Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

Today, the third child of Princess Kiko who is married to the 2nd prince of Japanese royal family was born. It was a boy.

 So finally Japanese royal family got a legitimate successor under the current royal system. The family have got 3 girls prior to the birth of this boy. Two girls between Princess Kiko and her husband. One girl between 1st prince and his wife. If the system allows female successor. this child birth might not have happened.

 The news of the Princess's pregnancy came coincided with the Parliament debate of changing royal succession system to allow a woman to be in line to the throne. This debate was brought about by the fact that there is no male successor in royal family and then the wife of 1st prince had been distressed because of the pressure to give birth to a boy. She had been mentally ill and is now in Holland to rest hiding from public. It seemed she lost the ability to act as a public person.

 Was it just a coincident that Princess Kiko got pregnant and now gave birth to a boy?

 I do not think so. This should be because Kiko and royal family were concerned about the other Princess.

Kiko is already 39 years old. It is hard for her to give birth to a new child. It seems they set up pregnancy and did the gender selection of the child.

I just feel so awkward. Why should we be so persistent with having a male royal successor? It is now 21st century.

I don't care if the throne was taken over by a woman. In fact I do want to see a queen in the future.

 The conservatives say it is not the issue of gender equality. Royal family is out of the constitution. Their family line has run through male successors. Yes there were some empres in history but they were the daughters of male successors and their children never took over the throne. We should not cut this family line. That is why conservative do not like 3 girls to take over the throne.

If the system cannot work without such sexist and feudal notion, it may be better to abolish such royal system.

It cannot work in such modern time of Japan.

Actually the story of royal family line may be a bit of fiction.  

 There is doubt about the royal family line has gone over 1000 years. There is no concrete evidence that today's emperor shared the famliy line with the first emperor, Jimu. Only the records on the paper. In fact there is a doubt that if the first several emperrors really exist. The average life span of first 8 emperors in history was more than 100 years. It is so hard to belive people of over 1000 years ago could live such long years.

 It is still as mysterious story as "Da vinci Code."  I just simply do not believe such story.

I cannot say "Congratulation" to Princess Kiko and royal family.

 Takafumi Horie, commonly known as Horiemon, enjoyed popularity in the media until last year as a hero of the times. With an unveiling of realities of business operations of Livedoor that he once managed, Horiemon is currently tumbling down the hill thrown in the midst of scandal. While criticism intensifies, surprisingly, there persist comments defending on his behalf. Could it be that many people, somewhere in the back of their heads, feel guilty criticizing Horiemon?   Advent of Horiemon had brought about an expectation that he may be the antithesis to rejuvenate social stagnation. This is precisely the reason why a climate rose to overlook some of his problematic behaviors, and in a sense, it has become impossible to stop him from going overboard.   Japanese youths have lost their energy. Due to the constraints put upon them by the older generation, they are not allowed to live freely and vivaciously. Elders, on the other hand, just complain about younger generation without providing any kind of advice. The elder generation conveys strong image of being stubborn, and contrary to expectation, they are ignorant and pigheaded.   Seeing this from the point of fostering athletes in Japan and other countries, the difference can be explained as difference between lawn fields, that is common in the US and European countries, to mud fields, that is common in Japan. The reason European players can exhibit dynamic plays in the soccer and rugby games is because they practice mostly on a lawn field. Lawn plays the role of a cushion, and even if a player should trip and fall, they will not be hurt so badly. On the other hand, if a player falls on a mud field, there will be clouds of dust and player is more likely to end up with injuries. So players would not be able to take on dynamic actions for the fear of possible injury.   The same situation exists in social realm. Unlike society with green lawn, outstanding human resources are difficult to breed in an intolerant society where damage is huge when failed thereby losing challenging spirits. This could be a cause of decline of a country. Could it be that many people are beginning to sense such crisis for the country? With the Horiemon uproar, there has been more and more of conservatives screaming for educational revision and to breed patriotism, but this would only make things worse. So what are they trying to do? Change mud fields into concrete field and stop youths from doing anything? This is also interrelated to decline of birthrate. In the present society, children cannot grow up healthily and freely. It is alright for them to take on challenge, but there will always be a fear that they may be bashed when failed. Raising children in such an environment causes more concern than financial circumstances. In a society like this, people will be better off to remain single and being carefree from marriage or family. With this, people feel less and less a part of a society and society not only loses all vitality but transforming into dangerously uncontrollable world. Ironically, Horiemon uproar may be sounding off a warning for this. It is truly the price we must pay for creating such an intolerant society.

Japan's ruling party of last half century won the election. It was a surprising victory. They now occupied more than 60% of the total seats. 

It was really stupid choice by voters. They haven't done great things. They've increased the tax and sent troops to Iraq. They worsened the relationship between China and Japan. Why the voters chose them? The opposition party and the people were just foolish.

Anyway, I don't want to talk about it. This country is getting worse and worse, the people's mind and standard of living is lowering.  

Say good bye to Japan. There is no democracy here.