Upload: 30 December 2018, Last Update: 25 September 2019

Some people say that at present, the distance of self and others are becoming closer. This is a positive outcome of modernisation and can be seen in the following two situations.

First, when it comes to the relationship between company and society, the value of company for society is changing in a good sense. Especially top companies puts more efforts in contribution to society.

The Japanese clothing company, Uniqlo, is promoting the employment of refugees. For those who coming from outside Japan, it’s difficult to get employed. This is no exception for refugees, even more difficult. They are trying to embrace them in a society. They are not just donating money, taking actions. And also there are other companies woking for pro-bono projects which uses their practical skills for others without being paid.

In the 21st century, many companies taking approaches for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). They are not just getting profits as a company, but they are also giving contributions on their own way. This does improve the social value of company in society. In this situation, more younger generations will get jobs at companies working for society makes distance of contribution for others closer. It seems that getting a job at private companies are working for themselves, but now it also means working for community.

Second, after the emergence of Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), increasing number of students are joining internships at NGOs. Those experience makes them think about the existence of others. From younger ages, students are hoping to work for and help others, in the meantime, they are actually having those opportunities.

Those two situations in business and student-life, a lot of people are working for society. This current social structure works better for solving the social problems and the distance of self and others are becoming closer.

Upload: 28 December 2018, Last update: 28 January 2019

Japan is going to accept more foreign workers from April 2019. As they have been struggling with labour shortages in recent time, Abe administration steered to foreign labour forces.

Receiving workers from overseas could be one of the solutions for super aging society, but the problem still remains as regards this decision.

For example, Japan has been conducting a program started in 1993 receiving trainees from overseas countries. The aim is to give opportunities for trainees to get expertise while working. However this is criticized as abusive and exploitative program. Their working condition is unacceptable and many articles interviewing actual trainees are published online. There’s even some passed away due to accidents or other reasons during the program. After Yoshifu Arita, a member of the House of Councillors, asked and received the details from the Ministry of Justice, he posted a tweet saying that in the past 8 years, 174 trainees are dead[1]. Even though this situation is not solved yet, Abe regime has passed a law. Since this law doesn’t encourage immigration, this is just welcoming workers as labour forces to put them into the shortage. The government should pay more attention to the human rights of workers and prepare better working-situation for them until April.

What is important is that both companies and workers can get benefits from the new system. Those who desiring to work in Japan can get a chance and also companies hoping new workers can employ them. As of right now, I cannot imagine that this law will be successful. Unless the government and companies cooperate to build better rules and regulations, this will be the same as the trainee program.

[1]https://twitter.com/aritayoshifu/status/1072767599073681408 Accessed 30 December 2018

Upload: 23 December 2018, Last update: 30 December 2018

When it comes to the image of demonstration, Japanese have traditional stereotypes. The image of demonstration is quite negative for them.

Particularly, take a look at the recent case in France, in November 2018, the Yellow vests movement started. Then the number of supporters for this movement increased day by day. Originally the aim was protesting against the raise of tax for fuel, as times passed it expanded.

Of course, Japanese media covered it. But as Junko Takasaki, Japanese writer, explains in her article, they mostly focused on violent scenes, and they didn’t focus on important points which is demonstrations in France enables communication with politicians through this action[1].

After the several weeks of large scale manifestations, the Prime Minster Édouard Philippe announced they are not going to raise the tax for fuel and the President Emmanuel Macron gave a speech on TV. However the points that most of Japanese media reported was just the damages of this movement which causes negative impressions to Japanese people. Moreover, since the Japanese media have been reporting in this way, quite a lof of Japanese people gaining information from only TV have been misunderstanding.

This old-fashioned culture began to change thanks to the advance of the Internet and I imagine this decreases the number of TV viewers. Certainly, TV stations do not spread false information, but they do not step in deeper parts of news. And they report quite limited ranges and viewpoints. It is sure that there’s information gap between TV and the Internet in Japan.

The impression of demonstration created by Japanese media is still influencing Japanese citizens. If TVs continues to report this way, people would be far from TVs. The media in Japan needs to catch up with the global trends, otherwise they will be left behind.

[1]https://gendai.ismedia.jp/articles/-/58845 Accessed 30 December 2018

Upload: 21 December 2018, Last update: 17 February 2020

In Japan, relatively small number of people express political opinion in public, for example, compared with other countries, people speaking publicly politics in social network services are limited or people mostly do not join demonstration. They tend to care excessively others’ eyes in field of politics (Japanese may characteristically care too much other people though).

For younger generation, they may afraid that in case of job-hunting, the activity of political posts in sns or demonstration would negatively affect it. And workers may think of their careers. However, in a democratic society, it’s normal to speak out opinions. Particularly this problem has negative aspects for those who already having interests in politics. Even if they have their opinions in specific political matters, they do not express. The recent key word “diversity” is quite far from politics in Japan. In this respect, Japan is facing lack of political activities of citizens. This is related to low turnouts at elections.

In the past a few months, there’s a bit of change in this matter. With regard to the US military base in Okinawa, some famous celebrities and influencers posted comments promoting the petition titled “Stop the landfill of Henoko / Oura Bay until a referendum can be held in Okinawa”[1] to US government in their twitter and instagram. This petition can get a direct response from the US government if it assembled “100,000 Signatures in 30 Days”[2]. The fact that the Japanese government forcefully started this landfill is unbearable for many people. As of December 21 2018, about 151,000 people signed, and one month later, January 21 2019, the number amounted to more than 209,000[3].

This time, some celebrities broke the taboo and expressed opinion. In a society where people hesitate, this is a good progress and giving impression of being able to give opinions publicly.

Footnotes

[1]https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/stop-landfill-henoko-oura-bay-until-referendum-can-be-held-okinawa Accessed 21 December 2018.

[2]https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/ Accessed 21 December 2018.

[3]https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/stop-landfill-henoko-oura-bay-until-referendum-can-be-held-okinawa Accessed 21 December 2018.