees, totally natural.

In addition, wrote the Yomiuri newspaper, Japan’s largest daily, Japan has also contributed in the way of calling for arms reduction, improvement of the UN Secretariat’s functioning, and a fair calculation of contribution of ratios for member fees.

“But,” noted the newspaper pointedly, “such sensible recommendations have never been implemented. The Security Council’s special privilege, the UN’s unique structure and the difficulty of multinational diplomacy are behind Japan’s inability to get its voice heard.”
—————EXCERPT ENDS————————-

—————EXCERPT BEGINS———————–
GENERAL ASSEMBLY SUPPORT “OVERWHELMING”
Japan deserves permanent UNSC seat, Bolton says
Japan Times January 17, 2007
By ERIC PRIDEAUX Staff writer
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070117a5.html

Japan should be granted a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, as more than two-thirds of General Assembly states would support this despite expected opposition from China, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said Tuesday.

“I think Japan still has overwhelming support in the General Assembly,” said Bolton, an outspoken foreign-policy conservative and advocate of the U.S. invasion of Iraq who stepped down as ambassador in December..

Bolton argued that as the second-largest contributor to U.N. finances after the U.S., and as a participant in peacekeeping operations around the world, Japan possesses more than enough clout to ask the General Assembly to vote for the charter revision needed to give it a permanent Security Council seat.

As one of five countries currently holding permanent seats, China–which has misgivings about Japan having a permanent UNSC seat–can veto Japan’s bid, a fact Bolton readily acknowledged. That, however, should not be a deterrent, he added…
—————EXCERPT ENDS————————-

—————EXCERPT BEGINS———————–
EDITORIAL
Mr. Abe’s bold security agenda
The Japan Times Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20070116a1.html

…The new thinking underlying Mr. Abe’s trip was signaled on the day of his departure with the elevation of the Japan Defense Agency to become the Ministry of Defense. That move sets the stage for a shift in defense planning as Japan attempts to take on new international responsibilities. Central to that new role is permanent membership on the U.N. Security Council:

Mr. Abe made that case in meetings with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Jacques Chirac and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, and won support from them all…
—————EXCERPT ENDS————————-

COMMENT FROM ARUDOU DEBITO:

Why do I oppose Japan’s bid for the UNSC? It’s not just because I find all this talk of financial contribution as some legitimization of Japan’s standpoint rather odd (should UNSC seats be up for sale?).

It’s more because Japan has a nasty habit of signing treaties and not following them.

Two shining examples: The Convention on Civil and Political Rights and The Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Or not signing treaties at all, such as the Hague Convention on Child Abduction (more on this at the CRN Website, at http://crnjapan.com/issues/en/japannotsignedhagueconvention.html

The UN CCPR Committee and the UN in general (https://www.debito.org/japanvsun.html), most recently UN HRC Special Rapporteur Doudou Diene in 2005 and 2006 (https://www.debito.org/rapporteur.html), has cautioned Japan about this for well over a decade. Yet Japan continues to ignore the findings or do anything significant to change the situation (such as pass a law against racial discrimination, now eleven years overdue).

The ace in the hole for the human rights activists is the UNSC seat, which is all the GOJ really cares about here. Its sense of entitlement is to me more due to a matter of national pride and purchasing power. Less about acting like a developed country keeping its promises as a matter of course.

Give this seat to Japan, and there is no incentive for the GOJ do anything at all regarding its human rights record (quite the opposite–the GOJ will probably feel further justified in continuing doing nothing since it got this far anyway).

Probably should send the leadership of the supporting countries some germane newspaper articles, for what they are worth. Any citizens out there willing to contact their embassy or national offices overseas? Help yourself to these links to pertinent articles at the bottom of my blog entry on this subject:
https://www.debito.org/?p=173

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3) METROPOLIS ON INTERNATIONAL CHILD ABDUCTIONS

An update (thanks to Metropolis for defying the general trend of the media, which usually takes up an issue and then drops it without conclusion because it is no longer “fresh news”) on Japan’s record regarding child abductions after the breakup of international marriages.

—————EXCERPT BEGINS———————–
Remember the Children
One year on, has anything changed in the fight against international child abduction?
Metropolis Magazine, January 19, 2007
http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/recent/globalvillage.asp
http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/669/globalvillage.asp

Last January, Metropolis publicized the plight of parents fighting for access to children abducted by Japanese spouses (http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/618/feature.asp). A year on, few can report any progress…

As we reported 12 months ago, no Japanese court has ever caused a child abducted to Japan by a Japanese parent to be returned to the child’s habitual residence outside Japan. Part of the problem is that Japan is not a signatory to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which works to ensure the prompt return of abducted children to their country of habitual residence.

There is no reason to hope for change any time soon: Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it is still studying the document, more than 25 years after its inception. “Japan continues to be a haven for international child abduction, and I see no sign of any improvement,” says Jeremy D. Morley, a New York attorney who specializes in international child custody cases. The problem, he says, goes much deeper than simply the ratification of a document.

“The Hague Convention requires that each signatory country have effective courts that can issue prompt, fair and non-discriminatory orders that are then promptly enforced,” Morley explains. “For this reason, Japan would likely be in default of the convention shortly after its effective date.”

“In custody matters, the Japanese system merely rubberstamps the status quo,” Morley says. That means the parent that has physical possession of the children is guaranteed legal custody, and since parental child abduction is not a crime in Japan, the result is a system that indirectly encourages abduction. “It is ‘finders keepers, losers weepers’ in its rawest and most cruel form,” Morley says.
—————EXCERPT ENDS————————-

I will say that there is a documentary movie in the works on the Murray Wood Case, mentioned in the opening of the Metropolis article. I can’t give you more details at this time, but I will when the directors are good and ready.

More on Murray case at the Children’s Rights Network website at http://www.crnjapan.com/people/wom/en/. Kudos to the Canadian Government for doing their job–actually helping out their citizens overseas!

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4) AP PRIMER ON J IMMIGRATION ISSUES

Pretty good article rounding up what we’ve been saying so far about the issues of Japanese immigration, particularly that of guest workers-cum-immigrants from South America reaching double-digit percentages of the population of some Japanese towns.

The article says few things which readers of this and other mailing lists don’t already know. But I’m glad to see this issue receiving wider attention overseas. Quite often it takes “gaiatsu” (overseas pressure) from exposure before the GOJ is ever shamed into doing something about its own social problems. For what do the policymaking elites care about these people? They care more about how it tarnishes Japan’s reputation overseas.

