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Newsletter No.86
July 2006

ESUJ Debate 2006

The ESUJ Debate Competition for Adults took place on Saturday, June 10 at the International House in Roppongi. The rich variety of 13 teams of contestants included former university debaters, colleagues participating for the first-time, high school teachers, and veterans. This was the largest number of teams ever. Preliminary debate motions:
  1. This House no longer supports lifetime employment.
  2. This House would allow organ transplant without prior consent of the donor.
  3. This House would permit actresses in Kabuki.
  4. This House believes that Japan should start oil excavation in Iran.
Following the lively exchange of serious and humorous arguments of the preliminary debates, four teams advanced to the final rounds. The motion for the Semi-final was: This House would welcome more foreign workers. Broad ranging-debate unfolded, stretching from issues such as the problem of a decrease in the birthrate and increase in the crime rate. The motion for the Final debate was: This House opposes the 2016 Tokyo Olympics. The Opposition stressed the importance of the Olympics as a "Festival of Peace" while the Proposition side pressed the issues of financing the event and danger of terrorism and at the end of the debate, the Audience Judges gave 44 of 79 votes cast to the Freshers! team of Mihoko Saito and Keiko Tsuji, who were declared the winners. Runners Up: the Oaks Friends team (Naoki Matsuura and Magdi Khalil). Third Place: the Forensic masters team (Norio Sakurai and Akihisa Shiozaki,), the NO DEBATE NO LIFE team (Toshimitsu Kiji and Toru Watanabe). It was a wonderful and thrilling event thanks to the high level of debate show by our adult debaters, the fine efforts of our many volunteers, and the huge and passionate audience.


Eighth ESUJ Annual General Meeting

The Eighth ESUJ Annual General Meeting occurred on Tuesday, June 27 at the International House in Roppongi, with 43 members attending. and 163 proxies. Chairman Hanabusa chaired the meeting and discussion of items on the agenda including the Activities Report for 2005, and the statement of accounts for 2005 which was approved. For the future development of the organization, the appointment of five new Councilors was also announced.


ESUJ Lecture "The Future of Opera in Japan"

Following the ESUJ AGM, a talk was given by Mr Thomas Novohradsky Artistic Director (Opera) of the New National Theatre, with over 80 persons in attendance.

Born and raised in Vienna, Mr Novohradsky is an expert who has produced operas at the Vienna State Opera and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and was named the first non-Japanese Artistic Director of Tokyo's New National Theatre in 2003. Opera was originally controlled by aristocrats and the royal heads of Europe, with the monarch sometimes the artistic director. Regarding the way of setting of performance fees, Novohradsky-san pointed out that Japan has come late to the field, compared with the US and Europe. Tickets here are also the world's most expensive, with US and European performers assuming they will get rich performing in Japan and even low-standard artists coming to Japan to work. The best way to correct this is for the audience to 'boo' a lousy singer! Because singers come from abroad, Japanese artists get few chances to perform in the small number of operas staged, Novohradsky pointed out, with rare frankness and passion for the Japanese opera scene. But the big problem for Japan's opera world today is that audience numbers are declining. Despite the existence of as many as 15,000 works of opera, only about one percent of them are actually performed. But new operas are necessary because if we depend solely on the already well-known ones, opera will become extinct. Many of Japan's opera hopefuls go to Italy to study, but the good teachers have migrated to the US, with the result that the remaining teachers' pupils are all Asians. With so many fascinating nuggets of information coming from our speaker, it was no surprise that the whole session including the Q&A was wonderfully enjoyable and lively.


English Club

English Club took place on Tuesday, June 20, at the Japan National Press Club. Our ever popular two-minute speeches by group members were presented this time by Mr Yoshiaki Ueda (Hippo & I), and Mr Kenshi Takaki (How to stop worrying and start living). The guest speaker was Ms. Samar Ahmed Said of the Egyptian Embassy. Ms. Said's talk focused on present-day Egypt, in particular, the women, their families, everyday life, and so on. She welcomed all questions in an "open style", resulting in a very lively Q&A session.

The next meeting of English Club will take place on Tuesday, July 18, from 18:30-20:30, in the Japan National Press Club. Our speaker will be Mr. Toyoo Kakiuchi, former US corporate executive, speaking on the topic of "Flavour Guardians of Beer"!


Coming Events!

Summer Holiday in August (including English Club Activity)

Thu.12 September       "Historical Who Done It? −Mysterious Deaths of Two Dutchmen, Henry Heusken and Gijsbert Hemmij-"
Place: Japan National Press Club (9th fl.)
Time:     18:30-20:00
Lecturer: Mr. Geoffrey Tudor　(PR Advisor, Japan Airlines)


For further informaiton contact!

E-MAIL:esuj@esuj.gr.jp

Fujikage-Building 9th Floor, Motoakasaka 1-1-5
MInato-ku, Tokyo 107-0051
TEL: 03-3423-0970 FAX: 03-3423-0971