New Year's Lecture: "How Much is Japan Changing?"

The first lecture of the year took place on January 25 (Thu.) at the Japan National Press Center before a full-capacity audience.

Our speaker was the president of the Harris Consultancy, Mr Graham Harris. Mr Harris was posted to other countries after he first came to Japan in 1960 with Lloyds Bank, but he always maintained a close connection to Japan. He wittily analyzed how much Japan has changed, or not changed, from eight aspects. On the whole, Japan was in the past a fairly unique country in the world, but with increasing globalization the country has become "less different and easier to deal with" from a Western point of view. An eight-point outline of Harris-san's lecture follows:

1. Business: considerable changes from around the time of the bubble and continuing through the financial "Big Bang" Nonetheless, there are many specifically Japanese traits remaining, e.g. hostile takeovers have not become an acceptable Japanese practice.
2. Work Environment: considerably changed with the elimination of discrimination between men and women and abolishment of lifetime employment; but many problems remain such as increased numbers of suicide.
3. Politics: one of least-changed things. The LDP remains in charge, with the number of 'hereditary' diet members increasing. In England, there are parent-child diet members, but their constituencies are different. Unfortunately, relations with China and Korea haven't improved following the World War II, unlike Germany's relations with England and France.
4. Foreign business: it used to be main challenge for Britain to get the Japanese tariffs on Scotch lowered. Today, Japanese investment abroad and investment from abroad into Japan have both increased, with 'abroad' increasingly referring to Asia. However, neither Vodafone nor TESCO managed to succeed in Japan. The percentage share of Japan's GDP created by foreign companies remains a paltry 2% (England 37%, US 12%).
5. Internationalization: The other day I went into Bic Camera and was served by a Chinese salesperson. This happens increasingly.
6. Relations with foreigners: originally Japanese were extremely kind to foreigners, to the degree that a station attendant once took a passenger who had missed his train to the next stop in his own car, but recently, foreigners are now nothing very special.
7. Education: Japan's literacy rate has been the world's highest from long ago. However, not a single Japanese university listed among a ranking of the top 58 in the world.
8. Social: age of marriage has become higher than before, with the number of unmarried increasing also. Female executives have begun to appear. On the minus side, numbers of homeless folk are also increasing, although they are generally quiet and unthreatening. Japan is still a civilized society. When drugstore chain Matsumoto Kiyoshi placed piles of prizes outside, no one stole them.
9. Once, whenever young Japanese saw a foreigner, they would rush up to ask, "Can I speak English with you?" I used to meet this sort of young man and we entered a coffee shop. His girlfriend looked extremely bored throughout, but.. two years later, she became my wife!

Harris-san's final joke: A man hopes his bride will never change after they are married. But women change. When a woman weds, it is her hope her husband will change. However, they don't!

"English Club"

The English Club, a regular monthly activity of ESUJ, took place on January 16 at the Japan National Press Center.

The first two-minute speech was given by student member Kenichi Ota, titled "Oh, What a Year!," about the political situation inside and outside Japan. The final talk was by repeat speaker Mitsuo Fukazawa, on the topic "Impromptu Speech", about Oxymoron.

Our main 'guest' speaker was Dr. Magdi Elsayed Khalil, PhD Tokyo University, presently affiliated with the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties Tokyo as a special foreign researcher.

Dr. Khalil went on to describe the origins of the Islamic faith and its teachings, Islamic culture and people's lives in a lively, passionate way. With the aid of an easy-to-understand Powerpoint presentation, Dr. Khalil made the following points: The origin of the word 'Muslim' is thought to come from 'Islam' and 'Salaam' (a salutation that means 'peace'). The founder of Islam was Muhammad, who was born in the year 569. Up to then, there had been numerous gods in the Al-Jazeera peninsula and much heavy drinking. The five pillars of Islam are Shahadah (Witness), Salat (Prayer), Zakat (Obligatory Alms), Ramadan (Self-Control), and Hajji (Pilgrimage). The Arabic word "an-ta" is very like the Japanese word "anata (you)". The English word alcohol is Arabic in origin. He also spoke about marriage, including his personal thoughts along with Islamic teachings, for a very well-rounded talk. Q&A session was very lively and included discussion of serious problems of the day.

February's meeting will take place on Feb. 20 (Tue)　18:30-20:30 at the Japan National Press Club. Our speaker will be Dr.Tatiana Snitko, PhD, Researcher in Linguistics at Tokyo University.

Other Coming Events

Spring Outing: Visiting "Nihon Mingei Kan"
Date: March 10 (Sat.), 10:00-12:00