Thursday, May 05, 2005
HINOMARU: PUNISHING TEACHERS-日の丸・君が代」強
Ishihara Shintaro’s government acts like the Gestapo in monitoring teacher-student patriotism. Of course, this also reflects neo-nationalist thinking in the Education Ministry. Although the mainstream liberal media reports on this, it does so inconsistently and without drawing a connection between this issue and others affecting diplomacy, such as the Yasukuni visits. Like China and its own authoritarian policies, Japan tends more and more to treat these as domestic issues when encountering foreign criticism, but it actually refuses to address the many people in Japan who oppose its neo-nationalist policies. The media--both liberal and rightist--is largely complicit in this deception.
Monday, May 02, 2005
MAD COW IN JAPAN, THE US, CANADA
So Japan’s business-first politicians have slowly caved in to U.S. demands that cows under 10 months be excluded from testing. Why? Because the U.S. puts priority on business first too. When Japan tries to protect itself from Mad Cow, the U.S. cries “unfair trade practices”. And while the U.S. for a while banned Canadian cattle--to protect its own industry no doubt more than any concerns about the health and safety of consumers, it is now about to reverse that decision, again probably due to business pressures from its Northern neighbor.
