Come Visit Us - Tokyo Vs. Kanagawa

A study in the contrasting whimsies of adjoining prefectures.

The Tokyo Metropolitan District, via World Order
(best in wide screen view)

Kanagawa Prefecture, via AKB 48

It is an unfair competition. Tokyo has its mountainous interior (not depicted) while Kanagawa has both the Tanzawa Range and the Shonan Beach scene with hotspots Kamakura/Zushi, the Miura Peninsula and Manazuru.

While Governor Kuroiwa Yuji's performance in the Kanagawa Prefecture video does not dispell my impression of him as a complete dufus, gained from having had to listen to him hold forth at the bar during his television anchor years, I can entertain the possibility that he is a not-entirely-uncool complete dufus.

Tips of the hat to tips to Michael Rofe and Eleanor Warnock for the links.

Abenomics In The Wringer

Watching newly appointed Council On Industrial Competitiveness member and Koizumi revolutionaire Takenaka Heizo get batted around by the panel on this morning's Asa Zuba! program, after a long segment on Shimane Prefecture (#1 in public works spending per capita of all of Japan's prefectures) construction company executives exulting at the Abe government's proposed economic stimulus package -- a report played absolutely straight so as to infuriate viewers in the Tokyo Metropolitan District, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Aichi, Kyoto and Osaka -- one had to wonder whether or not the fix was in from the beginning: that the news mediaverse treated the Liberal Democratic Party with kid gloves and piled scorn upon Democratic Party of Japan-governments because it missed having a party in power so transparently stupid and self-serving in its ways that the stories just write themselves.

As for the articles skeptical of Abenomics, they keep arriving over the Intertube. (Link and Link and Link)

Meanwhile, its favorite party back in charge of the Prime Minister's Residence, Pravda-by-the-Palace has resumed its abject sycophancy, portraying the impossible (or at least highly improbable) as likely. (Link)

That Other Election

On December 16, voters in the Tokyo Metropolitan District will be choosing not only their representatives in the Diet, but a replacement for former governor Ishihara Shintaro.

Contrary to my expectations, and happily so, Inose Naoki (Link -J) has declared himself a candidate. While Ishihara bathed in the klieg lights and, to be fair, wasted his golden years in the unpleasant business of attending events in all kinds of weather, clowning on demand and meeting awful people at all hours of the day, Inose has been toiling away, underappreciated, as the person keeping the lights on, the toilets flushing and the trains running.

Inose will be running with official support from the Liberal Democratic Party and the New Komeito. He is also expected to win support from the Your Party and the Japan Restoration Association. The DPJ, taking a look at the lay of the political landscape, has decided against burning a potential winning House of Representatives candidate or spending any money in the Tokyo race.

Inose's fellow candidates are not all pushovers and jokers -- yes, Dr. Nakamats, who proudly posts his IgNobel Prize as the first item on his profile page -- Link - J -- is running again. Matsuzawa Shigefumi (Link -J) is a former governor of Kanagawa, Japan's #2 prefecture. Sasagawa Takashi (Link - J) is a former Cabinet minister and chairman of the LDP General Council with deep ties to the old downtown establishment.

However, the other candidates lack Inose's gravitas and experience (and at 77, Sasagawa may be too old). They also lack significant party support.

The vote should be a rout.

The best and most unlikely buddy act in local administration is no more -- but the voters in the TMD can at least still cast a ballot for the guy who did all the heavy lifting.

Later - The NHK morning newscast, in an almost-but-not-quite-hilarious false dichotomy, asked the question, "What do the voters want, a continuation of the Ishihara administration, or a new face?"

Amusing because what the voters will be choosing to reject or not is not a continuation of the Ishihara administration but the continuation of the Inose administration, minus the Ishihara vanity project disasters (moving Tsukiji, the Tokyo Tomin Bank, the 2016 Olympics bid, buying the Senkakus...ad infinitum).

