Furusato Roads Take Me Home

I have been indirectly accused of being soft-hearted, if not indeed soft-headed, about the abruptly collapsing economies and social carrying capacity of the rural areas.

I will someday respond to the criticism.

In the interim, how about an example of what real softhearts/softheads can produce as regards the areas outside the major metropolises:

Editorial: Toward a society of hope
The Asahi Shimbun

We believe that Japan's best course for the future is to develop into a "cooperative welfare state." But how to achieve that goal? On specific proposals, let us first discuss decentralization. We propose that all issues related to living be handled at the regional level, and entrust to the central government only those that cannot be resolved locally. "Local sovereignty," rather than decentralization, is the principle to which we should adhere.

For that, we need to develop local administrative bodies into what might legitimately be called regional governments--truly autonomous bodies that are vested with an independent administrative, fiscal and legislative authority. Municipal and village governments, which deal directly with residents, will be entrusted with the heaviest responsibilities.

According to our envisioned image of Japan, it will be a nation where the central and regional governments share responsibilities as equal partners. Some people may think this is a pipe dream. But if this does not happen, the future will be bleak indeed.

Japan's total debts, run up by the central and local governments, now stand at 773 trillion yen. One of the causes is wasteful spending of taxpayers' money under the current taxation and fiscal systems.

Expensive roads are built in mountainous areas and regional administrative bodies compete with their neighbors to do the same. Nobody is held accountable even if those roads or facilities remain unused or underutilized.

Central government ministries and agencies exercise their authority over regional governments, and the latter expect central government subsidies as their deserved windfall. Contracts for public works projects buoy regional economies and secure votes for local politicians.

Eventually, things can go very wrong. The city of Yubari in Hokkaido, which went bankrupt with massive debts, exemplifies this. As a traditional mining town that had fallen on hard times, Yubari sought to survive through tourism and used central government subsidies to invest excessively in the construction of tourist facilities. But tourism never took off, and the city ran up 18 billion yen in debt in this industry alone.

The post-Meiji Restoration concept of nation-building was that the provinces should just follow what Tokyo said. This may have been effective during the years of national reconstruction after World War II, but is now nothing more than a huge drag. Things have to change.

The European Union is adapting to economic globalization by strengthening the unity of member states. On the other hand, however, the EU is also promoting local independence by transferring authority to local governments in areas such as education and welfare...

A veritable baikingu* of everything that drives a sane person into shrill howls of madness over the progressive's favorite national daily:

- the use of sophistry and jargon to mask intellectual confusion

- a belief that the national government is insensitive and corrupt

- a belief that "the little people", if left alone, would be angels

- caricatures of pre-1945 conditions

- the reification of European Union policies

Whenever I read Asahi Shimbun editorials I am always reminded of the excuses communist party organs would make for the failures of socialism or the explanations Sankei Shimbun op-eds give for the ineffectiveness of aggressive diplomatic stances and the promotion of unquestioning patriotism -- that the failure of the resulting initiatives is not intrinsic to the doctrines being followed but is the result of a failure to impose the doctrinal recommendations stringently enough.

For the Asahi, the unassailable good is "democracy"-- you can just never have too much of it...

...which is pretty much the opposite of what the quiet doyen of Japanese political studies found when he looked hard at the data.



For those who want to check the Asahi.com's English version for translation issues, a Japanese original can be found here. (link expired)
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* "smörgåsbord"

Nagatachōterasu Ōmikami

Ozawa Ichirō has not given his answer whether or not he will accept the invitation of his fellow leaders of the Democratic Party to remain the head of the party. Indeed, he has told them that "he needs time to put into order his mind" (kokoro no seiri ni jikan ga hitsuyō) before he can respond to their their entreaties.

So they wait...and wait...and wait...

At least one of the evening papers sees a similarity with a certain situation described in the ancient chronicles:

Courtesy: Mainichi Shimbun

SECT. XVI.--THE DOOR OF THE HEAVENLY ROCK-DWELLING *

So thereupon the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity, terrified at the sight, closed [behind her] the door of the Heavenly Rock-Dwelling, made it fast, and retired. Then the whole Plain of High Heaven was obscured and all the Central Land of Reed-Plains darkened.

