Category: Social-Japan

Preparation for War: ”Watching YouTube Videos Not Punished” Agency of Cultural Affairs Disclosed Q and A on Imposition of Criminal Punishment on Illegal Download


We have to keep an eye on this law. It is likely that innocent people will be arrested simply because they are critical about the government.  This is one of necessary steps leading up to war.
Masatoshi Takeshita


English translation of an excerpt from a Japanese article: bizmash!:nifty July 13, 2012


“Watching YouTube Videos Not Punished”
Agency of Cultural Affairs Discloses Q and A on Imposition of Criminal Punishment on Illegal Download


Amidst spreading concerns about imposition of criminal punishment on illegal download, the Agency of Cultural Affairs has disclosed Q and A on this problem to the public.  The agency shows its view that it is no problem to watch videos on “YouTube,” video-sharing website.

The revised Copyright Law, which includes imposition of criminal punishment on illegal download, was enacted on June 20, 2012.   It stipulates that on and after October 1, 2012, a person who knowingly downloads music or videos somebody illegally uploaded shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than 2 years or a fine of not more than 2 million yen.

However, consumer organizations and lawyers have showed their concern about the ambiguous words used in the Q and A.  It might threaten to punish anybody for just watching on YouTube, video-sharing website, depending on how the words are interpreted.

When browsing video-site such as YouTube, data stored within a cache will be automatically created on a PC or a smartphone.  According to the Q and A, it is not violation of copyright.  And sending and receiving illegally copied music and videos on e-mail between friends is not considered a punishable crime.

Furthermore, duplicating and storing photos and sentences on the Internet is no problem only for private use.  However, music and movies are subject to punishment.

However, these are simply the agency’s views, which are not always applicable to the actual operation of the law by the police and the prosecutor, and the judgment of the court.  Lawyers also question whether the agency’s views are applicable to the actual operation of the law without fail.

(Reported by Hiroshi Ueki, Newsfront)


Japan Finance Ministry is inflaming financial collapse


*Information from Mr. Takeshita posted on his blog July 13, 2012

English translation of an excerpt from a Japanese article: [Yo ni Kamu Hibi] July 13, 2012

People's Life First [LF] Members Feel Free to Criticize Noda

Yuko Mori grills Noda

Live broadcasts of parliamentary proceedings have become a lot of fun after a long interval.

It was a spectacular sight to see Diet member Yuko Mori in the House of Representatives Budget Committee the day before yesterday.
Her “touching a tender spot” was effective enough to make groan in pain not only Noda but also all the people who take hold on the core elements of this country. 


Eiji Hata, a follower of Diet member Mori’s tweets:

“Diet member Yuko Mori shot the government which pretends to suffer “fiscal predicament” though it has enough financial power to provide foreign aid with 14 trillion yen.  This is going to be a lot of fun.”


July 10, 2012
Yuko Mori  Grills Noda Administration in House of Representatives Budget Committee

Yuko Mori:

“I am asking about the total amount of financial aid that you promised to provide for international organization.  Don't chop logic as you like.”

“Well, Prime Minister, please answer my question.  What is the total amount?   The Foreign Ministry and the Finance Ministry reported different figures.   Prime Minister, you are not going to answer my question.  What is the total amount of aid that you as the Noda Cabinet promised to provide?   I think you can answer my question just by looking at the material I have prepared.”

Prime Minister Noda:

“Here is also material for the Committee.  Including the maximum amount of financial contributions and that of financial loans, it totals up to 14 trillion 333.3 billion yen shown here.”

Yuko Mori:

“You should have answered so from the very beginning.”

“The Finance Ministry has been spreading a groundless rumor as if the country were going to fall into financial collapse now.  However, in fact, Japan still has financial power to provide financial aid in this way.”



It is understandable that mass media won't cover this question of Diet member Mori.  They have severely mauled, made fun of, and ridiculed the policy of “people's life first” advocated by Mr. Ozawa.  If they should cover her question, their justifiable claim and premise will collapse.

Lastly, there was another example to disprove the myth that Japan is on the brink of financial collapse, which was posted on my past blog.  I would like to call it a day by introducing it.

(An Omission)


Big Lie of Finance Ministry Inflaming “Financial Collapse” Exposed
(Source: Nikkan Gendai – February 11, 2011 -)  

 A “People's New Party” member of the House of Councilors, Akiko Kamei accused Finance Ministry on TV.

