Update: 5 January 2019, Last Update: 5 February 2019

Beginning of a year, Japan has a road relay race called Hakone Ekiden. About 20 teams from universities in Kanto region can participate in the race. 10 members from a team joins the race by handing a sash one after another and each runs about 20 km. This is a symbolic new year event. A lot of student runners hoping to be on the race work really hard throughout entire university life or even from their childhood.

This year, a first runner from one of the teams fell down and sprained his ankle, but he continued the race. If he had stopped it, the race for his team would have ended. The meaning of handling a sash to a next runner is huge for a team. That’s why he continued to run. Not just for the following runners, but also for the entire team.

According to Yahoo! News which cited an article of Japanese sport newspaper SPORTS HOCHI[1], the runner was told to take 6 months for recovery of his ankle. It also says that from April, he is supposed to run for a company.

In Japan, there’s some sort of atmosphere that those who sacrificing themselves for others is what should praise.

But is it really a good thing to dedicate themselves for others even though in this case he got a heavy injure taking 6 months to recover? Although on the race he continued running, his team should have stopped him and the race. Or for the future cases, it would be better to give the directors of the road race the authority to stop a runner who looks getting an serious injury. He wanted to do his best and actually made his best race for team, but it’s not good that the society praise his action because in the future if others encounter the same case, they would do the same. In the worst case, some might think from such precedent cases that they have to continue the race. To prevent this self-sacrifice-for-team case, I would suggest that the society or people surrounding athletes must stop those actions.

This kind of case is what we should end for the future. Runners might want to continue, but people surrounding them should not permit it.

[1]https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20190104-00000167-sph-spo Accessed 4 January 2018

Upload: 2 January 2019, Last update: 2 February 2019

What the most important is the value of the very present, it isn’t either the one in the past nor the average in lifetime.

But it is different from Kohaku-uta-gassen and seniority in Japan.

Japan has been traditionally having a song show called Kohaku-uta-gassen at the end of each year. Many Japanese families watch it and prepare for new year. In the show, well-known singers divided into male and female teams compete each other. This program always invites relatively more experienced and veteran singers even if some of them didn’t come front in the year. Why do this way?

Presumably it might be because of the generations who prefer to watch this, the director puts more experienced singers in order to make this suitable for the elderly. Or since this is a part of culture, it would be better to have a wide generational range of singers in order to create a show suitable for all generations of Japanese. This can encourage and preserve the custom of Japanese watching this before new year.

Whatever the truth is, I think this selection of singers has to do with the employment system, particularly seniority, in Japan.

The fact that this show has quite a number of veteran singers is related to the sense of value in Japanese society. The following part explains it linked with workplace situation.

In the selection of singers at this song show as well as the field of business in Japan, what is evaluated is that how much they contributed to Japan’s song world or what they have achieved in the life-scale. It’s not whether they have become the timely singer of the year or not. In fact, the accomplishments of each singer throughout their life is one of the most important factors, but what I want to emphasize here is the fact that some of singers who didn’t so much influence the year can be on the show if they are experienced and have achieved great jobs before. Those who select the singers evaluate on not a-year-basis but life-span achievements.

This culture is similar to the seniority in Japan because they put more focus on the contribution in the life-length rather than the very this moment. That’s why many Japanese companies taking measure of seniority promote those who with more time they spent at the company. There are some of those who should have been evaluated more and I feel kind of strangeness in this point. Because value is not put on the one right now, but it is evaluated in the whole-past basis.

Since this show is conducted every year, I don’t think it’s a good idea to choose singers in terms of life-time achievement. This prevents the development of younger generation and I guess there’s similar situation at Japanese companies as well.

I do not have intention to condemn the show, but I think there’s relationship between the selection of singers at the show and the seniority of employment in Japan. Especially what they evaluate and put more values on. This is much related to a society level.

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