My 2017 in FB

Since I posted more in Facebook than I did here, it is only right that I put what I posted there here. There were also many comments and some good discussions following these initial posts, but I am just saving the initial posts here. In chronological order:

 

So given the fill-in-the-blank sentence “oooo is in the details” (or ooooが細部に宿る), what word comes quickly to mind to fill in the blank? この「oooo」は何でしょうか。I am wondering if there is a difference depending upon where people grew up.

The reason I asked is that I was reading something that casually mentioned 神が細部に宿る and I thought “Huh?” So I googled it up. Apparently the phrase in English is God is in the details and it is commonly attributed to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. And then “the devil is in the details” is mentioned as a variant. (Also liked に宿る for “is in,” but that’s another issue.)

Talking with my wife about this, and neither “god is in” nor “the devil is in” came to her mind. Instead, she had vague inklings of a phrase that we had to look up to check: 神は正直の頭(こうべ)に宿る. Which might roughly translate as “god is in the mind of the honest man.” and I have no idea where it comes from.
Then, still later, it occurred to me that the “the devil is in . . .” phrase might be used as a translation for the common 各論反対.
Happy New Year, everyone.
(January 3, 2017)

 

天下り問題等、騒がれている文科省と道徳教育を声を大にして強調する文科省って、同じ文科省でしょうか。
(January 20, 2017)

 

I am thinking that if Trump were really all that concerned about restoring U.S. manufacturing and all, it would make great sense to go after Walmart and the like and to get them to simply stop handling imported stuff. If there’s no distribution and no market, the stuff won’t be imported and Americans will either pay more for the local product or go without.
(January 23, 2017)

 

I do not play contract bridge. But I learned about it many years ago and vaguely remember that if you and your partner have the right cards, you bid “no trump.” Is there a perfect no-trump hand? And who is selling t-shirts with that design unobtrusively on them?

In follow-up, it was suggested the AKQJ, AKQ, AKQ, AKQ hand was probably the most readily, obviously a no-trump hand. This would be very easy with the necessary skills to design, and I note that the idea is open for the taking.
(January 27, 2017)

 

Anyone able to recommend a good (U.S. recognized) notary public in Tokyo? I need something notarized for U.S. legal purposes and I am not interested in going to the Embassy for it (even if my assumption were not that they only do that for American citizens). Or is this something I can ask any U.S.-licensed lawyer to do? Thanks.
(January 31, 2017)

 

丸川大臣って、何ですか。ゴルフ場が女性正会員を認めない事が問題になっているなか、「女性が男性と同じ扱いを受けるように」と求めました。同じ扱いではなく、一時的な正会員大愚ではなく、正真正銘の正会員になれるようにしなければおかしいでしょう。
(February 3, 2017)

 

Very impressive win by the Koike forces in Chiyoda-ku. Also good to see that more than half of the eligible voters voted. What a difference a difference makes.
(February 6, 2017)

 

In a discussion about Nordstrom and Lady Ivanka, a friend mocked the idea that Trump’s lashing out at Nordstrom was in any way improper. Instead, he called it “defending your daughter.” There is, obviously, a clear difference between defending your daughter and promoting her merchandise. Nobody had attacked her. The store simply said it would not carry the product. But the friend called Trump’s action “defending his daughter.” This is a reasonably bright friend, but I never know if he is being serious or if he’s just acting presidential.
(February 10, 2017)

 

Very interesting news out of Malaysia, especially in light of long-standing reports that he and his family were under Chinese protection.
(February 15, 2017)

 

Interesting that a big insert with today’s paper advertising a pachinko place prominently featured a sidebar: “Enjoy in moderation, be careful not to become addicted.” Very similar to the “cautions” the whiskey people put on their advertising. Would be glad to share the actual text if I could figure out how to attach a pdf here.
(February 18, 2017)

 

I don’t suppose anyone here has an English-language version of the 1871 Sino-Japanese Friendship and Trade Treaty they could lend me. Would love to be proven wrong, but . . .
(February 23, 2017)

 