From The Miura Kaigan to Jogashima

Daikon, harvested and topped.
Miura City, Kanagawa Prefecture on February 12, 2012.

Pacific Reef Heron - Kurosagi (Egretta sacra) in flight at Ena Bay.
Miura City, Kanagawa Prefecture on February 12, 2012.

Little Egret - Kosagi (Egretta garzetta) in Ena Bay.
Miura City, Kanagawa Prefecture on February 12, 2012.

Tilted rock pillar near Mikawa Bay.
Miura City, Kanagawa Prefecture on February 12, 2012.

Fishing boats.
Mikawa Bay, Miura City, Kanagawa Prefecture on February 12, 2012.

Cash register at Miura Port restaurant.
Miura City, Kanagawa Prefecture on February 12, 2012.

Rookery of Japanese Cormorant - Umiu (Phalacrocorax capillatus) on Jogashima.
Miura City, Kanagawa Prefecture on February 12, 2012.

Sunset seen from Jogashima, with Mt. Amagi of the Izu Peninsula on the left.
Miura City, Kanagawa Prefecture on February 12, 2012.

All photos MTC.

For full Flickr series click here.

Where You Stand Is Where You Sit?

In parsing out the internal dynamics of the domestic fight over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, it is perhaps worthwhile to look at how the sides in the battle line up against the nation's electoral map.

On the 26th of last month, the Ministry of General Affairs and Telecommunications released its revised preliminary population figures from the 2010 national census. As usual, the boys and girls of the news media immediate set to work with their spreadsheets, comparing populations within the nation's 300 electoral districts, looking for the greatest levels of disparity within the country.

The highest level of disparity found was 2.52, meaning that a person voting in the least populous district had 2.52 votes for a legislator as compared to a voter in the most populous district.

The winner in this contest? Kochi District #3, a rural outpost whose largest urban center is the city of Shimon (pop. 40,000 and shrinking). It is represented by Yamamoto Yuji of the Liberal Democratic Party. Liberal Democrats also represent Kochi District #1 and #2, for those who are keeping score.

Who gets stiffed the worst? It is Chiba District #4, comprised entirely of the core of the city of Funabashi (pop. 600,000 and growing). Chiba District #4 is represented by a member of the Democratic Party of Japan, namely (drumroll please) Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko.

There are 97 districts with populations greater than double Kochi's District #3, which are thus unconstitutional under the ruling handed down by the Supreme Court in March of this year. This is whopping jump in the number of unconstitutional districts, as there were only 48 such districts based on the 2005 census figures.

Now what about Yamada Masahiko, the leader of the fight against Japan's participation in the TPP within the DPJ? He represents Nagasaki District #3, the second smallest district in terms of population after Kochi District #3.

Need I say more.

Just for completeness' sake, in the House of Councillors the greatest disparity can be found in between Tottori and Kanagawa Prefectures. A vote in Tottori is worth 5.124 times a vote in Kanagawa. Tottori is primarily rural prefecture, with the city of Tottori (pop. 197,000) as its largest urban center. Kanagawa is almost entirely urban and suburban (pax the Hakone Area and the Tanzawa Range) with the city of Yokohama (3.7 million) as its largest urban center.

Not So Long, After All

Rather than going through the trauma of breaking up the Cabinet after Minister of Justice Chiba Keiko's failure to win reelection to her Kanagawa seat, she will continue her service as minister as a civilian, at least until the September elections for the leadership of the Democrati Party of Japan.

So not gone, not forgotten is the minister of The Law.

