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.

[Mr.Takeshita] Speculation of Bankers: Crisis of European Banks

As for the parts in red of an article shown below, those who watch my video streaming of “Lecture course on Economy” (* not available in English)  will easily understand the fact that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Banks (ECB) play a leading role in trying to intentionally shrink economy.

They want to bring in their long-cherished dream of integration of EU, including financial integration, by finally blaming EU countries and their people for depression.  However, that’s not going to happen.  Many people across the world have already understood that such depression has been intentionally created by IMF and central banks.

Masatoshi Takeshita


* Information from Mr. Takeshita posted on his blog – July 7, 2012



English Translation of a Japanese article from Iran Radio (Commented by Bakhtiari) – July 6, 2012 -



Crisis of European Banks 

In spite of an agreement on support of financial organizations by leaders of the EU countries, the number of European banks at the brink of bankruptcy has been increasing day by day.

In response to such situation, on 5th Thursday, the President of ECB and others held a meeting to discuss how to cope with the crisis within the Euro.  In this meeting, it was decided that financial organizations should lower their key interest rates from 1 percent to 0.75 percent in order to control debt crisis and prevent this crisis from spreading to banks.  Cut in interest rate by ECB is the third for the past one year.  This measure was taken based on the agreement reached in the meeting held in Brussels, Belgium on 29th last month.

President Mario Draughi of ECB had already called on the leaders and politicians of EU to make further drastic decisions to cope with the financial crisis.  Furthermore, IMF, in the report on global financial system lately released, says “European economy is expected to be downgraded this year and it seems to be difficult for the area to be liberated from this problem in 2013.”   IMF also says “European major banks will probably shrink their balance sheet amount by 2.6 trillion dollars by 2013, which accounts for seven percent of the whole capital.”

According to experts on political problems, measures to cope with the financial organization crisis can be put into practice only by a drastic intervention by the government and a hike in the citizen tax money.
According to the experts, European leaders decided to give a support of 100 billion euros to Spanish banks, the biggest reason for it was to prevent this crisis from spreading to other countries.  Actually, they are concerned about the likelihood of the same debt crisis as seen in Greek.   The biggest reason why experts and government officials pay attention to the bank crisis is probably that the crisis has spread to Sweden, not EU member country.

However, formation of a bank alliance to monitor the activities of financial organizations within the euro area is one of the important approaches to cope with the European financial crisis.  Generally, the European financial crisis is likely to influence other financial organizations and substructures in the area.

Spanish Bank Gives Too Terrific Surprise Service

* Information from two readers posted on our blog (in Japan) – July 6, 2012 –

“Spanish banks must be in the midst of economic chaos.  One of them has given such wonderful service!  This sort of thing is the unthinkable here in Japan.”

(Comment by one of the readers)



English translation of an excerpt from a Japanese article: ROCKET NEWS 24 – July 3, 2012 –

Power Of Music Is Really Terrific!  Too Terrific Surprise Performance Given In Spain Becomes Hot Topic In The World



The Bank “Banco Sabadell” with its head office in Sabadell, Spain, which marks its 130th anniversary of foundation, carried out a surprise project to appreciate the patronage of the local people.  More than 100 people including members of an orchestra “Valles Symphony Orchestra” and those of a chorus group “Choral Belles Arts” took part in the project.

This terrific surprise performance has received a lot of comments praising it from all over the world, and is getting explosively popular on the Internet.


The video of this surprise project surely makes every viewer feel “I wish I could have been there, too!”  Watch the video carefully, and you will see not only the audience but the players smile with pleasure.  Music makes people have a happy smile on their face and serves as a bridge of hear-to-heart communication.  The power of music is really terrific!

[News U.S.] Dentsu CIA Completely Discloses Your Privacy With Facebook.


I think that even people who dislike so-called conspiracy theory had better know the kinds of risk which are likely to be accompanied by the use of Facebook or Smartphone.
Masatoshi Takeshita


* Information from Mr. Takeshita on his blog – July 6, 2012 


English translation of an excerpt from a Japanese article: News US – July 4, 2012 –


Dentsu CIA Completely Discloses Your Privacy With Facebook


– Headshot, Love Affair, Sexual Preference – Shuddering, Dangerous Watchdog Functions Come Out One After Another



As many as 57 kinds of private data collected by Facebook

One day, Mr. Max Shrem living in Wien, Austria suddenly got interested in how much Facebook knew about himself and demanded it to disclose his personal data.