It is tax-filing time again, at least in Japan. Which reminds me: what ever happened to Dietwoman Onoda Kimi and her dual nationality. Still doing the dual filing? Or did she manage to extract herself from one of them?
(March 4, 2017)

 

I notice on Kagoike’s Diet testimony about the million yen that he’s testifying under oath and subject to perjury charges and none of the people disputing his statement (e.g., Abe and his wife, or Abe and her husband, however you want to phrase it) is testifying under oath and subject to perjury charges. Don’t want to jump to conclusions, but thought the disparity was noteworthy.
(March 23, 2017)

 

One of the things that most bothers me about the current administration is its blithe “we didn’t keep any records so you can’t prove it” attitude. If you will recall, when the Cabinet Legislation Bureau changed its mind to approve the collective-defense war-powers act, people wanted to know what the logic was, who said what, and how the arguments played out. But when they asked, the CLB said, in effect, “we’re not going to tell you.” Since records should be kept of major decisions, and this was clearly a major decision, there was some furor over the lack of records, but the CLB stonewalled.
Later, when the Defense Ministry was asked about the situation in Southern Sudan, they said they did not have any records. Then the records — the reports from the troops on the ground — showed up and it also turned up that, having once said the report was lost, the higher-ups had said to lose the report when it was found. Protecting the organization was more important than obeying the law.
And most recently, when Kogoike’s school got a sweetheart deal on national land and people wanted to know why — what the discussion was that led to this — we were told that no records were kept. It is the old “if we destroy the records, you can’t prove anything.” In ordinary life, this is called tampering with the evidence. For the Abe bureaucracy, it is business as usual.
This is not healthy for Japanese democracy.
(March 28, 2017)

 

So my lemon tree (grown from seed) is a couple years old, has big leaves and impressive thorns, but how do I get flowers? Or is this one of those things that takes 20 years to get to the flower-and-maybe-bear-fruit stage? (Is in a sunny inside location, so winter cold is not the problem. Unless it needs the stimulus of winter cold.) Any thoughts?
(April 9, 2017)

 

Just a generalization from the United fiasco: The fact that United could not get all the volunteers it wanted means they were not offering enough. If they said they would give volunteers $1,000, say, they might have gotten more than they wanted. This is a market situation. Which means it goes beyond United stupidity. If you cannot get enough people to do something, you have to sweeten the incentives. If there are not enough nurses or kindergarten teachers, pay them better and/or otherwise sweeten the incentive package. If there are too many politicians or investment bankers, make it less attractive to be a politician or investment banker. (Note: professions mentioned are purely by way of example.) When hotels complain they cannot get housekeeping staff, that probably means they are not compensating people enough for the work involved. Of course, big companies will say they cannot afford to pay people better. This happens in translation too. If you want quality, be prepared to pay quality money for it. Corporate executives understand this when it comes to executive compensation. “We have to stay competitive,” they say as they raise their peers’ salaries. Same thing applies throughout the economy. Improve the incentives (which is not just money, by the way) and you’ll get the volunteers you need.
(April 11, 2017)

 

Seeing the same product pretty consistently on sale for 30% off suggests 30% off is the real price and immunizes me to buying it for the +30% price any other time/place.
(April 23, 2017)

 

Starting to read _Turning Points in Japanese History_ (paperback). In the introduction, Edstrom writes, “The problem of pinpointing the timing of turning points . . . can also be illustrated by the question when the Second World War was lost for Japan” and then suggests that this “is linked to the question when the post-war period started.” However, I suspect the war was lost about three years before it was over, which would mean these are two separate turning points: when the war was lost and when the postwar period started. They are linked, but they are definitely not the same.
(May 4, 2017)

 

Reading along, I am sometimes brought up short by terms that are used in ways that I would not use them, sometimes because I would shy away from what I think of as being too influenced by English. For example, I think of 文脈 as a literary or at least written context. But then I come across この二人(安倍晋三と橋下徹)は、でてきた文脈は違っていますが、今の日本の政治文化の中で果たしている機能は非常によく似ていると思います。So Japanese can also use “context” in non-written contexts. Good to know.