Owing to this, eternal night prevailed.

Hereupon the voices of the myriad Deities were like unto the flies in the fifth moon as they swarmed, and a myriad portents of woe all arose.

Therefore did the eight hundred myriad Deities assemble in a divine assembly in the bed of the Tranquil River of Heaven, and bid the Deity Thought-Includer, child of the High-August-Producing-Wondrous-Deity think of a plan, assembling the long-singing birds of eternal night and making them sing, taking the hard rocks of Heaven from the river-bed of the Tranquil River of Heaven, and taking the iron from the Heavenly Metal-Mountains, calling in the smith Ama-tsu-ma-ra, charging Her Augustness I-shi-ko-ri-do-me to make a mirror, and charging His Augustness jewel-Ancestor to make an augustly complete [string] of curved jewels eight feet [long],--of five hundred jewels, --and summoning His Augustness Heavenly-Beckoning-Ancestor-Lord and His Augustness Great-Jewel, and causing them to pull out with a complete pulling the shoulder [-blade] of a true stag from the Heavenly Mount Kagu, and take cherrybark from the Heavenly Mount Kagu, and perform divination, and pulling up by pulling its roots a true sakaki with five hundred [branches] from the Heavenly Mount Kagu, and taking and putting upon its upper branches the augustly complete [string] of curved jewels eight feet [long],--of five hundred jewels,--and taking and tying to the middle branches the mirror eight feet [long], and taking and hanging upon its lower branches the white pacificatory offerings and the blue pacificatory offerings, His Augustness Grand-jewel taking these divers things and holding them together with the grand august Offerings, and His Augustness Heavenly-Beckoning-Ancestor-Lord prayerfully reciting grand liturgies, and the Heavenly Hand-Strength-Male-Deity standing hidden beside the door, and Her Augustness Heavenly-Alarming Female hanging [round her] the heavenly clubmoss of the Heavenly Mount Kagu as a sash, and making the heavenly spindle-tree her head-dress, and binding the leaves of the bamboo-grass of the Heavenly Mount Kagu in a posy for her hands, and laying a soundingboard before the door of the Heavenly Rock-Dwelling, and stamping till she made it resound and doing as if possessed by a Deity, and pulling out the nipples of her breasts, pushing down her skirt-string and exposing her private partes.

Then the Plain of High Heaven shook, and the eight hundred myriad Deities laughed together.

Hereupon the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity was amazed, and, slightly opening the door of the Heavenly Rock-Dwelling, spoke thus from the inside: "Methought that owing to my retirement the Plain of Heaven would be dark, and likewise the Central Land of Reed-Plains would all be dark: how then is it that the Heavenly-Alarming-Female makes merry, and that likewise the eight hundred myriad Deities all laugh?"

Then the Heavenly-Alarming-Female spoke saying: "We rejoice and are glad because there is a Deity more illustrious than Thine Augustness."

While she was thus speaking, His Augustness Heavenly-Beckoning-Ancestor-Lord and His Augustness Grand-jewel pushed forward the mirror and respectfully showed it to the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity, whereupon the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity, more and more astonished, gradually came forth from the door and gazed upon it, whereupon the Heavenly-Hand-Strength-Male-Deity, who was standing hidden, took her august hand and drew her out, and then His Augustness Grand-jewel drew the bottom-tied rope along at her august back, and spoke, saying: "Thou must not go back further in than this!"

So when the Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity had come forth, both the Plain of High Heaven and the Central-Land-of-Reed-Plains of course again became light.

A happy ending for all...though we be hearing and definitely seeing more of Hatoyama Yukio than we may want to, if the drawing is any indication.


-----------------------------------

* The full Basil Hall Chamberlain translation of the Kojiki can be found online here.

The party unmentionable

At the end of the day, the current political turmoil has its origins in the failure of the Komeitō eight million to show up on July 29.

