culture

From Seattle Times, Japanese superstar Utada Hikaru finds her way in the U.S.:

Q: Would it have been different if you had started your music career in the states instead?

A: I don't think I would be anywhere near where I am if started in the states. I can't imagine what I would be like, or where my music would have gone. ... There aren't as many genre boundaries in Japan ... so I have complete freedom in what music I make, without worrying about if this is going to be on urban radio stations, or Top 40 radio stations.

Knowing nothing about the music industry, I find this a rather fascinating comment. Is it true I wonder?

Okay, riddle solved. For years now I've noticed something in many public restrooms called Picoeye. (Pronounced a bit like peek-o-eye.) It's a device attached to the ceiling that looks like this:

I understand the "eye" part alright, but the "pico" I thought could be either "peek" or "picture". I thought that there were actually people putting security cameras in public restrooms. However, finally I looked it up on the Internet, and as it turns out, it is a fire alarm, sensitive enough to pick up the strike of a single match.

So if you are in the rest room in Japan and see one of these rest assured that pictures of you doing whatever you are doing aren't being capture by at least *this* specific device. One less thing to worry about ...

The Japan Times editorial on the recent reports about school violence begins this way:

Violent behavior in Japanese schools increased to an all-time high in 2008, according to a recent report from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Students, teachers and other people were victims of 60,000 violent incidents involving primary, middle and high school students.

And ends this way:

Students need better outlets for releasing tensions, and in ways that are meaningful for them, not simply imposed from above. Schools need to provide clear guidance and well-defined boundaries, but this clarity must be balanced by reasonable flexibility and student autonomy, too. When that happens, students can learn that violence is the worst choice of all, and always a failure, for all involved.

In the midsts of all this I can't find a single concrete policy suggestions. I can certainly find some fairly weird and vague comments like this:

Despite the shocking increase in violence, some hope was contained in the report. Schools have been successful in reducing bullying. The number of bullying cases reported was down by 30 percent from 2006. This two-year turnaround resulted from the hard work of teachers, administrators, police and parents, as well as from students themselves. If the serious youth problem of bullying can be curtailed, school violence can be as well. One day, hopefully, violence, like bullying, will start to be seen as dasai (uncool).

I don't know a lot about this issue. I do know that once you get into junior high school in Japan you are basically a full time student in almost the same sense a salary man is a full time employee. That is you spend all your time at club or at school or studying or going to a juku. A lot of the time spent studying is in memorizing a massive number of facts that have no pertinent meaning to your particular life. A lot of time is spent learning how to submit to authority. A lot of time is spent acculturating and learning how to "get along" with others. So the system isn't working that well these days. Violence is breaking out. Now, why am I suppose to be surprised? 

How about doing away with public schools? Okay, that's too radical. Fine. Well, how about just making it easier to go to private schools? From what I've heard it is extraordinarily hard to get accredited as a private school in Japan, is that wrong? Given the massive amount of money that goes towards financing jukus, I'm sure parents could afford private schools, if they were made more readily available. The irony is that basically most of the important stuff a lot of studnets learn these days, like how to pass tests, is done studying at jukus. So if that's the case, why not just let the jukus sort of work their way into private schools?

But, I don't doubt that the jukus support the current system. After all, public education has to show tangible results so the focus is always on standardized tests. This favors the jukus because that's what they teach, how to do well on standardized tests. Surly these juku companies must lobby government officials to support the present system. I would guess.

Now, I'm just a blogger, and I can't claim any expertise here. This is all speculation. How much can I really say? But I would have hoped that the Japan Times would have been able to do a better job than just saying we can change. Just consider all the issues out there worth exploring.

What do you think?

Here is a pretty good article about Muslims:

I wish more Americans had an opportunity to get to know Muslims. Then they would not be susceptible to the silly anti-Muslim propaganda that is floated by some right-wing Christians.

According to the Times online:

There was a time in Japan when courtesy was second nature. If you saw an elderly person, a pregnant woman or somebody on crutches, you would leap up and offer them your seat. These days, you pretend to be asleep and avoid eye contact at all costs.

Is this true? Or is it just a myth? I've been in Japan 14 years, and it seems to me like it's always been this way. There are some pleasant exceptions, of course.

This picture along with an associated article seems to be making the AP rounds. Basically the article has nothing to do with Japan, yet I wonder what kind of impression people get of Japan when they read articles like this. Perhaps some would say it's quintessentially Japanese -- because it's cute and weird.

It's looks like slim pickings for Americasn feeling nostalgic for thanksgiving tomorrow in Nagoya. I think the Hilton Hotel has a dinner, and I would probably take my family, not even so much as to celebrate the holiday as to eat turkey, but I have to work. If only there was place offering a lunch menu. I do have a friend selling microwavable turkey dinners from America.

From the Asahi:

A 31-year-old man expressed remorse Tuesday for storming an office and smashing 22 computers with a truncheon in a rampage triggered by an unopened gift.   The former part-timer at an online clothing sales company in Osaka's Kita Ward admitted at the Osaka District Court that he became enraged when he found out that the president of the company did not bother to open his chugen midsummer gift.   ...

Here is an interesting story:

Mie Univ. associate professor arrested for breaking mobile phone TSU, Japan - An associate professor at Mie University was arrested Tuesday for breaking the mobile phone of a woman at a bar in Tsu, Mie Prefecture, the police said.