Another one is “character,” but here the usage feels different. The text mentions that polls show people opposed to a lot of Abe policies but this is not reflected in the administration’s nonetheless-high approval rating. 個別の政策は支持しないが、内閣は支持するというのは、この支持者たちが政策ではなくて、安倍晋三というキャラクターに対して「何か」を期待しているということだと思います。Here, I resist the temptation to think of Abe as a Kumamon-like mascot-like “character” or a Doraemon-like cartoon character, but nor do I think this is what I think of as a “character issue” in English (e.g., honest, compassionate, and possessing other good-character traits). Rather, I suspect “character” here is not so much a character issue as it is a persona — the public persona that he projects. But again, it is a case in which I would probably not have thought to use “character” to express that.

I really need to read more widely in my fields.
(May 9, 2017)

 

I suppose it is nice that one of the Imperials is going to get married, but the official engagement is apparently still some way off, so I’m wondering why the story broke now rather than when the engagement is official. Any thoughts?
(May 18, 2017)

 

The question of Olympic funding — who is going to pay for what — is back in the news. This is funding for permanent facilities, for temporary facilities, and for services such as security at outside-Tokyo sites. Why is this still an issue? What does the original proposal say? What was the plan when this was being pitched to the International Selection Committee? Surely every other line in the financial plan was not “we’ll think about this later” Or was it? And if the plan was wildly optimistic, who is to blame for the fraudulent sales pitch?
(May 25, 2017)

 

I see the LDP has decided to not even consider a ban on smoking (an effort to protect people from second-hand smoke) this session of the Diet. Again. But of course, I think. If they outlawed smoke, all they’d have left would be mirrors.
(June 6, 2017)

 

各社が「所有者不明土地」関連のニュースを報道しているが、わからない。何でそんな事があり得るのか。国交省が所有者を把握していないのは無理もないが、税務署は何をやっているのか。所有者不明土地の固定資産税をただ放棄しているのか。そして「税収不足」を理由にして増税か。冗談がキツすぎる。
(June 26, 2017)

 
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I have a lot of stuff in Dropbox — stuff I am not currently working on but need to access from time to time — and went to Dropbox this morning to get/print one of those pages.
Dropbox has redesigned the way it interfaces. They have created something called paper (which of course is not really paper) and insist on imposing this new system on users. They are making assumptions that are not my assumptions about what I want from Dropbox. As a result, they are very close to losing me with this update.
Dropbox was fine the way it was. It was fine as a place to store stuff. It does not need to be a place to work, much less a place to work cooperatively. And even less does it need to impose this new system on people. Go ahead and say it is there, but give us a “later” option. Or even a “don’t bother me” option. Because people will go away if it is more bother than it is worth, and Dropbox is very, very close to that line with this latest surprise.
(July 6, 2017)

 

Question on Word alphabetization: I have a long list of authors that I want to alphabetize. The easiest solution is to put them in a table and have the computer then put them in alphabetical order. But it put the names starting with macroned Os at the end. How can I instruct it to ignore the macrons? Or perhaps treat the macroned Os as Oos? Or do whatever should be done? MTIA
(July 11, 2017)

 

Speaking to a sympathetic group in Yokohama on July 23, PM Abe reportedly said 「憲法審査会では、各党が単に反対するということではなく、案をそれぞれ持ち寄ってほしい」, which translates as “I am hoping the other parties will not just say no but will put forward their own proposals for rewriting the Constitution in the Diet Commissions on the Constitution deliberations.”

