I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the number of comments this week, so thanks to all of you who took the time to read the articles and provide more information about the problem. As I said in my comments in the last entry, I don’t think that the majority of Japanese people realize how serious a problem this could become. Actually, I read just this morning that there has been another confrontation between Chinese and Japanese boats near the Senkaku Islands. One of the problems with this situation is that losing “face” is a big deal in Chinese culture, just as it is in Japanese culture, so there is a danger that each side will be forced to escalate the dispute little by little even though they don’t really want to just because the politicians don’t want to appear weak. I guess there is not much we can do about it as individuals, but whatever Japanese people decide to do, I hope it will be on the basis of informed decisions, and not simply because it is what “strong” politicians say that you should do. Here is some feedback on your comments. <\/p>\n
You mean you saw your first \u201cwild\u201d bear?? Have a great weekend, and I’ll be back on Monday with a nice easy topic. <\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have to say I was pleasantly surprised…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btbpress.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6064"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btbpress.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btbpress.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btbpress.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btbpress.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.btbpress.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6064\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btbpress.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btbpress.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btbpress.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nYes – my first wild bear.
\n<\/strong>
\nDo you aim to reduce the number of comments!?
\nAre you trying to reduce the number of comments!?
\n<\/strong>
\nBy the way, the advert on the BBC has been made because British (young) people are losing interest in politics as well?
\nYes, I’m afraid that is true. Many British people, especially young ones, have completely lost faith in politicians. The only people less popular than politicians now are bankers, because they are blamed for the financial crisis.
\n<\/strong>
\nWhen I heard Govenor Ishihara saying he(Tokyo)would buy the Senkaku Islands, I couldn\u2019t take it a realistic story.
\n… I couldn’t take it seriously.
\n<\/strong>
\nAbout a month ago I saw a political commentator mentioning about that.
\n… talking about that. (Remember that you do not need “about” after “mention” or “discuss.”)
\n<\/strong>
\nI learned about the problem of the northern territories in school, but I have to admit that I haven\u2019t given much thought to it.
\nNice sentence.
\n<\/strong>
\nbut I can\u2019t accept their ribald humor sometimes\u2026.
\nI’m guessing that you got “ribald” from a dictionary, but it is such a rare word that I had to look it up myself! I would not recommend using it.
\n<\/strong>
\nI just can\u2019t understand why they can do that openly, without being ashamed\u2026 Is it just cultural differences??
\nI think you will find it is nothing to do with culture, and a lot to do with money and greed!
\n<\/strong>
\nAs far as I remember, there was no detail in textbooks of schools because there was censorship of them in old days in Japan,as you know.
\nJapanese history textbooks are still censored, aren’t they?
\n<\/strong>
\nMost Japanese innocently take peace for granted.
\nI think “naively” would be more appropriate than “innocently” in this sentence.
\n<\/strong>
\nIn order to protect Japan\u2019s sovereignty, these islands should be purchased by Tokyo and then be nationalized by the Japanese government.
\nFollowing our discussion, I now understand better what Ishihara is trying to do and why he thinks it is a good idea.
\n<\/strong>
\nI wonder why they receive job offers like that in the first place? Why do they sign the contract?
\nThat’s a very easy question to answer! Here are three reasons for you: money; money; money.
\n<\/strong>
\nBecause individual landowners could sell their lands to foreign people at any time they like.
\nBut this is true about anyone who owns land privately in Japan. There is nothing to stop the owner of a big piece of land in Tokyo, Hokkaido, Okinawa, or anywhere else selling it to Chinese buyers if they want to.
\n<\/strong>
\nNothing could be produced from indifference.
\nNothing good will come from indifference.
\n<\/strong>
\nI left Bangkok and now start a life in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
\nIt sounds as though you are living a very interesting life!
\n<\/strong>
\nI had a busy day today. \u73cd\u3057\u304f\u3002\u3002\u3002\u3002
\nYou probably know how to say that in English, but other people might not, so I’ll write it here. “I had a busy day today – for a change.”
\n<\/strong>
\nThere were no any energy left when I got home from work and finished housework.
\nBy the time I got home from work and finished the housework, I had no energy left.
\n<\/strong>
\nI really appreciate David about this.
\nThanks. If you mean \u611f\u8b1d, though, it should be “I’m really grateful to David for this.”
\n<\/strong>
\nHe talked nothing but something justify themselves.
\nThe only thing he was interested in was trying to justify himself.
\n<\/strong>
\nThe more I read, the more I get confused\u2026
\nThe more I read, the more confused I get… (Join the club!) [This means “Me too!”]
\n<\/strong>
\nAnd Ishihara is one of the representative right-wing politicians. He insists, for example, that the Nanjing massacre is made up by Chinese people.
\nIt will never be possible for Japan and China to have good relations when politicians like this are in charge.
\n<\/strong>
\nIn short, the country of China look down on other Asian countries.
\nThis might be true, but it is something that is often said about Japan as well.
\n<\/strong>
\na Japanese female politician mentioned
\na female Japanese politician said, “…” (“Mention” is only used when you talk about something in passing or when the main topic of what you are saying is something else. “Mention” is not used when you report the main point that someone is making.)
\n<\/strong>
\nI have felt \u201c\u65e5\u672c\u306f\u306a\u3081\u3089\u308c\u3066\u3044\u308b\u201d for a long time.
\nI understand that way of thinking, but Chinese people are thinking the same about Japan when they see Japanese people voting for a politician who claims that the Rape of Nanking never happened. It is very dangerous when the populations of two countries start to think of each other like this.
\n<\/strong>
\nDo you know that China is exclusively developing a gas field in Japan\u2019s EEZ, although they agreed with joint development with Japan?
\nI didn’t know about that.
\n<\/strong>
\nThey desperately need the ocean.
\nNice sentence.
\n<\/strong>
\nFinally I was able to find a time:
\nFinally, I was able to find time.
\n<\/strong>
\nI hope it\u2019s a bad part of them. If China really has this attitude, they will become a leading country in industry.
\nI was talking to a man who works for Toyota last year, and he was very worried about electric cars. Many Japanese people say that Japanese cars are the best cars in the world. It is more accurate to say, however, that they are the “best-built” cars in the world. My friend said that when the engineers at Toyota looked at the technology in the new VW turbo engines, they were amazed. Japan’s real mastery is not in the design or technology of the cars, it’s in the design and technology of the production process. Other countries can design cars as good as Japanese cars, but they can’t produce them with the same consistent high levels of quality. My friend was worried because electric cars are much, much simpler than gasoline cars, so even countries like China and India will be able to produce them with the same kind of reliability as Japanese companies, but for much less money.
\n<\/strong>
\nThat’s it for today. Thanks again for an interesting discussion. Actually, I realized as I was reading the comments that Britain has a very similar problem with the Falkland Islands and Argentina. Even though we fought and won a war with them over these islands, and even though all the people who live there want to remain British, Argentina is still claiming that the islands belong to them. I guess these kinds of problems will be around as long as there are two or more humans on the planet. <\/p>\n