The Wonderful Language

I was unlocking the bicycle in front of the local bakery (a very decent brown bread is available there at a very reasonable price) when one member of a quartet of navy uniform-clad male middle school students opined, in my direction, "Explain."

In English.

I stood up.

"'Explain'...'explain'..." he went on, as he was not, as it turned out, talking to me. "I know the word but I don't know what it means."

"Setsumei suru," intoned his three classmates, in unison.

"Right, right...but what is that other 'ex' word...the one meaning 'subarashii?'" he asked, semi-rhetorically.

"'Excellent'," responded his classmates, in unison again.

"'Excellent'...'explain'...I am hopeless in English. I will never get the hang of it," the boy concluded.

To which one of his classmates, in a staccato noun modifier straight out of Mark Twain, declared:

"Behold the (unfit-for-life-as-a-member-of-international-society-and-thus-without-any options-but-to-spend-the-full-length-of-his-days-within-the-confines-of-the-boundaries-of-Japan) idiot (bakamono)."

"Wow," I said to myself, "Not only would that that kid have tickled Twain*...but his take on the basic education requirements for anyone ascribing to global survival sure sounds like someone who has been reading his Robert Dujarric."

The above all happened on Thursday night. Based upon Robert Dujarric's most recent op-ed, published on Friday, M. Dujarric must have been listening in, telepathically.

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* "Now here is a sentence from a popular and excellent German novel -- which a slight parenthesis in it. I will make a perfectly literal translation, and throw in the parenthesis-marks and some hyphens for the assistance of the reader -- though in the original there are no parenthesis-marks or hyphens, and the reader is left to flounder through to the remote verb the best way he can:

"But when he, upon the street, the (in-satin-and-silk-covered-now-very-unconstrained-after-the-newest-fashioned-dressed) government counselor's wife met" etc., etc. 1.

1) Wenn er aber auf der Strasse der in Sammt und Seide gehüllten jetzt sehr ungenirt nach der neusten Mode gekleideten Regierungsräthin begegnet.

That is from The Old Mamselle's Secret, by Mrs. Marlitt. And that sentence is constructed upon the most approved German model. You observe how far that verb is from the reader's base of operations; well, in a German newspaper they put their verb away over on the next page; and I have heard that sometimes after stringing along the exciting preliminaries and parentheses for a column or two, they get in a hurry and have to go to press without getting to the verb at all."

-- Mark Twain, "The Awful German Language" (1880)

Readings On The Izumo

Corey Wallace, the mind behind σ1 and many useful and insightful posts at Japan Security Watch, has just published an essay with the East Asia Forum on the implications and potential missions of the first of the new Izumo class of destroyers -- a ship about which so much utter, sensationalist nonsense has been written. (Link)

Wallace's essay is a broader policy-based complement to the narrow explanatory essay on the ship itself Dr. Alessio Patalano produced for The Asahi Shimbun (Link) -- an earlier draft of which he published on SSJ-Forum and I excerpted here.

Reading the two essays will sharply reduce the wool content in between both ears as regards these big "escort" (the Japanese term) vessels. As to what ships the Izumo-class of vessels would be escorting...that is left up to the imagination.

In all fairness, I have take exception with one sentence in Mr. Wallace's essay:

No self-respecting bureaucratic organisation would invest in a $1.2 billion piece of hardware specifically for the purpose of launching jump jets that may not materialise for many years, if at all.

I believe that that seeming improbable is indeed a pivot point of this famous sketch examining the Royal Navy's acquisition of the Queen Elizabeth class of aircraft carriers.

Enjoy.

And Meanwhile, On The International Stage

Newsflash: a Japanese citizen, educated in Canada, spoke in English for an hour yesterday.

When asked about the ordeal, she replied that the experience was not very different from regular speech. (Link - J)

Hat tip to moderator Michael Penn for forwarding the Yomiuri Shimbun's account of Green Breeze party leader Tanioka Kuniko's unbelievable feat.

What's Up With That?

Am I missing something?

Wizards managing the Prime Minister's Residence's (Kantei) website had the text of the prime minister's policy speech (and now the video too) up immediately following the prime minister's address to the House of Representatives.

The English-language Kantei page, however, has nothing.

Is it not standard operating procedure to provide the English translation along with the original text?

No Child Left Behind - The Latest Statistics On Daycare

Note: this is an expansion of comments originally left on The Japan Times' YenForLiving blog.

