The video above shows humans physically engaged in a tetris game. It looks like your typical Japanese variety program.

Debito has posted a blog entry about the rising number of NJ residents (new Japanese residents).

Both because I am a foreign resident in Japan and I like diversity, I’m glad this number keeps on rising. Tangentially I’ll note, I think the best way to utterly destroy Japanese culture is to entrust it to government bureaucrats, while the best way to preserve and foster it is to gradually introduce some competition into the mix. After all culture isn’t something you put in a bottle and stare at, it’s something you grow.

I’m getting off topic.

Debito notes that the Ministry of Justice has recently released their official yearly report on this. It’s a PDF file and can be downloaded here.

The Yomiuri had this to say about the report:

Foreign residents at record high
The number of foreign residents in Japan as of the end of 2006 hit a record-high of 2.08 million, increasing 3.6 percent from the previous year, according to the Justice Ministry’s Immigration Bureau. The figure of 2,084,919 accounted for 1.63 percent of the nation’s total population. By nationality and place of origin, the two Koreas combined had the largest share at 28.7 percent, or 598,219. But because of the aging population and naturalization, the number of special permanent residents is decreasing after peaking in 1991 …

… because of the aging population and naturalization, the number of special permanent residents is decreasing after peaking in 1991. ??

Hm? So special permanent residents, that is zainichi Koreans and Chinese, are not really decreasing, their just becoming Japanese.

So this would imply one day you’re Korean, and the next — after your naturalization, you’re Japanese. That is, as I understand it, once you naturalize you are Japanese as far as any census measures are concerned.

Now, if this was a testament to how color blind and accepting people in Japan were, I’d offer this up as an example of tolerance in Japanese society. In a perfect world it shouldn’t matter what your supposed ethnic group might be, just whether your a citizen or not. So, ultimately, I think that’s just how the census should be done. As an individualist, I sincerely don’t like groupism (categorizing people according to groups.)

However, in Japan’s case, where numerous arguments for policy proposals take as their premises a homogenous Japan, census reporting that doesn’t account for naturalized non-homogenous Japanese becomes really dubious and even slightly sinister.

How many Korean-Japanese are there? How many American-Japanese? How many Chinese-Japanese? How many Philippine-Japanese? Would the emperor be Korean-Japanese? So long as Japanese policy-makers are going to argue for or against policy using as a premise a homogenous Japan, then we desperately need these numbers. As far as I know there aren’t any.

Of course, somehow I think words like homogenous should be reserved for things like … you know … milk or something, not people. But perhaps I’m just too radical?

Will we ever learn one of history’s more obvious lessons — to be especially on guard against those who lie to us by appealing to the welfare of children? How many Jews were murdered to save Christian children from being turned into matzo? —Thomas Szasz

Recently children in China have a new hobby, at least some of them. They’re keeping notebooks of death. In them, they list the names of all the people they want to die. Mostly this consists of disliked teachers and classmates.

The idea for this comes from the popular Japanese movie Death Note (デスノート). Literally, Notebook of Death.

Before becoming a movie, Death Note was first a comic and then an animated series. This should give anyone an idea of just how popular the story is.

Wikipedia sums up the plot this way:

The series primarily centers around a high school student who decides to rid the world of evil with the help of a supernatural notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it.

As far as I know, no version of Death Note has been legally distributed in China, however illegal copies a DVD version flourish alongside other popular J-Horror items.

The authorities in China don’t like J-Horror or the supposed influence it has on children. (In terms of influence, I’m referring to the notebooks of death that some of the students are carrying around with them.)

Reuters recently reported:

China’s capital is seizing ghost and horror books from shops to protect the “physical and mental health” of its youngsters, local media said on Tuesday. Authorities have been scouring bookstores, newsstands and shops near schools, known for their orthodox and conformist teaching but where youth subcultures have flourished with an increasingly diverse society, the Beijing News said.
“The illegal publications are quite popular among students and are apt to harm the physical and mental health of young people,” the newspaper quoted a government circular as saying. … Among the blacklisted stories are adaptations of “Death Note”, a Japanese manga comic series about a high school student who has a supernatural notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it, the Beijing News said.

This morning the Yomiuri also ran a story about this:

China deems ‘Death Note’ manga bad influence
Chinese authorities have begun cracking down on pirated products featuring the popular Japanese manga “Death Note,” which they say is adversely affecting the mental and physical health of young people. The products in question include books, notebooks and DVDs featuring movie adaptations of the manga.
“Death Note” is popular among middle school students in urban areas in China.
… A popular student game is to write parents’ and teachers’ names on the notebooks that imitate “Death Note,” and educators consider this a problem.
… The organ of the Chinese Communist Party, the People’s Daily newspaper, carried an expert’s comment saying that sources of bad publications should be cut to reduce stress and the burden on students. The daily also warned against the invasion of foreign culture.
… Meanwhile, objections by children against the crackdown have been reported. According to the Legal Daily newspaper, when the Lanzhou city authorities in northwestern China’s Gansu Province inspected and confiscated 48 pirate editions of the DVDs on May 29, there were reportedly many threatening calls to the city the next day from angry middle school students.