Had the heretofore rock-solid 8 million + votes turned up, both the Komeitō and the LDP's losses would have been minimized. Twenty thousand votes here, twenty-five thousand votes there and pretty soon you are talking about a different political landscape. The DPJ together with its grab bag of allies are not holding the majority in the House of Councillors; Abe is still prime minister; the radicals cling to their Cabinet positions; the refueling bill passes despite desperate bleating by Ozawa Ichirō...

Without the guaranteed 8 million votes, however, the coalition with the Komeitō seems only so much policy baggage for the LDP. The alliance is given a reprieve: the Komeitō-held seats in the House of Representatives push the total number of seats held by the coalition over the two-thirds majority it needs to override a veto by the House of Councillors.

Circumstances intervene, though; the governing coalition never gets to deploy the override weapon in time to renew the Indian Ocean dispatch legislation.

Over the course of the autumn, as the fate of the dispatch legislation becomes hopeless, the thinking of the LDP leadership changes. Unlike the Abe Clique, whose controversial and radical programs demanded extremist solutions, the new Fukuda-led consortium of faction leaders are more comfortable pursuing broad-based, consensual initiatives--the kind of initiatives the DPJ can support.

If the DPJ can support the LDP's legislation and vice-versa, what then is the need for the current coalition providing a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives?

(An obverse is also true: if the LDP and the DPJ can cooperate on legislation, of what need is the DPJ's alliance with the fossilized opposition microparties of the House of Councillors?)

To the broth let us add one more element: the suspicion that the tumble in Komeitō support from 2004 to 2007 was not just policy-based as is commonly argued but was partly structural.

The growth of the Sōka Gakkai movement, the support base behind the Komeitō, was immensely aided by the social disruption caused by the great migration from the countryside to the cities in the post-war years. Lonely individuals looking for social connections or displaced persons looking to better themselves found in the Sōka Gakkai a source of community, personal solace and micro-finance.

However, ever since the 1980s, the social need for a "Study Society for the Increase of Wealth" has been less pressing. Recruitment for the movement would slow down. Membership in the group and thus the Komeitō vote would continue to swell, however, as the children of the first generation took their places alongside their elders.

However, at some point, without a) renewed vigorous recruitment or b) a higher fertility rate among the Sōka Gakkai faithful, the religious organization and the political movement it sponsors would fall prey to the same demographic downward spiral threatening all of Japan's institutions.

If you knew or suspected that the Komeitō not only did not but indeed would not ever again deliver 8 million votes-- but that indeed the Komeitō-Sōka Gakkai was about to suffer a sharp drop in support followed by a slow, steady, demographics-drive decline--what would be your alliance strategy today? If you guessed that an alliance with the Komeitō would still not eke out a majority in the House of Representatives, even after the inevitable major LDP losses in a general election, what kind of political dealmaking would you, if you were Ozawa Ichirō, countenance right here, right now?

* * *

Admittedly this is all but a diaphanous gedanken experiment...

Nevertheless, death and senility will start thinning the ranks of the massive postwar burst of Sōka Gakkai recruits. The hit up until now definitely does not account for the huge 8.6 million votes to only 7.7 million votes drop in Komeitō support between the 2004 and the 2007 House of Councillors elections--but dismay at the party's alliance with the Abe-led LDP seems insufficient as well.

It taxes my credulity to believe that ten percent of the Komeitō's support could have evaporated away in three years's time due solely to doubts sown by the internal contradictions of a pacifist party serving as the handmaiden of the LDP. Members of the Sōka Gakkai believe that beating a drum and chanting for an hour each morning, combined with unswerving devotion to Ikeda Daisaku's leadership, puts them on the path to wealth and happiness. Lose faith and/or disobey the leadership are not what members of the Sōka Gakkai do.

(Last paragraph rewritten for clarity)

Bull Durham in Tokyo

Why did he do it?

Tobias Harris (who seems to have given up sleep during this political crisis) Okumura Jun and Garrett DeOrio have the analyses (I rather like Garrett's sympathy for Ozawa Ichirō's damned-if-you-do / damned-if-you-don't-predicament. It is refreshing.)