The people who watched the program “Sunday Discussion” on NHK on 20th yesterday must have been unable to believe their own ears.  A People’s New Party member of the House of Councilors,  Akiko Kamei, 45, disclosed a big lie of the Finance Ministry inflaming financial collapse.




The People's New Party has advocated that public spending be boosted by issuance of construction bonds and interest-free, tax-exempt government bonds to escape from the deflationary economy.   Diet member Kamei made to public the exchange of views on these government bonds with the Finance Ministry.  To summarize her remarks on the program, it goes like this.

When I exchanged views (on the interest-free, tax-exempt government bonds) with the Finance Ministry, they said “If we issue such bonds, it will give foreign countries an impression that Japan is having financial difficulties.   We don't need to issue them because government debt is stably redeemed.”
I asked “What?  Isn't Japan in a financial crisis?”
“No problem,” they answered.  (Finance Ministry) says something different to the public and the ruling party.

What a surprise!  If what Diet member Kamei said is right, all argument Finance Ministry and Prime Minister Kan make fuss about, saying “consumption tax hike is necessary due to financial crisis” was not based on the fact at all.

“People's New Party's stance is that it is necessary to create a mechanism which allows money to circulate in the market, to boost domestic spending. They will never stick to issuing interest-free, tax-exempt government bonds.   They have often asked Finance Ministry to suggest them alternatives if this methodology is not acceptable.  They have always evaded answering them.” (By informed source)

We have asked anew Diet member Kamei the real intention of her remarks.

“Finance Ministry premises the consumption tax from the beginning.  Issuance of interest-free, tax-exempt government bonds will cause no problem for anybody.  And yet, exchange of views has reached a stalemate.  Then I summoned a Finance Ministry bureaucrat to our party's office and asked him whether we were in the financial situation of peace time or emergency.  He answered ‘Peace time.’  The Finance Ministry explains abroad “Japan is rich in foreign financial assets and more than 90 percent of government bond is held internally.  This is because Japan is not in a financial crisis.”  On the other hand, the ministry says to the people ‘We are in 900 trillion yen of debt.’  The ministry gives different explanations to foreign countries and the people.”

Two-tongued Finance Ministry bureaucrats who dance to a different tune, depending on the other person they face.  I do want Diet member Kamei to grill them in the Diet.


[News U.S.] ICHIRO OZAWA Responsible for Attempted Murder of Benjamin Fulford!


This is valuable information.  The way one takes this kind information will make great difference in his ability to gather information.  Many people will presumably pay no attention to it as part of so-called conspiracy theory.

Masatoshi Takeshita


English translation of an excerpt from a Japanese article on Benjamin Fulford’s blog: News U.S. – July 11, 2012 

ICHIRO OZAWA Responsible for Attempted Murder of Benjamin Fulford!
Likelihood of Delayed Poison!
All-Out-Effort to Be Made to Unravel Plot of Asian Chapter, Illuminati


Mr. Benjamin Fulford reports on his own blog that after a lecture on June 30, he was almost killed by a man, who spoke to Mr. Fulford in English with a Korean accent to ask Mr. Fulford to shake hands and stabbed him with a poisoned needle.

This presumably is because Mr. Fulford had repeatedly talked about Aum Shinrikyo cult and Ichiro Ozawa.

And another far more astonishing fact was disclosed on his English blog this week.

According to the blog, Ichiro Ozawa was the mastermind behind the plot!

=======================================================
from his blog:


The order to stab this writer with a poisoned needle was given by Japanese power broker Ichiro Ozawa and his North Korean faction, according to North Korean, South Korean and Japanese military intelligence and underworld sources. Ozawa is upset by repeated assertions by this writer that he was involved in, and profited from, the 311 nuclear and tsunami terror attacks against Japan. My question to Ozawa is, why not sue me for slander instead of trying to kill me? Is it because you are guilty of participating in, and profiting from, the murder of 20,000 of your fellow Japanese citizens?

We are now investigating whether Ozawa was acting on his own or following instructions from the Rockefellers, the Bushes or the P2 lodge. We have also heard that somebody lied to North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and told him this writer was somehow responsible for his father’s murder.

benjaminfulford.net/2012/07/10/japanese-power-broker-ichiro-ozawa-ordered-my-murder/
=======================================================


[Net Guerilla] I Told You Shintaro Ishihara Was CIA Agent


All the parts in red seem to be right.
It is quite natural to consider that Shintaro Ishihara, the landowner and the Taiwanese activist in this case are all CIA agents.
The activist looks like a Chinese agent to the untrained eye, but he isn’t.