—————EXCERPT BEGINS———————–
Japan Mulls Importing Foreign Workers
Associated press, courtesy of Salon.com
By JOSEPH COLEMAN Associated Press Writer
http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8MP5VG00.html

…”We want people to study Japanese and learn our rules before coming here,” Oizumi Mayor Hiroshi Hasegawa, whose business card is in Portuguese. “Until the national government decides on an immigration system, it’s going to be really tough.”…

For the government to increase those numbers would be groundbreaking in a nation conditioned to see itself as racially homogeneous and culturally unique, and to equate “foreign” with crime and social disorder….

[Oizumi] City Hall officials are clearly overwhelmed trying to plug the holes in a social system that seems to assume that everyone living in Japan is Japanese….

Schooling is compulsory in Japan until age 16, but only for citizens. So foreign kids can skip school with impunity. Arrangements such as special Japanese classes for newcomers are ad hoc and understaffed. Many of the foreigners aren’t entitled to pensions or the same health benefits as Japanese workers because they’re hired through special job brokers…

Corporate leaders are prime movers. “We can create high-value and unique services and products by combining the diversity of foreigners and the teamwork of the Japanese,” said Hiroshi Tachibana, senior managing director of Japan’s top business federation, Keidanren.

But government officials are so touchy about the subject that they deny the country has an immigration policy at all, and insist on speaking of “foreign workers” rather than “immigrants” who might one day demand citizenship….
—————EXCERPT ENDS————————-

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Now for a change of pace, for sanity’s sake:

5) HUMOR SECTION

First up are two hilarious articles from the Mainichi WAIWAI page, with translations and reports of articles from Japan’s wild Shuukanshi weekly magazines. Shuukanshi are a significant and wildly influential sector of Japan’s media which cannot be overlooked. Truth be told, the WAIWAI page a guilty pleasure, especially given the excellent writing skills of the translators.

a) HOW TO DEAL WITH J POLICE INSTANT ID CHECKPOINTS: HAVE PERSONALITIES

—————EXCERPT BEGINS———————–
Busty babe puts pushy policemen in their place
Mainichi Daily News Waiwai Page January 11, 2007
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/news/20070111p2g00m0dm022000c.html

A chance encounter on a Tokyo street gave a spunky half-American model a chance to make sure the capital’s uncouth law enforcers copped a blast, according to Shukan Asahi (1/19).

DJ-cum-model Yurika Amari … was making up for some rough handling she received from the long arm of the law after they suspected she was up to no good apparently because her big bust and lanky looks made her stand out from the crowded streets of Tokyo’s Shibuya district.

Amari, whose father is an American, was walking along the streets in late December when a couple of uniformed cops came up and grabbed her from behind. They whirled her around and demanded she tell them whether she was a foreigner and if she could speak Japanese.

One of the cops reached for Amari’s handbag. When she refused to give it to him, he snatched it away from her and began rifling through it. When the fuzz failed to find anything untoward, they began walking away, but Amari wasn’t letting them off so easily after what they’d just put her through. She asked their names and they simply flashed their police notebooks (the Japanese equivalent of a Western cop showing their badge) and sauntered off.

Amari filed a complaint with the MPD over the way the cops had handled her. She demanded a meeting with the officers who had accosted her and an apology. She ended up speaking to their boss, who refused to apologize for their behavior. With police refusing to express any regret, Amari asked for–and was given–the opportunity to educate the police on boorish behavior.

Amari spoke for about 1 hour to around 80 police officers, most of them men in their 40s and 50s…

—————EXCERPT ENDS————————-

Quite a tactic to get your points across–be eye candy for a buncha slavering cops. Now, why haven’t I ever thought of that?!

What the rest of us shomin can do at
https://www.debito.org/activistspage.html#checkpoints

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b) AMOROUSLY NOISY BATHERS CAUSE TROUBLE AT ONSEN? SHALL WE BAN THEM TOO?

This is an old article, which I’ve sat on until now–I was advised by the translator not to take this seriously, as this is, after all, a Weekly. The story is probably apocryphal. But it’s hilarious enough to pass on to you, with a little comment at the end.

—————EXCERPT BEGINS———————–
Randy young couples play scrub-a-dub at rural hot springs
Mainichi Waiwai Page, October 6, 2005
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/archive/news/2005/10/20051006p2g00m0dm003000c.html

“Our inn has a large common bath, plus four smaller private spas that can be rented by guests,” says the “kami” female proprietor at a ryokan (Japanese-style inn) in Shizuoka’s Atagawa Onsen. “The private baths are available for rental on a round-the-clock basis. Of late, they’ve been taken over by young couples, who are quite… noisy, if you know what I mean.”…

“We certainly want couples who come here to be able to enjoy a romantic interlude,” the kami at another rural spa tells Shukan Jitsuwa. “But they get pretty messy in their lovemaking. Employees have told me when they go into the bathing areas to clean up, they can see obvious traces that sex took place. Since other people use the baths too, they should at least be considerate enough to wipe up after they finish.

“Japan’s traditional hot spring culture regards this kind of behavior as absolutely disgraceful!” she complains.

Japan’s ryokan industry, unfortunately, is in the throes of an unprecedented recession, and as such is hardly in the position to turn away business. But still…
—————EXCERPT ENDS————————-

But still… (and not to pour cold water on the humors here, but), assuming truthiness, I await the onsen notice saying “No amorously moist couples allowed!” next to the JAPANESE ONLY sign.
https://www.debito.org/roguesgallery.html

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c) FIRST DEBITO.ORG DEJIMA AWARD: SETAKA TOWN

This Letter to the Editor appeared in the Japan Times. Thanks to G for the tip. Comment from me follows:

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READERS IN COUNCIL
Town opts for isolation policy
The Japan Times, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2007
By CHRIS FLYNN in Fukuoka
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/rc20070117a1.html

As the new year begins, we are approaching the “awards” season: the Academy Awards, Grammies and my favorite, the Darwin awards (given to people who improve the human-gene pool as part of the natural-selection process by accidentally killing or sterilizing themselves during a foolish or careless mistake). I would like to propose a new award: the “Dejima Awards,” given to those in Japan who actively try to shield themselves from foreigners and foreign influence, culture and ideas.

I would like to nominate the Setaka Town Assembly (Fukuoka Prefecture) for this year’s award. The town was trying to attract a university to establish a campus in town, and in the process asked for comments from the townsfolk.

A group of residents submitted a deposition opposing a campus that did not reject foreign students. They were worried about the crime such students would bring. That’s right–the residents wanted a university as long as there were no foreign students. The town assembly voted to accept the proposal without debate.
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COMMENT: I assume the Japan Times checks its facts before publication, and Chris Flynn is somebody I know and trust from his days at radio station Love FM in Fukuoka. So I doubt the story is bogus. More substantiation and comment at https://www.debito.org/?p=170

Anyway, I like his idea of creating this kind of award as a form of raspberry. Too many times these stupidities and rustic paranoia seize the zeitgeist and create idiotic policy. The option of exposure for what this action clearly constitutes–xenophobia–is a viable one.