During the recent recent Annual Meeting in Tokyo, the IMF released a paper with the grandiloquent title "Can Women Save Japan (and Asia Too)?". I say grandiloquent because the paper is a scant four pages long, with the below as the first page (the bolding is my own; I have also fixed the typos):

"It is very difficult for women in Japan to balance raising children and working full-time," says Naomi Nakamura, a 35-yearold physical therapist from Yokohama who is now on maternity leave looking after her four-month-old baby girl. "Many companies do not allow shorter working hours, and even if they do, female employees are often reluctant to work part-time because of the atmosphere at work," explains Nakamura, who also has a three-year-old son.

For Nakamura, work, child rearing, and home are literally a balancing act. After her son was born, Nakamura was lucky to find a day care center near her job, but she still had a 20-minute bike ride to work with her son on the back. She tried to find an educational day care center for her son but, with none available, she had to put him in a center that provides only child care. She shopped for her groceries on her way home, putting the groceries in a basket at the front of her bike and her son in a seat on the back.

Like most Japanese fathers, Nakamura's husband works late every night, so she feeds
the children, bathes them, and puts them bed herself. She then cooks dinner for herself and her husband. They eat late at night and go to bed exhausted.

She struggled to find a child care center for her son and felt uncomfortable leaving the office early if the center called because he was sick. Before she went on maternity leave, her husband usually took their son to the center in the morning and she picked him up in the evening. But when her husband was on a business trip, which happened quite often, both tasks fell to Nakamura. "I feel very sorry for my colleagues who have to do extra work when I have to leave the office," she says.

Still, Nakamura feels lucky compared with her friends because her job skills are in demand. Many of her friends are being told they cannot have their old jobs back or are struggling to find part-time work because employers look askance at someone who may have to take leave to care for a sick child.

Nakamura's story is common to many women across Japan and in parts of Asia. their daily struggles balancing work and home are so daunting that many feel they have to choose between raising children and building a career.

This is a story of struggle? Nakamura Naomi of Yokohama could bicycle to work in 20 minutes? She sometimes had to take her son to childcare in the morning and pick him up in the evenings, though most of the time her husband would do the morning run?

This is not a story of struggle. For anyone who has lived in this blessed land for any period of time, this is a description of heaven.

As for the rest of the paper, it only barely escapes being so much intellectual kapok stuffing. One does learn one interesting fact:

Self-selection into non-career-track positions is another possible reason for the small number of women managers. this process appears to start early on, with gender ratios in top universities already showing divergence. At the University of Tokyo, for example, where entrance is based on test outcomes, less than 20 percent of the student body is female.

I admit surprise at the gender-skew at Todai, if indeed this is the latest ratio.

It is also good to have some IMF-certified numbers to toss out when one needs some talking points:

- "In Japan, the size of the working-age population, ages 15–64 is projected to fall from its peak of 87 million in 1995 to about 55 million in 2050—approximately the same size as the Japanese workforce at the end of World War II."

- "If, over the coming 20 years, Japan raised its female labor participation rate from 62 percent to 70 percent—that of its Group of Seven industrial countries (G7) compatriots excluding outlier Italy—then its per capita GDP would be approximately 5 percent higher."

["excluding outlier Italy" – oh, how that phrase must make Richard Samuels smile (Link)]

It is hard not to use the word fatuous when describing the paper, when this is the final paragraph:

If Nakamura lived in Sweden, she would have the support she needed to "have it all," and wouldn't think twice about going back to her previous job after maternity leave. Making it easier for women like Nakamura to stay in the workforce will make it easier for Japan to remain a player in the global economy. Making the most of Asia's women is an equitable progrowth strategy that makes good sense.

"If Nakamura lived in Sweden..." – leaves one breathless, does it not, the presumption?

Going back to Nakamura's so-called struggle with childcare, the government in late September released the figures on the nation's daycare centers (hoikuen) and pre-schools (yochien) as of April 1, 2012 (Link – J).

The key takeaways are:

- while the number of children being born is declining, the number of children at daycare or in pre-schools is growing at a rate of 3% per year. In between April 1, 2011 and April 1 of this year, the total number of children in daycare and childcare facilities increased by 55,851 to 2,176,802.

- while the number of children attending daycare or in pre-schools is growing fast, the number of children on waiting lists to get into childcare facilities is declining. The total number of children on waiting lists nationwide on April 1, 2012 was 24,825, less half of the year-on-year increase in the number of children attending day care or pre-school.

