The Yomiuri’s Political Pulse, currently authored by Koichi Akaza, is always worth reading. In the most recent installment Akaza argues the old LDP are not back despite what many are saying.

I disagree with his analysis. He basically takes a snap shot and compares the LDP now with the LDP before.

His analysis could be summed up this way –

The old system favored the formation of factions.

The current system does not favor the formation of factions (as much).

Okay, this might be true. However, we can’t just compare snap shots. If Fukuda actually manages to stick around, the real question is whether his actions will be to alter the system in such a way as it favors factions or disfavors them.

We don’t really know, but the first thing Fukuda did was to put some big faction leaders in charge so that should tell you something right away about his intentions.

So, it’s correct that the old LDP are not back, but certainly Fukuda is throwing the old system a life preserver and at the very least keeping the dream alive.

There is an interesting article in the Yomiuri this morning about the government’s response to the big rally that took place in Okinawa last week-end. The article begins:

In an effort to soothe the feelings of the people of Okinawa Prefecture who have been outraged by an education ministry instruction that publishers remove from high school textbooks references to the Japanese military forcing civilians to commit mass suicide during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, the government Tuesday suggested it would consider requests by publishers to “correct” textbook passages.

That’s good news. However, if you read the article which sort of leads you through the system under which the revision would takes place, it’s not that easy to follow because the system is quite convoluted. Well, it’s a bureaucracy, isn’t it?

One interesting sentence:

A correction to a screened textbook requires only the minister’s approval.

Does this imply there is a stage in this process in which the education minister (the MEXT minister) can sort of just wing it and approve anything he wants? Not sure.

Surprisingly the article ends with a quote from Bunmei Ibuki and he’s actually making sense. He says, “The education minister should not say anything that could impact on the matter. We should heed the wisdom of the private sector.”

Could he possibly mean that the consumers (the parents) in their own wisdom should decide what their children should learn. Sadly, that’s probably not what he means. Actually, I honestly don’t know what he does mean …

An article in the Yomiuri states:

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura and Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Tuesday drew up an outline for a new bill that would extend the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s refueling mission in the Indian Ocean. Key elements of the new bill would restrict the MSDF’s activities to refueling and supplying water to vessels of other countries, and would require the government to periodically report on the MSDF’s activities to the Diet.

Does this imply that up until now the government has not had to periodically report on the MSDF’s activities in the Diet?

I don’t see this as such a big issue. After all, historically Japan’s military has always been very well behaved and responsible, right?

From an article about doctors in the Japan Times:

These days the burdens on doctors are increasing due to various factors, including the need to obtain informed consent from patients and make adequate preparations to prevent malpractice. Women doctors take childbirth and child-rearing leaves. A vicious cycle is in play: Overwork forces some doctors to quit; their departure leads to more overwork, which forces other doctors to quit. The government must act now.

If I am not mistaken doctors’ fees in Japan are not determined by the doctor in question, but by some quasi-governmental organization.

This means that if you are a doctor, you can improve your earnings only by either cutting costs (using cheaper equipment) or increasing revenue (by taking on more patients.)

This means a really great doctor can’t decide he’s worth twice as much as an average doctor and raise his prices accordingly. In other words, a brilliant doctor has to charge the same price as a fairly mediocre doctor.

The system clearly encourages at least two things:
1. Doctors to overwork.
2. Medical care workers to cut corners (or downright cheat) in anyway possible to reduce costs.

I know from personal experience that if I visit a doctor who isn’t very good, I don’t have to wait long. If I find a really good doctor the waiting time can be two hours or more. We’ve seen more than one example of healthcare companies in Japan cutting corners to save money … the recent problems at Comsn come to mind.

According to MTC at Shisaku, a really great blog:

Very kind reader ERP forwards the following interesting breakdown of the countries that have taken advantage of the MSDF’s services in the Indian Ocean in Heisei Fiscal Year 19:
 
By volume of fuel:
 
France 48 %
U.S.A. 30%
Pakistan 13 %
U.K. 5 %
Germany 4%
 
By number of refuelings:
 
 
Pakistan 11
France 9
U.K. 5
U.S.A. 5
Germany 4
 
The information can be found on page 11 (Slide 10) of a Ministry of Defense presentation (pdf) on the refueling effort.

I had no idea any of this was the case. I completely thought America was the top recipient. Duh …

Thank you ERP and MTC!

Here are some quotes from the Yomiuri’s take on Yasuo Fukuda’s speech yesterday along with commentary.

Read the rest of this entry »

I am really upset.

I have lived in Japan 13 and a half years.
I have permanent residency.
I have a wife who is a Japanese national.
I have two children who are Japanese nationals.

Next time I leave Japan, even if it’s just for a very short recreational trip, upon reentering I’ll have to stand in a long line with other “foreigners”, while we all wait to be fingerprinted like criminal suspects.

I wrote an editorial for the Japan Times on this. It can be found here.

I have not been blogging on this issue, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t very important to me. I want to take a minute here to thank Debito who has continued to follow this and post about it at his blog. (It was Debito who suggested my name to Japan Times editor which allowed for the editorial I wrote.)

Here are some of the entries Debito has on this:

• Nov 07 Immig Law: New Biometric machines only at Narita. Every other airport fingerprints NJ every time.
• Amnesty Intl Tokyo Symposium Oct 27 on Immigration’s new fingerprinting etc. regulations
• MOJ Website on fingerprinting/photos at Immigration from Nov 2007 (UPDATED)
• Gyaku Website: Accenture, JAPAN-VISIT, future Immig surveillance of NJ

Please follow this issue and at a bear minimum gripe and complain about it to every person you meet and communicate with.

If you ever have trouble in Japan related to being a foreigner and your looking to share or maybe get advice, Community in Japan is an excellent place.

A post entry about money and rebels.

Read the rest of this entry »

And on and on it goes, here is something I hadn’t considered yesterday when I talked about the meaning of refuel …

… some within the government doubt whether each country would be willing to share adequate data on which vessels received fuel from the MSDF.
 
In addition, one senior ministry official said, “There’s no way of looking into this issue properly if countries such as the United States don’t give us any information on the ground that it’s classified.”
 
Another government source agreed, saying, “It’s highly likely other countries won’t be willing to disclose fuel consumption and navigation routes as these are regarded as military secrets.”

Again, signs of how convoluted this problem is. Japan is now going to go to each country that received fuel and ask, “ah, excuse me, but you could you tell me what exactly you did with each ship that received fuel from us. Are you absolutely sure the ship didn’t do anything other than help in the Afghan operation?”

There seems to be something absolutely embarrassing about this.

Never let yourself be goaded into taking seriously problems about words and their meanings. — Karl Popper

A post about article 9, refueling ships, and the meaning of refuel … what does it mean to refuel a ship?

Read the rest of this entry »