Thus may I award (if that would be alright with Chris) the first Debito.org Dejima Award to the Setaka Town Assembly for its foresight in anticipating the criminal element in all foreign students.

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d) YUNOHANA’S “JAPANESE ONLY” SIGN COPIED ONTO ONLINE VIDEO GAME

Well, here’s another a surprise. Incorporated into one of the world’s most popular online video games (a first-person shoot ﾔem up called “Counter Strike, Condition Zero” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Strike), with customizable characters, weapons, and backgrounds), there is a scene where our hero gunman faces a door with a JAPANESE ONLY sign!

Screen captures at:
https://www.debito.org/?p=181

Believe it or not, that is sign a copy and paste from the Otaru Yunohana Onsen sign (up between 1998 and 2000), defendant in a lawsuit for racial discrimination between 2001 and 2004 (which it lost). More on that at https://www.debito.org/otarulawsuit.html (I was one plaintiff in that case.)

Amazing to think how far this case and lawsuit has entered the popular culture. Not only has it been featured on entrance and final exams for law degrees in Japan (not to mention overseas textbooks studying Japanese law), I’m told it also has been cited as one of the twenty most influential postwar law cases in a Waseda University law publication!

Now it’s been slipped into a video game? I wonder if as the gunman character I could have used the gun to shoot the sign up. Oh, well, I can dream, can’t I?

Thanks to Dan for notifying me. Hmm… wonder what’s on the other side of that doorway? Not a screen capture of me wearing a T-shirt with a target on it, I hope.

Speaking of T-shirts:

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“JAPANESE ONLY” T-SHIRTS ON SALE AGAIN AT DEBITO.ORG

Back by popular demand…

T-shirts with an authentic “JAPANESE ONLY” sign emblazoned on their chest.

Perfect for night wear, street wear, underjacket wear, and bar conversation starters!

Shirt is high-quality heavy cotton and comes in American sizes L and XL, in Blue and Black.

See photos of the shirt (guess who’s modelling it?), prices, and ordering details (bank transfer or Paypal) at
https://www.debito.org/tshirts.html

Why am I doing this? Because many people would rather pretend these JAPANESE ONLY signs do not exist. Too bad. They do.
https://www.debito.org/roguesgallery.html

Show your support. Help spread awareness of the problem in the best of satirical traditions, by wearing your heart on your sleeve, and the issue on your chest!

https://www.debito.org/tshirts.html
Price: 2500 yen including postage anywhere.
Buy one from me directly at one of my upcoming speeches and it’s 2000 yen (i.e. sans the price of postage).

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All for today. Thanks for reading!
Arudou Debito in Tokyo
debito@debito.org
https://www.debito.org
JANUARY 25, 2007 DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER ENDS

mytest

Hi Blog. Arudou Debito in Sapporo here. Going through two weeks of examination hell (mine–the biannual 20-minute oral examinations of 100 students), so my brain’s a bit fried. Still, this week’s installment:

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1) IMMIGRATION BUREAU VIOLATES PRIVACY OF MARRIAGE,
IN QUESTIONING J SPOUSES FOR LONGER-TERM VISAS
2) ECONOMIST ON THE BASIC EDUCATION LAW’S REFORM
3) BUSINESS CONSORTIUM INTRODUCING IC CHIP SHOPPING DEVICES
4) MORE LABOR ABUSES OF FOREIGN “TRAINEES” COMING TO LIGHT

and finally…

DEBITO’S EXPANDED ITINERARY: UPDATED SCHEDULE WITH OPEN DAYS
GOING THROUGH TOKYO, KANSAI, AND KYUSHU, NEED ME TO SPEAK?

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January 12, 2007, freely forwardable

Real-time blog updates at https://www.debito.org/index.html

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1) IMMIGRATION BUREAU ASKS VERY PERSONAL QUESTIONS OF J SPOUSES FOR VISAS

Tokyo Immigration (Nyuukoku Kanri Kyoku)’s questionnaire for granting Spouse Visas (haiguusha biza) has since been adopted nationwide, as part of screening out fake marriages (gizou kekkon).

It’s available to the general public on the Nyuukan section of the Ministry of Justice Website:

http://www.moj.go.jp/ONLINE/IMMIGRATION/16-1.html

According to the site, application procedures for Status of Residence for many longer-term visas (i.e. anything over three months) now require three documents (section reading “shinseisho youshiki”):

1) An application for Certificate of Eligibility (zairyuu shikaku nintei shoumeisho koufu shinseisho)

(same as before, form contents depending on what kind of visa you want)

http://www.moj.go.jp/ONLINE/IMMIGRATION/16-1-1.html

2) A Guarantor, through a Letter of Guarantee (mimoto hoshousho)

http://www.moj.go.jp/ONLINE/IMMIGRATION/16-1-23.pdf (Japanese)

http://www.moj.go.jp/ONLINE/IMMIGRATION/16-1-24.pdf (laughably unprofessional English)

I don’t know how new this is, but I never had to have one of these forms signed (granted, this was more than ten years ago, when I was still a foreigner).

And, newest of all,

3) an eight-page “Shitsumon Sho” (Question Sheet) in Japanese only, given to the Japanese spouse of the foreign applicant.

http://www.moj.go.jp/ONLINE/IMMIGRATION/16-1-25.pdf

This Shitsumon Sho is now required (according to footnote four in the quadrant reading “shinseisho youshiki”) for 1) all Japanese spouses, 2) all Japanese spouses of Permanent Residents, and 3) all Japanese spouses of Nikkei who are applying for a visa.

Opening with a wavy-underlined statement (like an FBI warning before a video) stating (all translations mine), “Bear in mind that any part of this form adjudged as contravening the truth may incur disadvantages when being considered by officials,” this form in fascinating in its intrusiveness:

SECTION ONE asks that the applicant state his name and nationality, and the spouse do the same. Home address and home and work phone. Living together or not.

Fine. Then it asks whether you rent or own, the space of your abode (in LDK), and how much you pay in rent per month.

SECTION TWO asks for your love story, from meeting until marriage. It gives you nearly a page (attach more if you need) to write down the date you met, where you met, whether or not you were introduced, and your whole love life (kekkon ni itatta kei’i, ikisatsu) until you got married.

(It avoids asking about your favorite positions. Still, it specifically notes that anything else of reference, such as photos, letters, proof of international phone calls etc. are welcome.)

SECTION 2.2 is for those who were introduced by someone. It asks for the introducer’s name, nationality, birth date, address, phone number, alien registration number, date of introduction, place, and style of meeting (photo, phone, date, email, something else?). It also asks you to fill out a box on how deep each of your relationships go with the introducer. Be detailed, it demands.