Many, many factors play a part in this drama. However, Ozawa must have looked at the numbers for a springtime House of Representatives election; assessed Fukuda's political smarts, looked behind him at his fellow Democrats; looked forward at the political calendar; and decided all by himself that for the good of all he should take an offer of political accommodation if it came his way. When it did, he played the concerned autocrat, going back to the Democratic Party leadership with the offer, awaiting their reluctant rubber stamp.

He had brought them to the brink of owning the LDP, even more so than Ikeda Daisaku could ever dream of owning the LDP (and Ikeda Kaichō can dream mighty big)...

...and dammit, the lazy idealists in the Democratic leadership took one look at the power-sharing offer and turned it down.

"For the people! For democracy!"

To this Ozawa has responded with the exasperation of catcher Crash Davis when pitcher Nuke Laloosh shook off his signs at the top of ninth inning of a two hit shutout.

"Amaterasu Almighty! What more do these guys think they are going to get?"

Having been shown up by the political embarrassments who hired him to do their dirty work, he has quite understandably given up on the ball game.

Autumn Colors on Mutsuishiyama

Zatōmushi Phalangium sp.
on Inu shide Carpinus tschonoskii
Okutama Township, Tokyo Metropolitan District
November 3, 2007

Iroha momiji Acer palmatum
on Konara Quercus serrata
Okutama Township, Tokyo Metropolitan District
November 3, 2007

Enoki Celtis sinensis v. japonica
Okutama Township, Tokyo Metropolitan District
November 3, 2007

Mizuki Cornus contraversa
Okutama Township, Tokyo Metropolitan District
November 3, 2007

Hauchiwa kaede
Acer japonicum thunbergii
Okutama Township, Tokyo Metropolitan District
November 3, 2007

Fallen leaves upon Sanukidoyama
Okutama Township, Tokyo Metropolitan District
November 3, 2007

Okutama Lake and Tsukiyomiyama
Okutama Township, Tokyo Metropolitan District
November 3, 2007

Okutama Station to Okutama Lake via Mutsuishiyama (1478 m) - 5 1/2 hours, medium grade, with stops to watch the Japanese macaques foraging.

Satanic Business Practices: A Reminder

To: Democratic Party of Japan Diet Members

From: The Lord of the Underworld

It has come to my attention that there has been some disquiet regarding the pact made with me in April of 2006. To be more precise, I have heard through intermediaries of a vote having been taken on Friday, November 2, the Year of My Tormentor 2007, wherein you—that is both you individually and as a group—have, for no reason that I can fathom—suddenly decided you have souls that are worth saving.

This is not possible.

Please recall that in return for one elections genius—admittedly a used one, but still able to pull off smashing victories, as you found out to your delight—you, that is both you individually and as a group—sold your souls unto me.

I do not forget that in the past you were moral, upstanding, honest, frugal, serious but with a youthful flair. I also recall that Mr. Koizumi stole every bit of your program (contrary to some of the more colorful monologues of members of your party, Mr. K is not one my employees...though I have a full time position with benefits waiting for him if he ever wants it). This left you with nothing...and after that lovely little bit of business with the email, you had less than nothing.

So you came to me.

I offered to you a toad-faced, weak-constitutioned, LDP Tanaka-faction birthed backroom specialist who had busted up more parties than any of you had ever been a part of (and some of you have been members of quite a few)...and you took my offer.

Now, I am not unfond of irony...but I do take offense at misrepresentation. It seems that some attendees at the Friday evening meeting claimed that as members of the Democratic Party they had an obligation, nay, a duty to oppose the LDP and its political program. Am I right in thinking that the persons making such claims are members of the same so-called Democratic Party that prior to the elections of July, promised farmers subsidies? That did not show outrage at the budgetary implications of their promises? That guaranteed prosperity in every prefecture through government action? That joined hands with the Kokumin Shintō, acquiescing to that party's demand for a joint bill slowing down the privatization of the post office to a crawl?

Which party's traditional policies do these most resemble?

Now as I recall, on July 30 of this year you all looked terribly pleased at the results of your having sacrificed--on the grounds of political expediency--what were once your most sacred principles.

I find your sudden wish to appear virtuous dishonest and frankly offensive.