Be that as it may, such cover-ups the U.S. has been globally engaged in have confused the world.  I think it is difficult to find any big wars that have showed no association with cover-ups by the U.S.

Masatoshi Takeshita


English translation of an excerpt from a Japanese article: Net Guerilla July 9, 2012 

It’s Like a Puzzle.

You see, Shintato Ishihara is a CIA agent.  He is a typical American faithful dog and has tried to make a fuss about the Senkaku islands to estrange Japan from China.  As he knows well that the territorial issue always heat up, he maneuvers to spoil the bilateral economic honeymoon.

Or perhaps the landowner is also dubious.  All the issues on northern territories, Senkaku islands and Takeshima island are fakes made by the U.S. to drive a wedge between Japan and its neighboring countries.  So we should not take the issues seriously.

I have thought like this.  However, the self-claimed Taiwanese activist seems to be dubious.  If so, is he really a Chinese agent?  The story does not seem to be so simple, I feel.  I’m perplexed.

It cannot be said that CIA agent is unlikely to pretend to be a Taiwanese activist with a Chinese flag.  In any case, we have no right to say about others.  Every country has a lot of agents.



Bank of Japan Is Culprit: [J-CAST] Small Number of Highly-Paid Salaried Employees and Large Number of Poorly-Paid Employees…. – Lifetime Earnings Down 9.6% For The Last Decade

With regard to the part in blue shown below, if the Bank of Japan will by no means take proper policy, issuance of government currency is the only alternative for stopping a fall in lifetime earnings, as Prof. Stiglitz points out, and it should be done.  I wonder when people will notice this simple truth.

Masatoshi Takeshita


English translation of a Japanese article of BIBLOBE News (Source: J-CAST News) – July 8, 2012 

Small Number of Highly-Paid Employees and Large Number of Poorly-Paid Ones …. Salaried Workers’ Lifetime Earnings Down 9.6 percent Over The Past Decade


Lifetime earnings of salaried workers have drastically decreased.  According to the “Wage Structure Key Statistics Survey” by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, in the case of male university graduates (average workers), if they work until retirement, their lifetime earnings stood at 275.8 million yen (excluding retirement allowance) in 2009 while 305.2 million yen in 2000 and 306.4 million yen in 1990.  Namely, there is a decrease of 29.4 million yen (down 9.6 percent) over the past ten years between 2009 and 2000. 

Behind such decrease in lifetime earnings is said to be the corruption of lifelong employment system, which has led to an increase in employment of non-regular workers such as part-timers and temporary workers and also employment mobility.


Difference of “One Hundred Million Yen” Between Big Companies and Small Companies

It used to be said that lifetime earnings of salaried workers were about “three hundred million yen” including monthly pay, bonuses and retirement allowance.  According to                                     the “Youthful Labor Statistics Guideline 2012”, which is edited by the Japan Institute for Labor Policy and Training (JILPT) based on the “Wage Structure Key Statistics Survey” by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, their lifetime earnings in 2009 barely reached “three hundred million yen” including retirement allowance, which dropped to less than three hundred million yen if retirement allowance is excluded.

The lower academic background (technical college graduate, junior college graduate, high school graduate, junior-high school graduate in this order) is, the lowered wage level is in spite of longer time of service.  Consequently, people with higher academic background gain more lifetime earnings.

Of course, the longer the period of service as non-regular worker is, the more farther “three hundred million yen” is.

Comparing the lifelong earnings between companies with more than 1000 employees and those with less than 100 employees, bigger companies pay one hundred million yen more.

Though no changes in this tendency, Researcher Haruhiko Hori, JILPT, points out, saying “After 2000, an especially significant decrease on bonuses has been seen.  A fall in lifetime earnings is caused mainly by a decrease in pay and bonus due to business downturn of companies.

“It is true that the culprit is economic downturn, but without betterment of business performance and enlargement of the whole pie, wages will never rise.”


Pay- for-Performance System Causes Lower Wages?