But wait, there’s more…

SECTION THREE gets into the linguistics of your relationship. It asks what language you speak together, what your native tongues are, how well you understand each other (with four possible boxes to check), and how the foreigner learned his or her Japanese (again, be specific–there are four lines provided).

And there are four more lines provided to explain what you do when you don’t understand each other linguistically. If you use an interpreter, you are to give the interpreter’s name, nationality, and address.

SECTION FOUR asks about your marriage from a legal standpoint:

If you married in Japan, who were your witnesses? (You need two to sign the Kekkon Todoke in Japan). Give their name, sex, address, and phone numbers.

SECTION FIVE asks about the fanfare. If you held a wedding ceremony or a party (doesn’t indicate where–I guess that includes overseas bashes too), give the date and address. How many people attended–give a number. Who came? Choose from the appropriate seven types of family members: Father, mother, older brother, older sister…

SECTION SIX asks for your wedding histories. Is this your first marriage or a remarriage? If a remarriage, from when until when? Give dates. Two check boxes are provided to distinguish between dissolution through death or through divorce.

SECTION SEVEN asks how many times your foreign client, sorry, spouse, traveled to Japan and for how long. Give dates and reasons. SECTION EIGHT asks how many times you Japanese spouse went to the foreigner’s home country. Same data, please, except there are two specific sections devoted to how many times you’ve crossed the border since you met, then how many times since you married.

SECTIONS NINE and TEN the only sections I can see as really germane–if you’ve ever been expelled from Japan for a visa violation or some such. Give full details.

But we’re not done yet. SECTION ELEVEN wants you to fill out your entire family tree, with names, ages, addresses, and phone numbers in both Japan and the foreigner’s country. A separate chart is provided for the happy international couple to give the names, birth dates, and addresses of their children. Create for us an entire Koseki listing.

Finally, SECTION TWELVE asks who in both your families knew about your marriage. Again, circle the appropriate types of family members.

Sign and date. And we’ll reiterate the FBI warning just at the very bottom again just in case you would even think of lying.

——————————-

So much for the sanctity of the privacy of marriage. I think I’ll stop by Immigration and ask a few questions why they need this kind of information. After all–what matters what language they speak at home?

It goes beyond remembering the color of your spouse’s toothbrush… into voyeurism. I’m sure any Japanese couple would balk at having to reveal this much intimate detail, so why is it being demanded from international couples in Japan?

Because it can be, of course. We’re Immigration, so sod you. After all, we can take away any foreigner’s rights at will…

Again, see for yourself at http://www.moj.go.jp/ONLINE/IMMIGRATION/16-1-25.pdf

Perhaps now my naturalizing doesn’t seem so crazy after all. Too bad for all those long-suffering spouses who now have to provide the government with a pipeline into their private life just because they had the ill judgment to marry a foreigner. I smell an article here.

Where next falls the shadow:

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2) ECONOMIST ON THE BASIC EDUCATION LAW’S REFORM

Launching a series on what I see as a very serious issue (training people to be “patriotic” at the early stages of education, with “love of country” tests already happening in Kyushu and Saitama grade schools), here is an introductory article from The Economist (London) on Japan’s reform of its Basic Education Law (Kyouiku Kihon Hou). It’s a decent primer.

Japanese education: The wrong answer

The Economist (London), Dec 19th 2006

=========EXCERPT BEGINS==================

The kind of [education] reforms the government has in mind, however, are not designed to help young people make critical judgments in a fast-changing, information-driven, global environment. Instead, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the New Komeito, have rewritten Japan’s post-war education law with the aim of boosting patriotism among the young.

Parliament’s lower house has approved legislation which, besides stressing the importance of parental guidance, requires schools to instill “a love of one’s country” in children. The opposition parties boycotted the recent lower-house vote, but the ruling coalition’s majority in the upper chamber has allowed the bill to scrape through and become law.

Bunmei Ibuki, the education minister, also believes elementary schools have no place teaching foreign languages such as English. The first requirement, he insists, is that pupils acquire what he calls a “Japanese passport”–i.e, a thorough grasp of the country’s history and culture, and perfection in their own language.

=========EXCERPT ENDS==================

Rest of article at

http://economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_RQVQTPP

https://www.debito.org/?p=157

(Pity perfection in language doesn’t mean perfection in personality. Ibuki himself, as of the Wide Shows of January 11, is in hot water–for having some shady bookkeeping in his political offices. He somehow declared about $400,000 of money as “rent”, for which he has no receipts. Back to cronyism as usual in PM Abe’s LDP…)

RELATED LINKS ON DEBITO.ORG

Attitudes of LDP Kingpin Machimura on Education Law’s reform

https://www.debito.org/?p=130

Witch hunts for educators who don’t follow patriotism directives

https://www.debito.org/?p=13

Enforced patriotism ruled unconstitutional:

https://www.debito.org/?p=39

Of particular interest are archives of two old Japan Times articles (2003 and 2002) showing the genesis of this issue from the times of PM Mori.

https://www.debito.org/?p=157

(They follow the full Economist article)

COMMENT: I’m sure I’ll be saying this many times in the course of analysis and argument from now on, but what of the international community and mixed-roots children getting their education in Japan? Will they have to make a choice about their national identity (one, not both?), or just be excluded altogether?

Moreover, given Japan’s history of so much emphasis on Yamatoism as part or national identity, what guarantees do we have that we will not fall back into old patterns which ultimately devastated our country a world war ago?

Might sound a bit alarmist at this stage, but public indifference is what permits policy creep.

Speaking of creepy policies:

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3) BUSINESS CONSORTIUM INTRODUCING IC CHIP SHOPPING DEVICES

If you thought the “smart shopping” computers in the movie MINORITY REPORT which scan retinas, access your purchasing preferences, and then tell you where to shop are science fiction, think again:

Tokyo to blanket Ginza with RFID tags

Tuesday 2nd January 2007

The Register (IT news site)

=========EXCERPT BEGINS==================

The Tokyo Ubiquitous Network Project has announced plans to blanket the Ginza region of Tokyo, the most popular shopping district, with 10,000 RFID tags and other wireless technologies to provide shopper-

assistance and location-based services…

The Tokyo Ubiquitous Network Project is a joint venture between the Japanese government and various high-tech companies including Fujitsu, Hitachi and NEC,…

=========EXCERPT ENDS==================

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/02/rfid_in_toyko/

https://www.debito.org/?p=151

…and you just know that once businesses start getting into it and making a profit, the technology will develop VERY fast. Especially in a gadget-phillic society like Japan.