To whit, your souls shall not be returned. All sales of souls are final.

Yours truly,

His Satanic Majesty, Me


P.S. I am advised by the Legal Department that self-abnegation, confession of sins and penitence offers hope of salvation...but it is only a hope.

Anyway you did not hear about this from me.

You say "coalition"...

...and I say, "political framework."

At the press availability in the aftermath of the meeting this afternoon between the leaders of the LDP and the DPJ, the press kept trying to cajole Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo into saying that he and DPJ leader Ozawa Ichirō had discussed a "coalition government" (renritsu seiken) or "a grand coalition" (dairenritsu). Before responding Prime Minister Fukuda would pause, release an ever so tiny sigh, and then repeat that he had merely suggested to Ozawa the need for a new political framework (shinseiji taisei) for the purpose of passing legislation...to which the members of the press corps would reply, "In other words, coalition government, right?"

Back and forth, back and forth.

The minor parties, both in the ruling and opposition camps, are shaking in their boots. Leaders of the opposition micro-parties have already released vigorous preemptive denunciations of a grand coalition, calling it a betrayal of the results of the July House of Councillors election...which is only partly true. Many of those persons who voted for the DPJ and other opposition parties in July were casting anti-LDP votes. A not insignificant number of them, though, were casting anti-Abe Shinzō votes. Technically, those could be considered pro-Fukuda Yasuo votes.

Whatever the lessons of July 2007, the sudden irruption of a serious discussion of policy coordination between the LDP and the DPJ promises a fabulous buildup to next week's party leaders debate in the Diet. Depending on what Ozawa, Hatoyama Yukio, Kan Naoto, Maekawa Maehara Seiji and the other DPJ luminaries say over this weekend, what had been billed as a ganging up on Prime Minister Fukuda in Diet session may deteriorate into a circular firing squad.

Extraordinary how the failure of the Diet to even consider the Indian Ocean dispatch renewal legislation has focused some minds upon how one can govern this blessed and complex land---and how one runs a government representing Japan as it is, rather than some phantom Japan that should be.

Later - Ozawa has just spoken to the press. He explained, very slowly and carefully, that the Prime Minister had held out the prospect of a coalition for the purpose of passing legislation important to the Japanese people. However, an immediately convened meeting of DJP members still had a majority opposed to a coalition. As a consequence, he (Ozawa) had given a negative response to the invitation to establish a coalition.

Of course, this does not mean the door has not been shut on "a new political framework" forever. It just will not happen this Diet session.

Let us see what happens in January. The political game gets a lot more serious as the days grow longer...because a budget has to be passed.

About that small-sized Japanese-made jet...

...we promised to market for you? You know, the 70-seater we said we would sell for you even though, as our suppliers, you should really not be trying to muscle in on our action? We have been very flexible, we thought. We have been overlooking your plans to offer your own finished products to retail customers because having you as our suppliers provides incentives to your semi-national carriers to choose our wide bodied planes over those of rivals.

Well, we have some potentially bad news for the deal:

Mike Bair's "remarkable" speech
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Mike Bair, former 787 boss, gave a pretty blunt talk about 787 suppliers on Wednesday to a group in Everett. I was unable to attend, but here is my report, tho late, on what he had to say.

By James Wallace
P-I aerospace reporter

In unusually blunt language for a top executive of The Boeing Co., Mike Bair, who was recently replaced as head of the troubled 787 program, said some suppliers have let the company down.

"Some of these guys we won't use again," Bair said Wednesday in a speech to the Snohomish County Economic Development Council.

He did not name names.

Did Bair mean to include Boeing's top-tier partners in the U.S., Italy and Japan that are responsible for manufacturing the composite wings and fuselage sections of the new jet?

"Yes, we said we would be willing to put our sales forces at your disposal. But that was before we acknowledged the serious problems in our relationship. Frankly, even as the promise was being made to you, the fun was already fading."


What, what is that I hear? Could it be the sound of one Japanese government-industry vanity project's underpinnings cracking? Or with the loss of Boeing's business, will Japan's aeronautics industry double down, investing everything in the MRJ?