- in between April 1, 2011 and April 1, 2012, the total number of daycare centers and pre-schools increased by 326, to 23,711 – again, increasing despite a year-on-year decrease in the total number of eligible children

- 23 prefectures reported having fewer than 50 children on waiting lists; 11 had no children on waiting lists at all. The numbers for the previous year were 20 prefectures with fewer than 50 children on waiting lists and 9 prefectures with no children on waiting lists (Link - J)

- the Tokyo Metropolitan District, where most foreign journalists and researchers live, remains the outlier in terms of unmet demand, with 7,257 children on waiting lists — 29% of the national total. Even in the TMD, however, there was a year-on-year decline in the number of children waiting for inception, there being 7,855 on the waiting lists in April 2011.

- in Nakamura Naomi's home prefecture of Kanagawa, the prefecture with the third highest number of children on waiting lists after the TMD and Okinawa, the number of children on waiting lists plummeted, from 3,095 to 2,039, in between April 2011 and April 2012.

So in terms of access to childcare, Nakamura Naomi of Yokohama does not need to move to Sweden. It is moving to her.

Later - More sauce.

A more leisurely reading of the government's September 28 report reveals that Ms. Nakamura's Yokohama not only was the municipality with the largest increase in the number of children entering daycare or preschool (+2627 children from April 1, 2011 to April 1, 2012) but the also the municipality with the biggest drop in the number of children on waiting lists (-792, from 971 on April 1, 2011 to 179 this April).

By contrast, Osaka City -- which has a certain famous individual as its mayor -- was the municipality with the greatest increase of the number of children on waiting lists, from 396 on April 1, 2011 to 664 on April 1 this year.

On The Olympics

Since the Olympics is dominating news coverage, I might as well toss in my two yen's worth.

Twelve years ago, economist Stephen D. Leavitt patted himself on the back for having the brains and the guts to produce a study proving something everyone already knew was true: matches in sumo were fixed. Brains for noticing a bizarre and reliable weakness of rikishi with a majority of eight losses when facing opponents on the brink of relegation. Guts for taking on the Sumo Federation, which denied match fixing was taking place.

Leavitt's study was never a big a deal in Japan. When a rikishi at 7 wins and 7 losses on the final day grappled with one with a record of 5 wins and 9 losses, the question in the minds of viewers was not "Who would win?" but "How much did the stable of the guy at 7 and 7 offer the other stable for that all-important eighth win?"

As for the denials from the Sumo Federation regarding match fixing, what did Leavitt expect? "Oh, an American economist has discovered that match results veer wildly from randomized competition. Oh, gosh golly, we admit it: we are no better than professional wrestling!"

As if that were going to happen.

The only reason the cheating buggers got caught is because they began cutting their deals via email.

If Dr. Leavitt had a spare moment for some further feretting out of facts from out of data, perhaps he should consider this year's Olympics. Japanese athletes have collected a serious haul of medals (only two of which are gold) putting the country in fifth place in total medals, even after getting mauled in the national sport of judo. Now there are fewer sports in the last week of the Olympics where Japanese athletes are likely to excel, so the final national totals may be completely different from the current distribution. However, the Team Japan performance -- especially in swimming -- begs the question: where have all these world-class athletes come from? Japan has a declining number of young people, two decades of below-par economic performance and declining fitness among its youth.

One answer of course may be from greater international experience. More Japanese Olympians are competing professionally in foreign sports leagues or on international tours.

Greater genetic variation? Admittedly there is a smattering of bi-national athletes: hammer thrower Murofushi Koji, javelin thrower Genki Dean (No, that is not a typo. That is his real name. His father is a British national), soccer player Sakai Takatoku and rhythmic gymnast Saeed-Yokota Nina (not to be confused with her younger sister Elena, who is a member of AKB48. That is also not a typo).

However, five individuals out of 487 athletes seems an insignificant number.

Which brings up my guess -- the international crackdown on doping.

Based on the number of Japanese athletes who have been caught doping or accused of doping over the last two decades, Japanese athletes have been pathetic in taking advantage of advances in performance-altering chemistry (keirin cyclists may be the exception here).

Now that the international athletic federations are coming down like a load of bricks on doping, the international playing field is more level. Japanese athletes, who had never boarded the chemistry express, may be winning medals in accordance to a more natural distribution taking into account  national wealth, national health and national resources devoted to sports talent development.

Given the seeming Japanese failure to cheat (Is this where we can start talking about culture? - Ed.) it is possible to speak of virtual medals in past Olympiads, where Japanese might have won had they not been facing enhanced rivals.

Finding out whether or not that nasty little truth is lurking in the stats -- that would be a worthy endeavor.

