茨 Thorns.

Well guys. I wrote that huge post and then just dropped off the face of the earth, sorry. Karate has started back up. These last few days I was doing my part time job teaching English. Sunday I played soccer with the more actively japanese speaking section of the dorms, and we are going to do a nabe party next week. I started helping out with Shizuoka’s English Speaking Society this monday. The week following my trip was apparently testing week. Also in about 2 weeks I have finals so you might not hear from me much anyway.

やれやれ。。　御免なさい　久し振り何かを書きました。

空手の部活はもう始まった。　昨日と今日英会話のバイトをしていました。　日曜日日本語をよく喋っている人達とサッカーをしました。　来週僕達は　鍋をする予定です。　　今週ESSを手伝うのは始まりました。　旅行を帰ってから試験ばかりだったので　ちょっと　大変でした。　そして　そろそろ　週末の試験があるので　何かを格の時間があるかどうかが分かりません。　御免なさい！

This is my next movie report. Just so that people don’t complain to me, when I watch a movie I am almost always studying something else while watching. Which is the main reason I watch each movie 2 or more times.

僕の次の映画レポート。　参考までに　映画を見ながら　何かを勉強しているから　よく　二回か三回　同じ映画を見ます。

Recently I watched, Trick 1 +2 the movies (there is also a TV series for each), Chakushin Ari 1, and Saikano (actually Saishuu heiki kanojo, Last Weapon Girlfriend).

Trick is basically a series revolving around magician style magic and ousting people who call themselves gods because they can fool the general populace with their “magic.” I really like the series it is really funny and teaches a lot about how to do “magic.”　

トリック。　手品。　偽者神様。　面白い冗談は

ア　イ　タ　イ　　　　横に読んだら　　

イ　マ　カ　ラ　

シ　ス　ラ　ナ　　　　　　　上から下まで読んだら

テ　　　ハ　イ　

面白いね？

Okay, I said I laughed through Chakushin Ari Final… yeah. I didn’t do that for the first in the series, and I am really glad I watched it for the first time in the morning. It’s scary. Maybe not on the level of the Ring or the Grudge (haven’t seen either) but it’s scary. This movie drove me nuts. While the third one killed someone off nearly every 15 minutes, this one killed off 2 people really quickly then left you suspended for the rest of the movie. I still don’t know if the two main characters are really alive or not. Yeesh.

着信あり　一番目は　怖い！！！！　それだけ。

Saikano. Before I begin I must report that the main character in this movie looks somewhat like my tutor, so it was weird watching the movie. This movie is based off of the manga and an anime exists. The story is high school guy falls in love with high school girl who turns out to be mostly machine. In fact she is a weapon. The last weapon able to defend the earth. I won’t tell you how it ends but the story is a SAD love story. Not sad in the sense that it was badly made, but that it set out to be a tear jerker to the very end. Oh yeah and unlike chakushin ari 1, nearly everyone does die.

最終兵器彼女. 日本人だったら　聞いた事あると思うけど　悲しい映画。　

Tuesday this week I had a presentation on International studies. Here’s the jist of it:

今週のは　国際の授業の為に英語のスピーチをしました。　ちょっと御免なさい英語だけ　あります：

Chapter 6 English Version (5 日本語)　日本への疑問　The Japanese Question.

Title: The Struggle to Reorient Japanese Purpose

The main focus of this chapter is Nakasone Yasuhiro’s (中曽根康弘) time as Prime Minister and his efforts to redirect Japan’s future onto a path separate from the Yoshida doctrine (吉田ドクトリン).

Nakasone entered office with this motto; “to settle all accounts on postwar political issues (戦後政治の総決算).” This motto was the summit of his political career. His political actions in the years leading up to his election revealed his position as a political nationalist.

- A 7000 word essay to Macarthur (マッカーサー) at the time of the Dulles (ダレス)-Yoshida negotiations concerning constitutional amendment and independent defense. (Mostly ignored by Macarthur but it was a bold maneuver considering Nakasone was about half Yoshida’s age.)

-During his role as director-general of the Japanese Defense Agency (防衛庁長官) from 1970 to 1971 he advocated a more autonomous defense (自主防衛) for Japan. Again little came of his efforts due mostly in part to his short term in office (18months).

-Just before his election in 1982 he wrote an article expressing his distaste for the Yoshida doctrine and his goal to transcend the San Francisco System (サンフランシスコ体制).

With the political failure of Suzuki (鈴木) and Nationalist mood of the 1980’s, the political climate in 1982 was ideal for the rise of the maverick Nakasone to that of Prime Minister. Following his election a man by the name of Koyama (香山) wrote of Japan’s need for a Grand Design. This man’s influence helped to push Nakasone out of simple nationalism and into a broader, nationally advantageous sense for the future.

The three key characteristics that set Nakasone’s approach apart from those who came before him are as follows:

1. A top-down style emphasizing his role as leader.

2. Use of the limits of his foreign policy power to the maximum advantage.

3. Use of a high number of self appointed private councils to help promote his own ideals, and special effort to influence the composition of official councils too.