Beware the Idle Boasts of August

Ozawa Ichirō, who has been somehow too preoccupied to attend Diet interpellations, did make an appearance on Sunday for a test of strategy, patience and cunning against a longtime rival in the political world.

In August, during his brief tenure as Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yosano Kaoru was asked how he intended to push forward the Cabinet's political program when Ozawa Ichirō's opposition coalition controlled the House of Councillors.

A serene Yosano replied, "In the world of Go, it is I who lead, ahead of Ozawa."

In terms of reputation, as a certified 7th dan amateur in the game of Go, Yosano was on firm ground in his assessment. Ozawa, at 5th dan, was just not in his league.

However, Ozawa did not take the slight lying down. Through intermediaries he challenged Yosano to a match.

So it was on Sunday afternoon that Yosano, a gaggle of reporters, a 9th dan professional player and a knot of curious onlookers from the top ranks of political society sat in a high class Go lounge of a major hotel, waiting for Ozawa to show up.

And waited.

Fifteen minutes before the appointed hour, Yosano asked rhetorically, "If I lose, I will never hear the end of it from my fellow LDP colleagues, eh?"

Apropos of the long wait, the 9th dan player replied, "Maybe I shouldn't put it this way, but there's a little of the Miyamoto Musashi in Ozawa."

Three minutes before the scheduled time, Ozawa bustled in, dressed in his everyday uniform of a white shirt and dark blue suit.

The men proceeded to sit down at the board, Yosano playing black, Ozawa white. Yosano laid down the first stone.

* * *

Yosano's confident riposte to a reporter's questions in August did not reflect a tested hypothesis, only a guess. The two men had only played each other twice before. Twenty years ago, in their first meeting, Yosano had demolished Ozawa. However, in a rematch five years ago, the lower-ranked Ozawa eked out a bare victory over his rival. In terms of match victories, the two men were even.

Yosano, furthermore, had reached the pinnacle of amateur 7th dan over 30 years ago. While an aficionado of the game, he had not been engaging in serious Go competitions for years.

(If you are sensing a metaphor right about now, good for you).

Ozawa, by contrast, has been intensifying his study of Go of late, making weekly treks to a salon where he could test his ideas against high-powered pros. For the man who was once seen as having but a single interest--politics--his dedication to improving his Go game seemed a retreat from his previous monomaniacal focus on political power.

So while Yosano came to the match with the reputation and the credentials, Ozawa had the determination and the staying power...and the hunger to succeed.

Courtesy: Sankei Sports

The match lasted 2 hours and 25 minutes. Two hundred and ninety stones.

A glance at the board made it clear: Ozawa had won.

No, that is not correct: Ozawa had conquered. He had humiliated Yosano by a humiliating 15 1/2 stone spaces.

"I will not be able to sleep at night," a stunned Yosano bleated. "Definitely, there is going to be a rematch."

"Did I win?" a coy but obviously buoyant Ozawa chirruped. "I wasn't sure until the very end. That I was able to receive this victory makes me, of course, very grateful."

Lying bastard. He was so proud of himself he could spit.

Of course, any resemblances between the Yosano/Ozawa match on Sunday and what happened on July 29 of this year between the LDP and the DPJ are in the mind of the beholder.



[The full account from which this post has been drawn and an illustration all the moves of the match can be found on page 2 of the evening edition of the Mainichi Shimbun of October 31, 2007. ]

November Song - "Blackout"

Sometimes it is worthwhile to have a look at an ambitious failure.

Embedded in the column this month is the 2005 promotional video for the song "Blackout" by Asian Kung-fu Generation, the Kanagawa (via Shimokitazawa / Kichijōji) kings of contemporary dissafection. The video loses its nerve three minutes in...but what a fantastically creepy first 3 minutes! Revelling in and revealing all the self-loathing, paranoias and prejudices of young men of a certain age (oh, why beat around the bush, they were 28 when they recorded this), all from the point of view of surveillance cameras.

A difficult document of a specific time and place (here and now) from a supremely alienated point of view.

Later - If the embed window is too small to discern what is going on, here is the You Tube link.