Update On Nobody Pays Retail

In order to check the figures in my post of the other day, I took a detour to the rice section of my local supermarket. I found that I had been too generous in my quoted figures. Uonuma Koshi Hikari, the most prized rice, was 3480 yen for the 5 kilo bag, not 3850 as I had remembered it. As for the low price substitute, the supermarket had 5 kilo bags of Koshi Hikari from other parts of Niigata Prefecture, the prefecture reputed to grow the best rice, for 2180 yen, well below the 2850 figure I quoted for what are less popular strains of rice from less-well-regarded growing areas.

All this fact-checking was possibly for naught, however. The comments section of my earlier post offers a revelation of spicy duplicity, which, upon reflection, is an obvious bit of cheatin' in order to stick it to the The Man Back At HQ.

Nobody Pays Retail

These, according to Business Week, are the prices one pays for goods in Tokyo:

No. 1 Most Expensive City: Tokyo
Quick lunch: $20.80
Beer at a bar: $10.56
Kilogram of rice: $9.80
Dozen eggs: $4.50
Movie theater ticket: $23.80

(Link)

Has anyone ever paid these amounts, even at 80 yen to the dollar, except in Azabu-Juban or at inside an international-class hotel?

The highest class Koshi Hikari from Uonuma in Niigata-ken (Niigata connoisseurs prefer rice from Sadogashima, but that is another story) costs me 3850 yen for the 5 kilo bag at my local supermarket, which works out to $9.63 at 80 yen to the dollar.

But I never buy Uonuma Koshi Hikari. I might accept it as a gift but I would never buy it myself. I am more than happy with Akita Komachi at 2580 yen or Tochigi Koshi Hikari at 2850 yen per 5 kilo bag. However, even these I prefer to buy on sale, which they are at least once a month.

A dozen eggs at $4.50? First of all, you cannot buy eggs in a dozen, not formally: eggs in this blessed land come in packages of ten -- as they should in any country with a commitment to the decimal system. Second, the most expensive eggs at my supermarket come in at 298 yen for a package, which if you upped it to a dozen, then divided by 80 yen to the dollar, comes to $4.47.

Whisper close, but again, I baulk at buying eggs at 298 a package. Eggs at 258 yen for 10 is my speed.

The same holds true for almost every price one sees quoted in these lists, whether they are compiled by ECA International, The Economist Intelligence Unit or whomever. Whenever sees the prices residents in the blessed must supposedly pay, even in high-priced Tokyo, one suspects that the test shoppers made at least one trip to Meiji-ya in Hiro, which is like calculating fruit costs based on a trip to Senbiki-ya -- something one does to get a good laugh, not a serious result.

Even if one drops the likely cost-skewing culprits -- the aforementioned Meiji-ya, Nisshin World Delicatessen and Mitsukoshi (for clothes, perfume and accessories) -- nobody ever pays retail for anything. There is always a coupon, a time-limited sale, a price for employees of keiretsu ally or, if one is willing to gamble a little, a low-cost alternative source.

The gamble sometimes does not pay off, as the unfortunate passengers on a Tokyo Disneyland-bound bus found out in horrifying way on Friday (E). The regular fare on a JR expressway point-to-point passenger bus from Kanazawa to Tokyo Disneyland is 7850 yen. This type of bus transportation is strictly regulated as to its operations, particularly the number of hours a driver can be on the road during a given span of time.

However, the passengers on the deadly bus ride from Kanazawa paid only 3500 yen for the same trip, based upon the semantic subterfuge of labeling the bus a "tour bus." Regulation for the operations of tour buses are much more relaxed than those for point-to-point buses, meaning that the same driver can drive many more hours, lowering the unit labor costs, which make up a significant portion of the cost of the drive. (J)

The accident and the likelihood that cost cutting measures shortcuts were taken demonstrate that outside the purview of the providers of information for the international traveling set, this blessed land is becoming more like other countries. Safety regulations can be and are circumvented -- and as the customers move downscale in terms of their consumption patterns, they will encounter these heretofore atypical tradeoffs more and more often.

An aside, but did anyone notice how it took only a day for the police to raid the premises of the tour bus company and the home of the company's owner in search of evidence of illegal cost-cutting practices -- but a month to decide raid the offices of AIJ Advisors after the story of the obvious Ponzi scheme made the papers and the news broadcasts?

Any chances that in the intervening month, AIJ executives might have altered, deleted or destroyed evidence?

A double standard in an underregulated industry, would you say? (E)