Is it really true that horror movies can warp the minds of the young and innocent? Probably not.

But what is true is that children, especially teens, don’t respond well to authority. So they have apparently used the idea of a notebook of death as a means to rebel against the authorities in China. I would be hard pressed to encourage anyone to keep a notebook of death, but I must admit that the subversive nature of the movie had previously escaped me. I’ll certainly have to take a second look at the movie which I’d unfairly discounted as being … well … a bit juvenile. In fact, I’d better take a second look at the entire genre.

In a society with too much authoritarianism, a little subversion can’t be all that bad.

Link:
Japan Probe: Chinese Authorities Crack Down On ‘Death Note’

Movie reviews:
Dream Logic: Death Note (aka: Desu Noto)
Variety Asia Online: “Death Note” & “Death Note: The Last Name”
Love HK film: Death Note

Humorous Death Note spoof, Debu Note:

There are several things I’ve wanted to blog on, but have not had the opportunity.Here is something that caught my eye this morning.Mental illnesses growing in Japan:

More Japanese claimed and received compensation for work-related suicides and mental-health problems last year than ever before, officials said on Thursday. A government report, citing the number of cases leading to compensation, found workers who committed suicide due to work-related stress hit a record 65 cases in 2006, compared to 42 the previous year, said Health Ministry official Junichiro Kurashige. The number of workers who received compensation for work-induced mental illness hit 205, up 61 per cent from a year earlier, he said also a record high. The number of applications for compensation for mental illness or suicide also rose sharply, to 819 cases, a 24 per cent jump. The numbers reflect a push by the government to get more workers or their families to seek compensation if they are legitimately entitled to it, and Kurashige warned that the compensated cases till probably reflect only a tiny fraction of the overall problem, which remains largely unknown and ungauged. Japan’s suicide rate is among the highest in the industrialised world. More than 32,000 Japanese took their own lives in 2004, the bulk of them older Japanese suffering financial woes as the country struggled through a decade of economic stagnation.

Clearly the people who are committing suicide need help. However, should help come in the form of saying they are sick and need medical aid? I don’t agree with that paradigm, and the only positive thing I can say about it, is at least it avoids using culturism to explain why people commit suicide in Japan. Although it may not be apparent off the bat, this is a move towards the left. Both the right and the left, if you go far enough depend on collectivism as opposed to individualism. However, the left prefers pseudo-science collectivism while the right prefers religious or nationalistic collectivism.Saying that undesirable behavior is sick is to put experts in charge of our behavior.

In response, the Japanese government has earmarked substantial funds for programmes to help those with depression and other mental illnesses and is more actively involved in trying to get those affected to come forward through awareness programmes. The figures are also seen as reflecting a change in social attitudes toward mental illness. Though once seen as shameful, more Japanese are willing to acknowledge they suffer from depression or stress-related illnesses now than in the past, and the government has begun easing its compensation restrictions to allow more people to qualify for help.

Being willing to talk to people and get help will benefit anyone. Talking to someone who talks to many others with similar problems could be especially helpful. Taking drugs that make a person feel well (for example: Prozac) might also benefit a person, but there will also likely be costly side-effects.Despite all this, I still don’t believe that it’s correct to call people who could benefit from any of the above sick.

“Before, people tried to hide that they were suffering from depression,” said Mikio Mizuno, a lawyer specialising in death from overwork. “Now, it has become more widely known that people suffer and commit suicide from work-related depression, leading to more applications for workers’ compensation. The psychological burden from work is also increasing.”

Why not directly argue workers have a right not to be overworked? Instead, we’re getting the argument that workers have a right to health and that their jobs make them sick.In other words, to get access to our rights we must first be diagnosed by a practicing psychiatrist.Putting all this aside, if Japan’s health care system doesn’t already have enough problems, adding mental health to the agenda will not improve things. Drug companies will of course gain, as will their lobbies. It takes big businesses to support big government.Just remember, the more behavior becomes a public health issue, the less control we’ll have over it.Links:

• The Myth of Mental Illness By Thomas S. Szasz (1960)
• The Thomas S. Szasz, M.D. Cybercenter for liberty and Responsibly
• Mai Uchida: Doctors have a duty to help prevent suicide
• Counseling and Support in Japan

Recently there was a video captured on YouTube which was basically a fluff piece with no news content but a lot of things that many in the public seem to enjoy consuming in Japan. Among them:1. Eigo (English)2. Mao Asada3. “gaijin”Here’s the video:

You can actually learn a little bit about Japanese society by watching this video. However, I think even if you speak Japanese, it’s not immediately apparent what’s going on in this video, which for some in Japan is probably very entertaining. I’d like to attempt to explain what the video is really about.First, some background, Mao Asada appeared at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Japan recently for a one hour interview. There was some fairly sedate reportage of this interview in both the Japan Times and the Asahi Shimbun.During that one hour interview, we can assume, and in fact know from the newspaper articles, that many questions were asked. However, in the video above, none of the normal questions were reported. Instead, the focus is on either embarrassing questions or the difficult ones. Why? Well … let me guide you through the video:3:59 video begins3:58 Announcer introduces the topic by saying, and I’m only paraphrasing: “At the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Japan, Mao Asada took up the challenge of making greetings in ENGLISH, after which foreign reporters fired off, one after another, hard questions of the type that really aren’t asked by Japanese reporters.” As the announcer says this, a box at bottom of screen appears with the headline. It is “Mao was in a big pinch as she fielded hard questions from the reporters. She says ‘Hello’.” [That is, it’s big news that she said “Hello”, and the reason it’s big news is because it was in English! Sort of like making a big news story of some popular American sports player saying Konnichiwa to Japanese reporters in America. ]3:40 The news report begins, a male is now narrating the report. From the tone of his voice, he sounds like he can hardly contain his excitement. We get images of various “gaijin”, how strange and exotic they appear. Next we slip to a quick clip of the elegant Mao, “Japan’s pride”, skating in the ring. [At this point we can sort of see what the story is really about, Mao versus the “gaijin”.]3:20 A small box comes up in the left side of the screen again, it basically reads, “Mao says, ‘Hello Everybody’ in English and is then put in a big pinch by the hard questions [of the foreign reporters.]” The narrator stops talking while we take in the ambiance and tension and sheer exoticness of the scene. When is Mao going to speak English, when? The tension builds.3:08 The screen changes and we get pictures and examples of very sophisticated people who have visited the Foreign Corespondents Club in Japan. How different they all seem from the innocent Mao. Of course, all these serious people could speak English. We’re even told, what has to be an obvious falsehood, that every Japanese who has visited the club up until now has spoken English. The tension builds even more. Mao’s just a sweet innocent skater, and she’s going to speak English … oh my gosh!2:50 We come back to Mao, and we’re reminded that’s she’s been training in America. So can she do it, can she really speak English? Here it comes, she’s going to speak English, grab onto your seat …2:48 Then it comes, and she does it, she speaks English! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, not only can she skate but she speaks English, amazing, incredible. Cheerful music of success begins to play and everything is happy … but wait, how about when those “gaijin” start asking their severe questions. What’s going to happen then?2:38 Now we go to the first reporter whose asking a question. Just listening to the English sends shivers up the spine, the question sounds so hard. And look how foreign the reporter looks who is asking it. Wow. What’s Mao going to do? The reporter asks his question about which team does Mao prefer, The Yankees or the Red Sox? Both have Japanese players. The announcer says basically, “she got the question in ENGLISH but what does she do?”, we then listen to Mao answer the question … in JAPANESE … [audience at home reaction: Yappari, eigo ga muzukashii — Yup, English is just so hard.] The answer to the question is virtually ignored by the announcer, but he carefully states, “She answers the question in JAPANESE!”2:13 The announcer reminds us that Mao is being asked types of questions, “that Japanese reporters really just can’t ask.” [Wow, “gaijin” will ask questions like that?]. Some older guy asks Mao if she has a boy friend, then asks her if she’s been asked in the States about Japan’s war time history. She answers both answers with poise, first saying she’s been too busy for love, and then saying, everyone in America has treated her very graciously and friendlily. We then get some questions about the World Skating Federation, and this gets directed to Mao’s agent …0:22 … we’re told to look at the serious expression on Mao’s face … but that for the next question she’s going to smile. The questions comes: “what is your long term personal target?” What does Mao answer, she wants to be able to speak English. Aw gosh, she’s just like every other girl in Japan. Suddenly the happy, cheerful music comes back as Mao smiles. May her dream of being a good English speaker come true … [cut to an ECC commericial … okay that didn’t happen as far as I know but ….]. Also compare this long term goal to what was reported in the news articles given above.Okay, so what do I think of this video? It’s EVIL, I tell you, EVIL.Alright, I don’t really think that. I just thought it would be fun to say it.No, I’m not really sure what to think of it. But I do think it reveals certain subtle or perhaps not so subtle prejudices.While these prejudices do not really help “gaijin”, I feel very strongly that these prejudices have a negative effect on some or many Japanese. It’s very hard to explain how. I think the video (and many, many more like it shown everyday) reinforce certain values that limit a person’s horizons. It’s hard to really get a fix on what these values are but it’s worth the effort to try to get them down:1. English is hard.2. Only uppity people, who in their uppitiness are actually kind of crude, speak English well.3. It’s sweet and cute and lovable not to speak English well.4. Foreigners are exotic and unsophisticated. They lack poise and subtlety.5. Foreigners are intimidating.Anyway, that’s just for starters. Comments anyone?Really though, why should it be such a big deal whether Mao speaks English or not? It’s almost as if she were being teased about her English ability — at least the way an older brother might tease his little sister. It’s like soft media hazing.Many in Japan love this sort of stuff, and I think that’s very revealing.