All of which reminds me, for some reason, of the poor girl who keeps saying “no” and Abe is whining “You don’t want to do it on the living room rug. You don’t want to do it on the pool table. Don’t just say ‘no.’ Tell me where you do want to do it.” Sorry, Abe, the answer is still no.
(July 24, 2017)

 

There are a number of shopping sites I check from time to time, among them one that offers stuff at close to the prices the people who work at the companies that make it can buy it for — i.e., at steep discounts. But even though they offer a lot of very attractive merchandise, I wish there were an “I wish you had this for sale” feedback space. Because without that, I can’t get them to offer other stuff I want. Without that, they only have data on what people buy from among the things they already offer, and they have no idea what people would buy if they offered it. And even if they cannot offer something I want them to add, they could at least write back saying the people who make it will not make it available at sharp-discount prices, which would then strengthen the seller-customer bond. And I am sure (1) I’m not the only one who would suggest I’d-buy-this-if-you-had-it stuff and (2) they’re not the only sales site or even the only kind of sales site that would benefit from having such a feedback box.
(July 31, 2017)

 

Am thinking the actual adoption of self-driving cars will free up a lot of land for parks, gardens, or whatever. After all, if the car can drive itself and is just a phone call away, why would you need a place to park it or even need to own it? The company that operates them can have a few multi-story parking garages here and there, and that should be enough. Not only will this free parking space along streets, parking lots, and residences, it will also make it possible to do away with the requirement that new buildings provide parking for X number of vehicles. Looking forward to it.
(August 4, 2017)

 

A question for people who do international relations: The news has reported that the Australian navy found the US Osprey that crashed and sunk off Australia recently. Not that the US found it but that Australia found it. But when a US military craft crashes in Japan, whether it is off the coast of Okinawa or on a university campus, we are told that Japan has to stay out and has no legal grounds for investigating what happened, where parts are, or anything else — that US military is US military and Japan is barred from the scene. Why the difference? Is this in the Status of Forces Agreements? Or is it an operational custom that has just sprung up out of deference? What justification is there for this apparent difference?
(August 9, 2017)

 

That photo of the Nevada student that went viral? A stark reminder of the importance of actually being the kind of person you want to be known/remembered as.
(August 14, 2017)

 

Two different explanations for Japan’s current peace and prosperity:
From PM Abe:
私たちが享受している平和と繁栄は、かけがえのない命を捧げられた皆様の尊い犠牲の上に築かれたものであります。私たちは、そのことを、ひとときも忘れることはありません。改めて、衷心より、敬意と感謝の念を捧げます。
From the Emperor:
終戦以来、すでに72年、国民のたゆみない努力により、今日のわが国の平和と繁栄が築き上げられましたが、苦難に満ちた往時をしのぶ時、感慨は今なお尽きることがありません。
Both today at the mid-day ceremony commemorating the end of the war.
(August 15, 2017)

 

Looking at the North Korean situation, I have been wondering how it can be de-escalated. NK seems to want direct talks (possibly implying equal standing?) with the US, but both sides have set pre-conditions for such talks. And even if they are able to drop their pre-conditions (e.g., talk while NK continues developing its military capability), what could come out of the talks, given that neither side has any reason at all to trust the other? What shape would an agreement take and how would that agreement be verifiable?
(August 30, 2017)

 

I am surprised the term “ABCD line” has not showed up in all of the commentary I have seen about tightening sanctions to get North Korea to change its behavior.
(September 4, 2017)

 

Note to Facebook: I am not really interested in who is now friends with whom, how long they have been FB friends, or even what page they recently “liked.” If they think it’s important for me to know, they can say so, but Facebook should not be posting such announcements. (Hint: knowing you do this is a definite disincentive for me to like a page or friend a person. It’s what people in the industry call “counter-productive.”)
(September 8, 2017)

 

So even the American UN resolution on sanctions against North Korea was Made in China?
(September 13, 2017)

 

I see the pension people have screwed up again, this time not bothering to pay people. But that’s par for the pension people. Carelessly create a problem and then get paid overtime to fix it (or at least talk about how you’re going to fix it so people will look away). But that’s not my complaint today.

Today is this issue of land that nobody knows who owns it. The govt is saying the problem arises because people who buy or inherit property do not bother to change the title registration, which means the registration is still unchanged from 50 years ago and it’s impossible to locate the actual owners. But that assumes the title registration is the only hint they have. Which is nonsense.