During his reign he had a grand design to reorient Japan’s future. The book conveniently separates his grand design’s goals into four key parts:

1. Japan would no longer be a follower nation.

-Nakasone believed that while Japan would be the world leaders technologically, economically and scientifically, a widely held notion, it was necessary to be leaders politically as well.

-The information society (情報化社会) was a topic he often dwelled on as the basis for Japan becoming world leaders.

2. Japan would be prepared for global leadership.

-His means for this goal was to essentially retool major Japanese institutions to function properly in the international world. I.e. an International State (国際国家)

-As influenced by his years with the Administration Reform Commission (臨調) he sought a liberalization of these institutions.

-At a summit with the USA concerning trade deficits in 1986 using a council he hand-picked Nakasone released what was labeled the “maekawa report (前川).” The report entailed a vague list of actions to be taken to reform Japan’s economy

-A second maekawa report was filed the following year with a slight expansion on its propositions. However, both emphasized changes in Japan’s economic structure to better suit international expectations.

3. A new liberal nationalism would be based in the country’s national interests.

-Rather than reverting back to a prewar nationalism, Nakasone sought a way to form a new forward-looking, international, and self confident Japanese.

-To achieve a general change in the national consciousness Nakasone set about reworking Japan’s education system. Using yet another hand picked council he tried to bypass the Ministry of Education to initiate his changes. However, due to compromises made during the process it looked like little would come of his efforts in that area.

-To help Japanese to be more international, Nakasone understood that the schools would need to be more open to international influences. In short, he tried to remove obstacles to the hiring of foreign teachers and integration of foreign students into schools.

-Nakasone believed that Japanese self-confidence would stem from history and tradition. Thereby he took a radical step in yet again using a hand picked council to make a trip to the Yasukuni shrine in 1985(40 years after the war) constitutional. Even his own picked group couldn’t reach a conclusion and in the end issued a vague report implying a consensus. His trip to the Yasukuni had disastrous results, and due to riots in China and Korea he absented himself from the shrine the following year.

-Despite having a new kind of nationalism, one based in Japan’s national interest and not inferiority, even Nakasone was prone to old habits of thought. For example, in a LDP seminar in Shizuoka, 1986, he boasted about the achievements of Japan from a homogenous perspective. He later apologized for the action, but it just goes to show how hard changing the ideals of a nation is when even the advocate is having difficulties.

4. Japan would assume an active role in global strategic affairs.

-For this very controversial goal, Nakisone attempted to remove the passive political image of Japan by making frequent strategic affairs based trips to other nations. This included a surprise trip to Seoul to acquire financial aid for the defense of Japan.

-In dialogue with the America, he even went so far as to make commitments far beyond Japan’s National Defense budget of 1%.

-He also made an attempt to increase the National Defense budget, and while he technically did succeed it was a marginal increase of four thousandths.

Nakasone was only partially successful in his goals for Japan’s future. The majority of his tangible successes were minor while they were quite symbolic. He broke the 1% ceiling set up by the Yoshida doctrine, challenged the psychological background of the doctrine, and left Japan with a more active role politically with its allies. Also, as a side note, Koyama who had influenced him onto a more global path wrote an article in 1985 that expressed an essential antithesis for all that Nakasone sought to change.

End. 終

If you read through that, good for you! If you didn’t, well that’s okay too. It’s really not all that interesting anyway unless you wanted to know about what was going on in Japan politically in the 1980s…

本当に全部を読んだ人達、感謝しています。　読まなかったら　いいんですよ。　本当にそんな面白くないと思うけど　政治の興味があったら　一九八○で　日本の歴史と関係があることと書きましたよ。

One final thing. I think I said above that I have finals in two week. That is not true. I just found out I have one week to prepare for my hardest final 4-C. Japanese grammar and Kanji for level 4 students. I am level 3 taking a level 4 class. ONE WEEK IS NOT ENOUGH TIME!!! However, I will try my best!

最後の事。　終末の試験は後二週間と書きましたね。　本当じゃないです。　今日先生は僕達に知らせました。後一週間、　四級C「文法と漢字の授業です」の週末の試験があります。僕は三級だけど四級の授業を二つを取っています。　一番難しいのは五級です。　一週間は十分じゃないんですよ！　だけど　頑張ります！　

Later! 又ね！

Okay, I really wrote this Tuesday but It has taken me until now to finish and post it. I really didn’t finish. I wanted to but I must study.

ちょっと　ブログを書くのは休憩を取っています。　来週の火曜日　最初の終末の試験があるからです。　勉強しなければなりません。　御免なさい！！

Short P.S. I spent an hour doing maintenance on my bike and now it runs smoother and better. Then on the way home the next day, it rained.

僕の自転車を。。。洗った？　直した？　なんと言えばいいかな。。　でも　もっと　早く走るようになって来ました。 次の日帰っている時雨が降っていた。。