In social networking service, we can download our own data to back it up. The directive on personal data adopted by the Council of European Union called “Directive 95/46/EU” enables us to demand the disclosure of even non-public data the corporation holds as proof of its legitimacy.

And then Mr. Max Shrem demanded the European office of Facebook in Dublin, Ireland through its website to disclose his own data.  He received the PDF file consisting of a total of 1,222 pages, contained in CD.  Its volume was equivalent to that of “War and Pace” by Tolstoy, which is famous as a voluminous book.  It had far more detailed content than the novel and literally every data he had gained by clicking a computer mouse was recorded in it.


(An omission)

These data shown below seemed to be collected as large category.

01: About Me
02: Account End Date
03: Account Status History
04: Address
05: Alternate Name (e.g. if you got married or if you have a name in a non-Latin script)
06: Applications
07: Chat
08: Checkins
09: Connections
10: Credit Cards
11: Currency
12: Current City
13: Date of Birth
14: Education
15: E-Mails
16: Events
17: Family
18: Favorite Quotes
19: Friend Requests
20: Friends
21: Gender
22: Groups
23: Hometown
24: Last Location
25: Linked Accounts (e.g. twitter, youtube or skype)
26: Locale
27: Logins
28: Machines
29: Messages
30: Minifeed
31: Name
32: Name Changes
33: Networks
34: Notes
35: Notification Settings
36: Notifications
37: Password
38: Phone Numbers
39: Photos
40: Physical tokens (This field was empty in all sets of data we got.  It might be a future feature for secure identification.)
41: Pokes
42: Political views
43: Privacy setting
44: Profile Blurb (This field was empty in all sets of information we got.)
45: Realtime Activities
46: Recent Activities
47: Registration Date
48: Relationship
49: Religious Views
50: Removed Friends
51: Screen Name (skype name)
52: Shares
53: Status Updates
54: Vanity
55: Wallposts
56: Website
57: Work

Source: Facebook’s Data Pool

(An omission)

What will happen if you make Facebook your enemy?
If Facebook gets serious about finding out a specific target, it is quite easy to completely disclose the person’s private data.
When you carry a Smartphone with you, it is almost equal to reporting “I am here” by the minute to CIA.

The real purpose of Facebook is not advertisement.
The corporation does not need to make big profits because a lot of money flows into it from CIA.
Their ultimate goal is to complete a terrible all humanity watchdog tool.

Urgent information: “Light of Grace on July 10, 2012 for one hour from twelve noon (JST)”


Urgent information : “On July 10, 2012 for one hour from twelve noon to 1 p.m. Japan Standard Time(JST).”

MSG on July 7, 2012 at 11:50 p.m. Japan Standard Time (JST).


Ｍrs. Seiko Nakanishi received two messages this morning on July 7.(*1)
I would like to let you know the gist of the original messages.


====================================================
1. Message from Takaki-mikuranoboru-mikoto-sama

(July 7, 2012 between 8:20 and 8:30 a.m.)

I’m going to inform you of something very important:
Powerful energy from the universe will be showered on the earth for one hour from twelve noon to 1 p.m. on July 10, 2012.  The energy will help accomplish something great. Please let people know that they should make utmost efforts and wait for the date.

====================================================
2. Message from Tsuchioto-takaku-hibuku-mikoto-sama
(July 7, 2012 at 8:30 a.m.)

I’d ask a favor of you.  Please add the following to the past message.

Please chant either of the two names, 
“Ironoehime-asakao-sama” 
or “Hikari-kagayaki-michiru-miyahimemiko-sama.” 
for one hour from twelve noon to 1 p.m. on July 10, 2012 (JST)


/* You can find the time for your timezone by »» Timezone Converter  */

====================================================

Judging from the other parts of the messages, deities seem to desire that “all people desire to abandon all nuclear power plants and eliminate evil.”  It seems that awakening of all humanity for denuclearization is indispensable for survival of humanity.


The three deities appearing in the messages are the highest-level three lords (1st level of celestial deities) residing in the 1st System of atma creation deities, which is higher than the 5th System of love creation deities.