Every year, the tax office sends out property tax bills to the owners of record as of January 1. If anyone is paying attention, it should be possible to tell if the bill has been paid or not. And if it has not, to track down who should have paid it and what the glitch was. The previous owner died? Not a problem. Who inherited it? (if the person waived the inheritance, that should also be a matter of family-court record. It’s no secret if the government wants to find out.) So every year, the tax office is given the opportunity to track down the actual owner and then know where to send the next year’s bill. It should not take 50 years to figure out that the title registration is out of date.

But perhaps the tax office doesn’t give a damn. Their job is to send out the bills. Not their problem whether people actually pay their taxes or not. Really? Sounds pretty irresponsible. Or perhaps the tax office just did not notice. Which sounds pretty incompetent. But it’s so much easier to raise a tax rate here and a tax rate there than to track people down and do all those other messy things that would mean getting out of the office and actually dealing with real people.

Or perhaps the different parts of the government do not talk with each other — the famous silo problem that has been pointed out over and over and that the bureaucracy has promised over and over to fix, “promised” being the operative word here. Some people are far too comfortable in their jobs and need a shake-up or shake-out. Ditto for the people who are supposed to be overseeing (not overlooking) this whole mess.
(September 13, 2017)

 

For friends who might not otherwise see it: “This year’s version of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report (WNISR) is out, and its message is not a happy one for nuclear power proponents. As former Tennessee Valley Authority chairman S. David Freeman notes in a foreword, “The report makes clear, in telling detail, that the debate is over. Nuclear power has been eclipsed by the sun and the wind. These renewable, free-fuel sources are no longer a dream or a projection—they are a reality [and] are replacing nuclear as the preferred choice for new power plants worldwide.” This from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. <http://thebulletin.org/status-report-troubled-nuclear-indus…>
(September 22, 2017)

 

Nothing has fallen off an NK rocket, but the J-alert alarms have been out in full force warning of the danger. Earlier today, a 4kg metal panel fell off a KLM plane over Osaka. No J-alert, though.
(September 24, 2017)

 

前原氏が何の為に民進党の代表になりましたか。党を小池氏に委ねる為ですか。それとも自身が希望の党公認になる為ですか。
まぁ、結果が判り易い1・2・3の選挙になりました。
第一自民党
第二自民党
共産党
(September 28, 2017)

 

Thought I heard Abe boasting about how GDP has grown on his watch — and saying that it had slumped when the DPJ was in power — and not mentioning Fukushima, which was in large part an LDP policy responsibility. But no, must have misheard.
(October 11, 2017)

 

Watching the news this evening, I am wondering about the timing of the US-SK joint military exercises. Are these to get more big-threat news time in support of Abe’s election campaign, to provoke NK into doing something that will make life harder for the Chinese congress, or what? (Multiple answers allowed.) Also wonder about the US Sec of State’s comment that their diplomatic efforts will continue until the first bomb falls, which sounds very much like saying there will be no declaration of war (or notification that the ceasefire is off) if it happens.
(October 16, 2017)

 

Taking a page from the Trump playbook, Abe and his LDP are proposing some really stupid policies to distract attention from the even stupider things they want to do.
(November 17, 2017)

 

国有地売却の手続きを見直すというが手続きの見直しは必要ない。必要なのは手続きの遵守だ。法治国家らしく。
(November 28, 2017)

 

Looking at all the high-positioned people being accused of sexual harassment, I first thought it was, as one miscreant has said, that the high position was conducive to such behavior. (You can do anything if you’re famous.) You have the power, so you use it to exploit/degrade others.

But actually, that is probably backwards. It is more likely that that is the personality type that rises (claws its way) to the top in competitive industries. Even starting out, it is the aggressive me-me-me alpha dog that moves into a leadership position. Society is set up to reward such people with money and other accolades. Nice guys finish last has long been the motto. So why should it surprise us that the people finishing first are not nice guys?

The problem goes far deeper than “just” sexual harassment.
(November 30, 2017)

 

Would like every business story (for example, the story about possible price-fixing in connection with the construction of maglev train facilities) to be accompanied by a little table showing how much each of the companies mentioned (and their executive leadership) has contributed to what politicians and political parties/groups over the last decade or so.
(December 18, 2017)

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