Problem is, once this IC technology develops into economies of scale, it’s not too far of a stretch to start tracking foreigners though their Gaijin Cards. The shoppers above have optional hand-held devices. Gaijin Cards are to be carried 24/7, on pain of arrest and criminal charges.

My friends keep cautioning me to fear not: that a good zap in the microwave will neutralize the IC trackability. These are my friends speaking, just passing it along…

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4) MORE LABOR ABUSES OF FOREIGN “TRAINEES” COMING TO LIGHT

Yet another article substantiating Japanese abuses of foreign labor. No wonder–even the article admits that foreign “trainees” and “researchers” are not protected by Japanese Labor Law, so what do you expect?

Foreign trainees facing chronic abuses

Firms refuse to stop exploiting interns as cheap labor, leading many to quit

Kyodo News/Japan Times Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2007

=========EXCERPT BEGINS==================

The programs have expanded year by year. In 2005 alone, as many as 80,000 young people came to Japan on the programs. However, those in the programs are left unprotected by labor law.

During the first year of training, monthly pay is limited to 60,000 yen–below the legally set minimum wage.

Although monthly pay rises to around 120,000 yen over the internship period, employers often deduct management and other fees to cut net pay by tens of thousands of yen. Some employers reportedly direct foreign interns to work late at night at an hourly rate of only 300 yen.

In such circumstances, more than 1,000 interns disappear from workplaces each year, apparently to find better paying–but unauthorized–employment.

=========EXCERPT ENDS==================

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20070103f4.html

https://www.debito.org/?p=153

(Previous blogged articles of similar substantiation at

https://www.debito.org/?p=105

https://www.debito.org/?p=99

https://www.debito.org/?p=107)

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

and finally…

DEBITO’S EXPANDED ITINERARY: UPDATED SCHEDULE WITH OPEN DAYS

GOING THROUGH TOKYO, KANSAI, AND KYUSHU, NEED ME TO SPEAK?

Invitations keep coming in (thanks), and I’m happy being pulled farther afield (like out to Kyushu).

If I’m in your neighborhood, want me to speak? Send me an email at debito@debito.org.

JANUARY TOKYO TRIP

WEDS JAN 24 Fly to Haneda Stay in Roppongi

THURS JAN 25 U Hoden Hearing Kawasaki District Court

FRI JAN 26 Meet with publisher

SAT JAN 27 Appointment, then SWET party

SUN JAN 28 Open

MON JAN 29 Open, probably returning to Sapporo

FEBRUARY KANSAI TO KYUSHU TRIP

MON FEB 5 Fly to Itami Stay in Ikoma

TUES FEB 6 Speech in Nara

WEDS FEB 7 Visit friend in Kyoto

THURS FEB 8 Speech at Shiga University Hikone Campus

FRI FEB 9 Speech for BLL in Wakayama

SAT FEB 10 Speech for JALT Wakayama

SUN FEB 11 Visit friends in Kurashiki

MON FEB 12 Speech in Okayama

TUES FEB 13 Train to Fukuoka, bus to Miyazaki?

WEDS FEB 14 Kyushu

THURS FEB 15 Kyushu

FRI FEB 16 Fly Fukuoka to Sapporo

(flexible plane ticket back; can extend trip through weekend if necessary)

MARCH TOKYO TRIP

SUN FEB 25 Fly to Haneda, stay ?

MON FEB 26 Doudou Diene

TUES FEB 27 Open

WEDS FEB 28 Speech for Roppongi Bar Association

THURS MAR 1 Open

FRI MARCH 2 Open

SAT MARCH 3 Open

SUN MARCH 4 NUGW March in March

MON MARCH 5 Return to Sapporo

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

All for now. Thanks for reading!

Arudou Debito in Sapporo

debito@debito.org

https://www.debito.org

JANUARY 12 2007 NEWSLETTER ENDS

mytest

Hi Blog. Arudou Debito here with a special edition of the debito.org newsletter for the holidays. This offers lighter fare, some personal musings, and other things to read during a festive occasion (much like the year-end holiday double issue of The Economist newsmagazine). Here goes:

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1) INTERVIEW WITH J-SELECT MAGAZINE
2) BECOMING A LAWYER IN JAPAN: THE BIFURCATED J BAR EXAM
3) JOEL DECHANT AND HIS GUIDED TOURS OF BEPPU
4) TEN THINGS WHICH CHANGED MY LIFE IN 2006
and finally… DEBITO.ORG A DECADE ON…

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By Arudou Debito (www.debito.org, debito@debito.org)

December 31, 2006

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1) INTERVIEW WITH J-SELECT MAGAZINE

What follows is an interview which took place a few months ago with Elliott at J-SELECT MAGAZINE (http://www.jselect.net), featured in their December-January issue currently on sale. Give the interview a try–we don’t even talk about onsens or lawsuits!

==========================================

“Twenty Questions”

Interview with J-Select’s “Back Chat–Life in Japan from a Different Perspective”

Japan Select Magazine, December 2006–January 2007, page 74.

Name: Arudou Debito

Age: 41

Nationality: Japanese

Occupation: Author, Columnist, University Prof

Likes: Compliments

Dislikes: Hypocrites

1. WHAT FIRST BROUGHT YOU TO JAPAN?

A woman. Hey, I was only 21.

2. WHAT’S KEEPING YOU HERE?

A woman. Kids. Steady job. And oh yeah, Japanese citizenship.

3. WHO IN JAPAN DO YOU MOST ADMIRE? WHY?

There are too many people to mention. And I cannot narrow it down to one person because none of them are saints. To be expected. Any decent study of history and biography reveals dark sides and shames in anyone. Guess the best thing to say is: I hope to become a composite of the best parts of people I admire.

4. WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO BASE YOURSELF IN HOKKAIDO AND NOT, SAY, CENTRAL TOKYO?

Again, cherche la femme. Hokkaido was the first place I visited in Japan, and it was summertime. Anyone who’s ever been up to Sapporo in summer will know what I mean. Inertia did the rest.

5. WHERE DO YOU GO TO ESCAPE HOKKAIDO? WHY?

Down south. Speeches, academic conferences, beers and homestays with friends. Japan is incredibly easy to travel around–if you have money and can read a map.

6. WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE JAPANESE WORD OR PHRASE? WHY?

“Keizoku wa chikara nari”. “Continuation becomes its own strength.” It demonstrates the power of patience, precedence, and tenacity. Because the longer you keep on the path, fortifying a life’s work, the more likely that people are going to take you seriously. Then they will hopefully acquiesce, help out, or just plain get out of the way.

7. WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE PHRASE IN ANY LANGUAGE? WHY?

“Somebody’s gotta do it. It might as well be me.” Think I’ll make that my epitaph.

8. WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?

The way the Japanese language uses onomatopoeia and twists foreign loanwords. Who says Japanese aren’t creative?!

9. WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?

The way I watch people around here treat every tree like it’s a bonsai. Chop them to shreds because branches might get tangled in phone lines, or poke somebody in the eye! I’m serious–that’s an actual reason once given me by zealous bureaucrats with pruning shears! It’s called tree growth, honey. It’s not something to stunt at the expense of shade and oxygen.

10. IF YOU HAD TO LIVE BY YOURSELF ON A DESERTED OKINAWAN ISLAND FOR A YEAR, WHAT THREE ITEMS WOULD YOU MAKE SURE YOU PACKED IN YOUR SUITCASE?

My computer with internet access, so I could keep sending out my newsletters.

If I have to be alone on the island, that one item should do, really. As long as I have my iPod and Skype as well. It’s kinda like my lifestyle anyway when I’m in the middle of writing a book.

11. WHAT’S THE MOST USEFUL PRODUCT/GADGET YOU HAVE BOUGHT IN JAPAN?

My Japanese electronic dictionary. Keeps me plugging away at kanji. Thanks to many a boring faculty meeting, I now even know the characters for metric units!

12. WHAT’S THE MOST EXCITING/OUTRAGEOUS THING YOU HAVE EVER DONE?

My summer cycle trips around Hokkaido are supremely exciting. Done three so far, last one August 2006 totalling 940 kms. The fact that I can still cycle more than 100 kms a day even at the age of forty is a confounding certification of health. 200 kms in one day is my best. People who see the size of my stomach are amazed I haven’t keeled over as roadkill yet.

Okay, something more outrageous and dishier, then. Out boozing one night with a friend from Finland. Overimbibed some evil 64-proof Suomi aniseed brew [salmiakki]. Wound up getting sick all over the front steps of Hokkaido Jingu, the capital of Shintoism up here. Er, on second thought, let’s keep that incident between you and me…

13. WHAT’S THE STRANGEST REQUEST YOU’VE EVER BEEN ASKED IN YOUR LINE OF WORK?

Probably the time I was asked to join in the okama-kon festival at my university. By that I mean, where all the guys dress up like girls and act feminine for prizes. Dressing in drag has got quite a history over here, thanks to Kabuki.

Anyway, my supervisor stuffed me into a dress and covered me in otherwise unusable make-up she bought in Russia. I went up on stage with my eight-month-old daughter sleeping in the crook of one arm, as proof of my obvious fertility. Nobody got the joke, and I didn’t even place in the top three. Surprisingly enough, this is NOT the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever done in Japan…

14. DESCRIBE YOUR MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT IN JAPAN.

I was once asked to interpret at an international wedding, where a drunk old fart decided to go on a gabbing bender. Then he blabbed about the breezy day when he got lucky–an upskirt view of one of the women in the audience. Pity that woman happened to be the bride! I bunted and refused to translate it.

I later asked professional translators how they would have handled this situation. They said I should have compared her to Marilyn Monroe standing over a subway grating. Naruhodo. Interpreters deserve every penny.

15. WHEN YOU BECAME A NATURALIZED JAPANESE CITIZEN, WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THE NAME ARUDOU DEBITO AND NOT, SAY, WATANABE KEN OR ISHIHARA SHINTARO?

Wouldn’t want to be confused with them. Or with anyone else. I wish to be a Japanese on my own terms, and that starts with my name.

Anyway, my name was once Dave Aldwinckle, and that comes out as Arudouinkuru Debito in katakana. Shortened the last name and picked the kanji to fit.

16. WHAT IS THE BEST PART ABOUT BEING A NATURALIZED JAPANESE CITIZEN?

How surprisingly accepting people are of it. Seriously. It opens so many doors and settles so many arguments.

17. WHAT IS THE WORST PART ABOUT BEING A NATURALIZED JAPANESE CITIZEN?

The fact that you’d better speak Japanese pretty naturally before people accept you as one. Most people still equate nationality with face and race. And foreigners are the nastiest about it.

18. AS A LONG-TERM RESIDENT OF JAPAN, IF THERE’S ONE PIECE OF ADVICE YOU WOULD LIKE TO OFFER SOMEONE WHO HAS JUST STEPPED OFF THE PLANE AT NARITA, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

Learn Japanese. If you want to do anything at all with a degree of comfort and control in Japanese society, you must learn how to speak, read, and write. More advice in a “GUIDEBOOK TO LIVING IN JAPAN” a lawyer friend and I will be publishing next year.

19. WHAT’S THE BEST ACTION TO TAKE WHEN CONFRONTED WITH A SIGN THAT SAYS “JAPANESE ONLY”?

Take a photo of it with time and place and send it to me at debito@debito.org.

If you’re really daring, ask the management why they have that sign up. Then ask them calmly to take it down, since it invites misunderstandings–the biggest of all being that “foreigners” can be excluded with impunity. This situation must not be left alone, because it’ll only get worse.

20. IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT’S THE SINGLE BIGGEST MYTH THAT HAS BEEN PERPETUATED ABOUT JAPAN? BRIEFLY SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT?

The myth that Japanese laborers are workaholics. Leave the mania of Tokyo for a while and you’ll see just how laid back people get. Even in many Japanese companies, learning how to look busy is a fine art. Kinda like tax evasion. That said, the generally high commitment in Japan to a job well done more than makes up for any secret skiving…

22. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?

A person who can make the best decision at all times. Hopefully sagacious without cynicism.

23. DO YOU HAVE ANY WORDS OF ADVICE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE?

Enjoy your youth for as long as possible, since you should have many twilight years to enjoy your age. Still, Japan is a society which largely wastes the energy of its youth. But the upside is that life gets easier as you get older in Japan. If you learn the rules of getting along, that is.

INTERVIEW ENDS

https://www.debito.org/jselectdec2006.html

(See, I told you this newsletter would have a different tone…)

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2) BECOMING A LAWYER IN JAPAN: THE BIFURCATED J BAR EXAM

A friend of mine studying to take the Japanese Bar wrote me a fascinating essay too good to be for my eyes only. It’s on the sea change in how lawyers are becoming qualified in Japan. There are currently two Bar exams to take (“New” and “Old”, with the Old being phased out by 2011), and the whats and whys (with copious comments from cyberspace) are available at https://www.debito.org/?p=101

Except follows:

=======================================

Japan’s bar exam (shihou shiken) is no longer called that–it’s called either the kyuu shihou shiken or the shin shihou shiken.

1. Kyuu Shihou Shiken–the “Old Bar”

Since the 1950s, Japan’s bar association has operated a very simple procedure for becoming a lawyer: pass the bar exam. That’s it. No law schools. No pre-exam training. Applicants did not even have to graduate from a university. After you passed you went and did [an internship] (shihou kenshuu), managed by the Supreme Court, and then you were a lawyer (or prosecutor, or judge). End of story.