A Weekend Away

Evening Light at Morito
(one of the "50 sights of Kanagawa")
Hayama Township, Kanagawa Prefecture
July 6, 2008

Manazuru Again

Yeddo Hawthorn
Sharinbai - Rhaphiolepsis umbellata
Manazuru Township, Kanagawa Prefecture
April 29, 2008

Feather duster worm
Keyarimushi - Sabellastarte japonica
Manazuru Township, Kanagawa Prefecture
April 29, 2008

Autumn Olive
Akigumi - Eleagnus umbellata
Manazuru Township, Kanagawa Prefecture
April 29, 2008

Pacific Reef Heron
Kurosagi - Egretta sacra
Manazuru Township, Kanagawa Prefecture
April 29, 2008

Umeboshi plum anemones
Umeboshi isoginchaku - Actinia equina
Manazuru Township, Kanagawa Prefecture
April 29, 2008

Toward Nebukawa
Manazuru Township, Kanagawa Prefecture
April 29, 2008

Dwarf Solomon's Seal
Narukoyuri - Polygonatum falcatum
Manazuru Township, Kanagawa Prefecture
April 29, 2008

Kanagawa District #17

Representative: Kōno Yōhei
Speaker of the House of Representatives
LDP, Kōno Group
(party and faction memberships in suspension during term in office)
71 years old
14 elections to the Diet

One has to admit it, Kōno Sensei has an incredibly attractive district.

Let's Gets Stiffed Again... Like We Were Last Summer

Today marks the first day of the kōreisha iryō seido, the new national health insurance plan for those older than 75 years of age.

The good news is that the deductible for the cost of a doctor visit or a hospital stay falls from 30% to 10%. The bad news is that every individual over 75 years old must pay into the system, meaning the elimination the dependent family member (fuyōkazoku) reduction.

The average price of the new superseniors medical insurance policy is 72,000 yen per year per person. However, the price of insurance varies between the prefectures according to formulas worked out by prefectural insurance associations for the cost of providing medical care for seniors.

The big loser in these calculations (when it comes to central government programs is this even a question which prefecture takes the bullet?) is Kanagawa Prefecture, with an annual insurance fee of 94,000 yen per gray head. Right behind Kanagawa is Tokyo at 91,000 yen per capita. At the other end of the scale is Aomori Prefecture, whose insurance association is demanding only 45,000 yen per person.

Shakai kakusa, anyone?

Moral of the story--if you are over 75, retired, not wealthy and have serious medical problems, you should consider moving to somewhere cold and bleak where the doctors are few and far between.

Your total payments into the system will be reduced...one way or another.

Great Smoggy Mountain

At a meeting of the Chemical Society of Japan yesterday, researchers from Waseda University announced a surprising discovery - the level of photochemical smog precursors in the air atop Mount Fuji is higher than that found in the center of Tokyo. Indeed, in the case of toluene the levels in the air at the summit were 3 times higher than in city air.

So much for standing on the mountaintop, taking in a bracing lungful of fresh, clean air.

The Waseda result may help explain the disconcerting red haze over the summit of Mt. Fuji in this image that I took when halfway up Mt. Ono last year (click on image for larger view).

View of Mt. Fuji from Yaga
Ashigarakami-gun, Kanagawa Prefecture
April 29, 2007

Unsurprisingly, researchers suspect that the source of the high-altitude pollution is China somewhere outside Japan's borders, though they do not have the evidence supporting this contention yet.

Our beloved 99 Yen Store products come with an increasingly visible second price tag, it seems...

Hi ho, hi ho!

It's home from work I go.

Honestly, after the grind at the office today, it is all I can do to share the above image taken by yours truly a week ago from Morito Beach in Kanagawa Prefecture's Hayama Township.

Sleep well, sleep soundly, sleep safely all. We will try to figure out tomorrow what Chief Cabinet Secretary Machimura Nobutaka will be suggesting to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as means of improving the "lax" (tarunde iru - his words, not mine) discipline of U.S. Marines.

Good luck Nobutaka-kun! Just don't start talking about the Nazca Lines again, please!

The Greatest Goddamned Country on God's Goddamned Earth

Sunset at Morito Beach
Hayama Township, Kanagawa Prefecture
February 10, 2008

Yes, I am the cynical one.