However, lifetime earnings have decreased by approximately 10 percent, 29.4 million yen compared to those ten years ago.  A significant drop was seen especially between 2008 and 2009, that is, around Lehman’s fall:  292.9 million yen in 2008 to 275.8 million yen in 2009.  It is true that this was due to the stock market plunge, sluggish consumption, and poor business performance of companies.  However, there is a big amount of difference – 17.1 million yen – by just a year.

Researcher Hori, JILPT, mentioned above, explains: “a decrease in lifetime earnings is due to poor business performance of companies as well as ‘presumably globalization and introduction of pay for performance system’.”

Actually, corporate employees’ salary payments increase less often with age and the “pay scale” proceeds to flatten.  Abolition of “fringe benefits” such as age allowance, long-service allowance, family allowance and housing allowance also helped curb a boost in salary.

According to Researcher Mr.Hori, “Recently, wage distribution has varied widely.  Namely, pay gap has become wider and yet the gap has become wider with age.”

A company consists of a small number of highly-paid employees and a large number of poorly-paid ones.  This seems to cause to lower the average lifetime earnings of all employees.

We think of the “Osprey” deployment issue. – After all, “vested interests of bureaucracy” was part and parcel of the issue!


* Information from a reader posted on Shanti Phula's blog - July 3, 2012 -

This is a part of a TV program.  I think this video seems to well sum up the issue on deployment of U.S. army aircraft Osprey.  Around the last part of the video, a citizen in Okinawa comments “I feel Okinawa is a colony of Japan” and Mr. Tamagawa, a commentator, says “This issue contains the same policy as the nuclear power plant issue: Let’s send something dangerous to another place.”   These comments have made me deeply think of this issue.
         (Comment by a poster)



English translation of an excerpt from a Japanese article: “We think of the wonder of the world hard” – July 1, 2012   

We think of the “Osprey” deployment issue. – After all, “vested interests of bureaucracy” was part and parcel of the issue!

Though not much reported in national papers, the “Osprey” issue has been widely reported every day for the past month in Okinawa local newspapers.  This issue was picked up and explained in detail in the “Somo Somo Souken” of a TV program “Morning Bird” on Thursday last week.  I’d like to introduce some part of it to discuss the issue.


<Summary of Osprey>

*The Osprey is considered to be very important aircraft for the U.S. Marines in terms of military strategy because it can transport supplies and people in large quantity at high speed and needs no runways.

*It has been announced that the aircraft will be deployed in the Futenma base in Okinawa Prefecture, which is said to be the most dangerous place, around the middle of August.

*It is also planned to deploy the Osprey in Honshu and Shikoku.  This will be a national problem in the near future.


<It is difficult to control the aircraft called “widow producing machine.”  

*So far 36 people were killed in eight accidents.


<Appearance of Osprey and cause of susceptibility to accident>

*It is structurally bad-balanced and has no autorotation function.

*It is similar to the nuclear power plant without filter-tipped ventilation arrangement.

(An omission)


As for the Osprey deployment issue, the Japanese government has kept denying it in the Diet since 2006.  However, feeling frustrated, the U.S. has made an announcement of the plan to deploy the Osprey.  At this time when negotiation is no longer feasible, the government is trying to explain the plan to the citizens in Okinawa “to persuade them to accept it with a connotation of no use opposing it.”

In this, there is a great similarity between the Ohi nuclear power plant restart and the Osprey deployment.

And, there are no politicians who can answer the question “Who will take responsibility if another nuclear power plant accident should occur.”  There are no politicians who can answer the question “Who will take responsibility if an Osprey should crash on private houses.”   These two issues are the same in that nobody will take responsibility.   Both cases are completely the same in that they might cause damages for which nobody can actually take responsibility.
(As for predicted worst damages, a nuclear power plant accident will cause overwhelmingly more damages.  However, I’d like to omit it as comparison is irrelevant to the nature of the issues.)

In accidents which occurred in other countries Ospreys crashed on inhabited areas, killing crew alone.  This explains why the Osprey has been called “widow producing machine.”  However, if an Osprey should crash on a densely populated area around the Futenma base, Japanese will be victimized.

Though I have no intention to add fuel to fear, the Osprey is not “widow producing machine” but can be “indiscriminant killing machine.”  In this regard, it is also similar to the nuclear power plant issue.

In the first place, I wonder if it is forgivable to victimize Japanese simply to preserve the vested interests of the American military industry and the Japanese bureaucracy subservient to the U.S.