While that might sound liberal, the results were not egalitarian… i.e. the opportunity was equal but the results were not. The pass rate was typically 1%, and half of all attorneys are from Japan’s top six universities (Todai, Kyodai, Keio, Chuo, Waseda, Hitotsubashi). More than 90% have undergraduate degrees in law, the average attorney passes the exam on the fifth try, and the average age of admittance to the bar is 28. That means many, many hopeful attorneys wasted years of their lives studying hard for the exam, many of whom had to give up in their 30s (or even 40s), having lost much of their young professional lives….

2. Shin Shihou Shiken–the “New Bar”

Japan took a major step towards revolutionizing its legal sector in 2004 when it opened American-style law schools. The standard course is three years (or two years for students with undergraduate degrees in law). The first “new bar exam” was held this past May, and the pass rate was 48% (for comparison purposes, that’s the same as California.)

However, the functional results are the same. I mean, 40,000 people applied for these new schools, 3,000 got in, only 2,000 sat for the exam, and 1,000 passed. So from 40,000 applicants to 1,000 lawyers means the bar is accomplishing the same result, in that many, many people who sit for the old bar will never pass it, and rejecting them from the get go is a more effective way of not getting the hopes up of people who will never become lawyers… [snip]

4. Reasons to change

A. A “quota” (i.e. we will admit 1,500 lawyers this year) as opposed to a score (everyone over 80% passes) means that the quality of lawyers varies by year in accordance with the respective competition…

C. Despite studying for five or more years or however many years, most lawyers aren’t very good! They’re trained in the theory of law, but not the practice, and are often bookworms or introverts, and not made to go out and reassure clients that they are representing them to the fullest.

D. The demand for lawyers had forced the pass rate up. Until 2000, the pass rate was 1%. By 2005 the pass rate was 3.8%, but lowering the bar pass rate given the incumbent exam regime just aggravated problem C.

E. The lack of competent business attorneys has meant a massive influx of foreign attorneys, who have maneuvered into a position where they come close to dominating the major transactions in the Tokyo legal world…

===============================

EXCERPT ENDS. Rest blogged at https://www.debito.org/?p=101

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3) JOEL DECHANT AND HIS GUIDED TOURS OF BEPPU

Friend Joel has become something of a celebrity down in Kyushu with the burgeoning onsens tourist trade. He sends word of government-sponsored ads for tours in part hosted by him. If you’re in the area, look him up. Turning the keyboard over to him:

==========BEGIN JOEL=====================

Friends and colleagues: My worldwide debut is now available for all to see in 6 different languages.

mms://ms2.primestage.net/mofajvt/1002/1002_en_256k.wmv

If this link gives you trouble, try accessing from the front page http://web-japan.org/jvt/en/index.html

(Or try YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvdQrIbyJv8 )

This was produced by NHK International for the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who has distributed this to hundreds of Japanese embassies worldwide, in addition to providing the streaming link online.

It’s only 5 minutes long, so please have a look. Regards, Joel

==========END JOEL=====================

Joel has also been featured on TV several times, most accessibly here (TV Tokyo):

http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=630

Well done. Hope to see more of you.

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4) TEN THINGS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE IN 2006

Now we get into the realm of personal stuff. Here are ten things that changed my life in 2006, in ascending order:

TEN) AUDIBLE.COM. Since discovering this website, I have stopped listening to music in my car, and just stick the iPod in my ears every commute or cycle trip. I have downloaded hundreds of soundfiles, ranging from full books (Chomsky, Shakespeare, Malcolm Gladwell) to speeches, debates, and hearings (US presidential candidate debates, US Supreme Court oral arguments, Inaugural Addresses from every US president since FDR, Congressional Hearings on Iraq, WMD, Powell, Rice, Rumsfeld, and Bolton), and NPR radio broadcasts. Prices range from ten or so dollars US to completely free, and I have a full-year’s subscription to NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross (which is quite, ahem, engrossing). Brain broccoli on a daily basis.

NINE) BASEBALL, BY KEN BURNS. This auteur and darling of the US TV network PBS crowd just keeps on doing it again and again. From his breakout series THE CIVIL WAR, Burns continues to crank out documentaries of incredible quality and accessible history. I own most of his movies already, but this year’s purchase of BASEBALL (which charts the origins and effects of the game on American society) was well worth the hefty price tag. Each installment (or “inning”) is well over two hours long, and there are ten innings. Is it compelling? Speaking as a non-baseball fan, I find them breathtakingly well-assembled and seamless in narrative, even touching upon issues such as gender and racial equality, labor unions, and immigration and assimilation. No, it’s not all baseball scores and people running rounders. Completely convincing as to why anyone should care about the game.

EIGHT) THE YAMATO DAMACY INTERVIEWS. I generally hate appearing before TV cameras–I freeze up and become all self-conscious, kinda like me on a dance floor. However, these podcasted interviews by Rahman and Jeshii are startlingly good: great fun while covering a lot of ground. I still enjoy watching them from time to time, and think, “Is that really how I come off when I’m in ‘The Zone’? Gee, even *I* like me!” See them for yourself here: Episode One: http://yamato.revecess.com/?episode=13 Episode Two: http://yamato.revecess.com/?lang=en&episode=15 Episode Three: http://yamato.revecess.com/?lang=en&episode=20 And the best one: Episode Four: http://yamato.revecess.com/?lang=en&episode=23

SEVEN) JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS. After perusing the textbooks my daughters will be reading in secondary education, I actually took the advice of friend Chris (who also mastered Japanese this way) by picking up a seventh-grade Kokugo textbook (“Tsutae Au Kotoba”, Kyouiku Shuppan, Monkashou Kokugo 709) for myself, and devoted time to doing at least two pages a night. Found that it was just about the right level–in that I could read it without having to refer to a dictionary at any time, but the topics and points covered were insightful as to what kids should understand about written language, both historical and current, as a means for expression and preserving the past. And no, it was not cold and militaristic, as I almost expected Jr High School education in Japan to be. It has a gentle yet persuasive tone that even I, a very skeptical person given PM Abe’s recent changes to the Basic Education Law, could buy into. For a reality check, I guess I’m going to have to pick up a history book once I work my way through HS Kokugo…

SIX) MANGA “KISEIJUU”, BY IWAAKI HITOSHI. This bestselling comic series (10 books, published by Kodansha 1990-1995 by Afternoon KC) was something I rediscovered in a treasure trove of my old books. Story is about space parasites which try to take over the earth, in the best traditions of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. Won’t develop further, as it already sounds hokey, but the story gets into issues of identity, life, and ecology, and has several different types of written tone in advanced Japanese. It is also well-rendered, with perfect line and facial characterization, mature enough to avoid pandering to silly comic exaggeration so common to Japanese manga. Why it made a difference to me is that for the first time in studying Japanese, I actually read something in Japanese for pure enjoyment, not merely because I need the information. That is very promising.

