Newsletter No.48

March 2003

ESUJ Debate 2003: Debate for Adults

ESUJ Debate 2003 took place on Sunday February 23 at the Kokusai Fashion Center. Following last year's debate in June, this was the second debate for adults. This year eight two-person teams, composed of adults from the financial, manufacturing and educational sectors and including veteran debaters participated alongside recently graduating young debaters. Many participants were experiencing parliamentary debate for the first time, along side previous champions, those seeking revenge for prior defeat, and others. Teams were divided into Groups A and B for the two preliminary debates.

Motions:
A-1: This House would give up the development of outer space.
B-1: This House believes that Japan should arm itself with nuclear weapons.
A-2: This House believes that a plant is a better companion than an animal.
B-2: This House would not teach English in Japanese elementary schools.

Advancing to the semi-finals were two teams with two victories, and two teams with one victory plus the greatest number of points among the four teams winning one debate.

Semi-Final Motion: This House believes that companies should establish nurseries in the workplace.

Advancing to the championship round were "The Chamber of Secrets" Team, composed of last year's winner Takashi Ebihara and Isao Ayabe, who was an English instructor at university, along with the "Phoenix" Team, composed of former academic debater Takeo Sumino, appearing once more as a debater to try parliamentary debate for the first time with partner Yuki Ikuno, debating the motion:

This House would eliminate the tariff on imported rice.

The debate was a head-on clash, worthy of a championship, with the audience members acting as judges and a final result of 49-34 in favor of The Chamber of Secrets team, giving Mr Ebihara his second consecutive victory. Many debaters this year were business men or women 30 to 40 years of age who produced persuasive debating arguments based on their varied and broad experiences. Many members of the audience expressed their pleasure at the excellent debating.

Winning Team: The Chamber of Secrets (Isao Ayabe, Takashi Ebihara)
Runner-up: Phoenix (Takeo Sumino and Yuki Ikuno)

Finalists:
Return of Unreasonable Men (Toru Watanabe and Koji Nouchi)
Satomipyan (Masaki Miyashita and Satomi Sakaguchi)
Tournament Director: Ayato Kurokawa

"ESUJ Luncheon" program launched

A program of lunch meetings (fee for attendance) was launched at 12:30 on February 5 at the City Club of Tokyo. In the main, this program is for our corporate sponsors and our corporate and individual supporting members, who provide strong support for ESUJ through their financial backing. The first speaker was ESUJ Councilor Masaaki Tsuchida, President and CEO of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Mr Tsuchida's topic was "Companies Listed on the Stock Exchange: To Whom Do They Belong?" The venue was filled to capacity, with more than 40 people attending. Making use of his precious store of valuable information, Mr. Tsuchida explained the mechanism of corporate governance in various countries, and how a company's share price rises when there are good factors and also how the price falls when a company is hit by a scandal. Much of the content of Mr Tsuchida's talk was not available elsewhere and thus extremely interesting and also full of suggestions to be developed. In future, ESUJ plans to have several such luncheons a year. The talks will be mainly in Japanese. We hope many people will decide to become supporting members of ESUJ and participate.

English Club

Our monthly English Club under the chairmanship of Mr. Masumi Muramatsu met Tuesday, Feb. 18. Ms Rosie Goldsmith of the BBC, visiting Japan to make a radio documentary on the "elderly" citizens, with a mini-recorder and a mike, energetically interviewed many Club members of all ages, men and women, on their views about retired life, pensions and amenities, generation gaps, etc. All spoke up and the interview became a lively discussion among the members as well.
March 18 (Tue.) at Tokyo International Forum G510
April 15 (Tue.) at Doyu Club

Event Information for March

Nature Ramble
Sunday, March 16, starting from JR Tachikawa Station at 10:00a.m.
Hiking in Oume, with plum blossom viewing and a visit to the Gyokudo Gallery
Please apply by Friday, March 7 (participation is limited to first 25 applicants)

Lecture by the Tunisian Ambassador to Japan
Thursday, March 27 (details to be announced later) 6:30-8:00pm
Place: Japan National Press Club, 10th F., C Hall
Ambassador Hannachi will speak about the history of Carthage and the charms of his country