Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

 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.

Heated Discussions Start between Chinese and Japanese Netizens as China Unveils its First BBS in Japanese

China’s First BBS in Japanese

The person in charge of the BBS hopes that more Chinese netizens proficient in Japanese join the BBS to refute the erroneous historical views held by some Japanese netizens.

By Li Meng from World News Journal

Many Japanese netizens have been attracted by China’s first BBS in Japanese on jp.chinabroadcast.cn, the Japanese website opened by China Radio International (CRI) on May 10. More than 1,400 messages concerning Sino-Japanese relations have been posted on this BBS by June 10. The number of hits for those messages on Yasukuni Shrine reached 50,000, making it the hottest topic on the BBS.

Eye-witness the debates on Yasukuni shrine visits

In the afternoon of June 10　2005, our correspondent visited the BBS webmaster’s office and witnessed the heated debates on Koizoumi’s visits to Yasukuni shrine among Chinese, Japanese and South Korean netizens.

Kentaro Ofuji (Japanese netizen): “Visit to Yasukuni shrine is simply a way for us to honor the dead. It will amount to interference in our internal affairs if you make things difficult for us on the pretext of this issue.”

PARK (South Korean netizen): “The Japanese common sense is: Neither China nor South Korea is right. Only Japan is always right.”

XIAO (Chinese netizen): “You said that only three Asian countries (China, South Korea, North Korea) are opposed to Yasukuni visits. How come one country is criticized by its three neighbors at the same time? Could it be that only you are right while the other three countries are in the wrong?”

The unreasonable Japanese netizens

According to Mr. Wang Wei, who manages the BBS and works at the Japanese section of CRI, there are quite a number of Japanese who hold anti-China views although some Japanese netizens do hope that China and Japan enjoy friendly relationships.

The webmaster Mr. Hu Desheng related an incident in which a Chinese netizen argued with a Japanese netizen over Nanjing Massacre. While the Chinese netizen accused Japan of killing many Chinese, the Japanese netizen, who was oblivious to reason, challenged him to produce the evidence. When pictures of Nanjing Massacre were posted on the BBS, the Japanese netizen not only dismissed them as fake but also demanded to know who took the pictures, what the source was and where they found them. “It seems to us that they have numerous irrational beliefs and claims, some of which are purely false arguments.”

In accordance with the BBS’s regulations, the messages posted by Japanese cannot be changed at will. Mrs. Liao Li, deputy director at the Japanese section at CRI, noted that right now over 90% of the users of this BBS are Japanese and the rest of the users are from China, South Korea and the US. She also expressed hope that more experts in Japanese studies and youth who know Japanese will visit this BBS to effectively refute the erroneous historical views held by Japan.

Incorrigible Japanese

Japanese and Chinese have completely different historical views, said Jin Xide, who is a researcher at Institute of Japanese Research under China’s Academy of Social Sciences.

The history education of postwar Japan is characterized by two features. First, the education system teaches a distorted history, which claims that International Military Tribunal for the Far East issued unfair verdicts and Nanjing Massacre did not happen at all. Second, this part of history is simply neglected. The history textbooks of postwar Japan generally introduces Meiji Reform, the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese war and then skips to the end of the Second World War. The modern history is almost never tested, not to say the invasion of China. The history teachers never teach students this part, although it is included in the syllabus.

Jin Dexi is quite pessimistic about any possible change of attitude on the Japanese part since Japan’s postwar generations grow up in such an environment.

Last week I went to famous theme park called "Museum Meiji Mura" that exhibites old time buildings in Japan including western style ones which Japan accepted for modernising its society.

It is located in Inuyama, Aichi Japan (Prefecture in the middle region of Japan, 2 hour SuperExpress train ride from Japan).  Please look at http://www.meijimura.com/english/index-e.html

There were beautiful buildings that were transported from where it was. One of the most famous ones is the former Imperial Hotel building which was built in Tokyo, 1923. Only Entrance Hall and the Lobby were exhibited. It was designed by famous American architect named Frank Lloyd Wright. This building experienced a very big earthquake occurred in the year its contruction was completed but it survived.

The inside is below.

It was like a Retro trip.