FIVE) THE “JAPANESE ONLY WORLD TOURS”. Last year, I gave speeches at 24 different university and educational institutions (thanks!). The most interesting were the 10 speeches I was asked to give in the US and Canada, in that I was addressing a fundamentally different audience, some of whom knew very little of Japan outside their manga, video games, and cursory social studies classes. Others (such as those at NYU Law and Columbia Law) asked questions from a legal perspective for which I had difficulty coming up with answers. Still others just wanted to know why the universality of human experience would allow for racial discrimination to remain unchallenged in a society as rich and developed as Japan’s–which to me was the hardest question of all. A wonderful way to keep my mind from going stale and the issue fresh and growing. Similarly:

FOUR) AL GORE’S “AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH”. I watched this movie three times in a row on the airplane going to Canada last October and twice going back. It is a wonderful documentary from the master of the slide show–former presidential candidate Al Gore making his well-rehearsed and utterly compelling speech on Global Warming. Al has nearly single-handedly changed the debate from prevaricating inertia to implausible deniability… and shown us how an intellectual may not convince the beer-drinking crowd that he is worthy of a presidential vote, but is certainly worth a respectful audience for his earnest work (when driving my rental car through Vancouver traffic, the radio advertised tickets to go see his slide show live; I had to pull over and recompose myself, I was laughing and clapping so hard with joy). Personally, it showed me that my slide shows (now Powerpoint presentations) on racism in Japan do have a future, and when enough of them happen (as they did for Susan B. Anthony in her decades of tours promoting woman suffrage in the 1800’s), it is possible to just keep on keeping on and reach a tipping point. Bravo, Al.

THREE) MY NEXT BOOK: “GUIDEBOOK FOR NEWCOMERS SETTING DOWN ROOTS IN JAPAN”. To be published next year, but written in 2006. This collaborative effort with a legal scrivener friend promises to put into print the advice that many long-termers have but haven’t collated. More and more people are immigrating to Japan. It’s time somebody told them how they can get a leg up in this society. The Japanese government has been complacent in its guidance, if not outright complicit (with, for example, its Trainee and Researcher Visa programs) in keeping foreigners as temporary and exploitable labor. On a personal note, it has demonstrated to me as well that I can write about more than just onsens and lawsuits…

TWO) MY THIRD CYCLETREK AROUND HOKKAIDO. This two-week trek, covering 940 kms from Sapporo to Abashiri via Wakkanai (alluded to at https://www.debito.org/?p=25) with friend Chris was again a wonderful expedition and vision quest. My first Cycletrek (1999, available at https://www.debito.org/residentspage.html#cycletreks) is still one of my favorite essays. This trek, travelling around with another person the whole time (a first, as I usually do these ordeals alone) proved to me that even a lone wolf by temperament and pace such as myself can keep up with another person more than ten years my junior both mentally and particularly physically. I intend to do this every August from now on (for why leave Hokkaido when the weather is so perfect and we’ve suffered so much snow waiting for it?), so anyone else is interested in joining me, let me know. I intend to break 1000 kms next summer.

ONE) MY DIVORCE. This has forced the largest recalibration of my life’s direction up to this point, my integrity as a person, and my preferences for the future. Lasting nearly three years, this experience is something I would never wish on anyone else. Enough said. I finally plucked up the courage to web my December essay on it at

https://www.debito.org/thedivorce.html

ZERO) And one more, just because I don’t want to end the list on a sad note: AERIAL, BY KATE BUSH. This bestselling musical album, in the era of where iTunes downloads of individual tracks are outdistancing CD purchases, reassured me that my upbringing as an aficionado of music in ALBUM form (i.e. two sides of a record or a cassette tape, midway taking you into a special musical zone that cannot be reached otherwise) is not dead. After nearly two decades waiting for Kate to come out with this, she does not disappoint in any way, and it’s one of those rare albums you can keep flipping over and over again. (And for what it’s worth, other albums you can do the same with: Genesis “Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”, Pink Floyd “Wish You Were Here”, Depeche Mode “Ultra”, Genesis “Trick of the Tail” back to back with “Wind and Wuthering”, The Police “Synchronicity”, Seal’s eponymous debut album, Sade “Stronger than Pride”, Djivan Gasparyan and MIchael Brook “Black Rock”, Abdelli’s eponymous debut album, Beatles “Sgt. Pepper” and “Abbey Road”, Duran Duran’s eponymous “Wedding Album” and Arcadia “So Red the Rose”, Tangerine Dream “Turn of the Tides”, Roller Coaster (South Korea) “Absolute”, Blur “13”, B-52’s “Bouncing Off the Satellites”, The Fixx “Phantoms”, Men at Work “Business as Usual”, Moody Blues “Days of Future Passed”, George Michael “Faith”, Sting “Dream of the Blue Turtles”, U2 “Joshua Tree” and “Unforgettable Fire”, Talking Heads “Buildings and Food”…) Made me feel like my overwhelming preference for the contained collection of songs as an essay, as an art form, still matters.

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AND FINALLY… DEBITO.ORG A DECADE ON…

2007 marks the tenth year of debito.org’s existence, and it has grown from a backlog of personal essays to an award-winning database of several thousand articles and documents about life in Japan. It has become something I add to practically every day (thanks to my Blog, opened last June, at https://www.debito.org/index.php, now with 116 posts already), and occasions comments from people around the world with an interest in Japan, and who want to know more before coming here and trying to make a go of it.

And it just keeps on growing. The number of visitors reached record levels this month, growing from an average of about 2000 hits and page views and 700 visits on average throughout 2006, to nearly 3000 hits and page views and 1300 visits PER DAY in December. This has never happened before, and being a writer who loves to be read, this is extremely satisfying.

A more accessible statistic is this: According to the Technorati website, which tracks blog links worldwide, as of today debito.org has 159 links from 70 blogs–making it (out of all the millions of blogs out there) the 46,809th ranked blog worldwide. (http://www.technorati.com/search/www.debito.org)

Being in the top 50,000 in the world for a personal website is I think pretty impressive, and I thank everyone for their support. I hope to continue being of service, and will start with a brand new information site on my 42nd birthday, January 13. Eyes peeled.

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Have a safe and prosperous 2007, everyone! Arudou Debito in Sapporo

debito@debito.org

https://www.debito.org

December 31, 2006

DEBITO.ORG HOLIDAY EDITION NEWSLETTER 2006 ENDS