1st Lord Takaki-mikuranoboru-mikoto-sama
2nd Lord Hikari-kagayaki-michiru-miyahimemiko-sama
3rd Lord Tsuchioto-takaku-hibiku-mikoto-sama

With regard to these Systems and the 1st to 10th levels of each System (1st to 5th levels of celestial deities and 1st to 5th levels of earthly deities), please watch video streaming of “Education Program”.) (*2)

I would like to ask each of you to make utmost effort for two days by July 10 to receive this divine light.

Masatoshi Takeshita


*1  With the detailed process, please refer to the following:
“Message from the voice received by Space probe Cassini”
bit.ly/MaJsMy (machine translated)

*2  Video streaming of “Education Program”:  Sorry to say, but this information is not available in English now.

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.

Denuclearization Advocator Candidate Makes Great Strides in Yamaguchi Gubernatorial Election (Mr. Tetsuya Iida)

* Information from Mr. Takeshita posted on his blog – July 3, 2012



English translation of a Japanese article from Gendai Net – July 2, 2012 –

Denuclearization Advocator Candidate Makes Great Strides in Yamaguchi Gubernatorial Election 

Tide Has Completely Changed!
Wide Range of Support from Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Japanese Communist Party (JCP)

We see an unexpected development in the Yamaguchi Gubernatorial Election (to be announced on 12th and to be held on 29th).  As the seats in the Yamaguchi prefectural assembly are almost occupied by LDP, at first Mr. Shigetaro Yamamoto, 63, supported by LDP and New Komeito was considered a sure winner in the election.  However, the future is uncertain now.  Mr. Tetsuya Iida, director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policy (nonprofit organization), announced to run for the election on 22nd last month and has rapidly gained support.

Needless to say, Mr. Iida is the most well-known person among intellectuals promoting denuclearization.  Coincidently, Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) restarted the No. 3 reactor at Ohi Nuclear Power Plant on 1st this month.  Last weekend 150,000 people marched to call for denuclearization in front of the prime minister’s official residence.  This momentum is spreading to Yamaguchi Prefecture, too.

On 1st Mr. Iida set up his campaign office in Yamaguchi City.  He has held mini meetings at various places in the city with thirty to fifty participants in each meeting.  There were 150 participants in the meeting in Ube City.
“Volunteers supporting the election campaign are women and young people, who are all beyond the framework of a network of organizations, communities, blood relations, or political parties.  This kind of volunteer network movement is rapidly spreading within the prefecture and there are requests for leaflets or flyers for the election campaign everywhere in various cities.”
(Mr. Hajime Yokota, a journalist who has covered the election campaign)

An expert on election campaign estimates the number of possible votes for Mr. Iida as follows:

“Mr. Iida worked as a brain for Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto.  He was in charge of energy issues and logically pointed out the “lie” of power shortages predicted by KEPCO, which aimed to restart the Ohi nuclear power plant.  Since then he has been known better.   Based on this accomplishment, he is expected to get the “fundamental votes” of “Osaka Restoration Group” and furthermore, he is sure to win the votes from advocates of denuclearization, the Social Democratic Party and Japanese Communist Party.  As Mr. Iida has posted a series of articles on energy issues on the Seikyo Shimbun, he will be able to make some inroads into New Komeito votes.  As the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)’s Yamaguchi Prefecture chapter announced an open policy vote, he is expected to collect half of the votes.  There are many people, even LDP supporters, who show some understanding over Mr. Iida’s proposal for “employment creation by expanding sustainable energy use.” 

Residents of the prefecture pay yearly 100 billion yen of energy cost.  Most of it is used in payment for imported energy.  With a conversion into natural energy use, money will be pumped into the local community.  This is one of the policies Mr. Iida proposes.

In addition, the rival candidate Shigetaro Yamamoto is badly reputed for his arrogance.  If a political change should occur in Yamaguchi, it will spread across the country.


Rotten NHK – Syria is State of War


NHK has consistently merely relayed the propaganda released by Europe and America on the Gulf War, air strikes against Afghanistan and the Iraq War.  It has now been revealed that the causes for which the wars were justified were all false.

However, NHK has not yet given any public apology though it had apparently justified the wars and sided with them.  NHK covered the issues on nuclear power plants and Syria the same way.  I think we should criticize and stage demonstration against NHK and media first.

Masatoshi Takeshita


* Information from Mr. Takeshita posted on his blog – July 1, 2012 

English translation of an excerpt from a Japanese article: ROCKWAY EXPRESS July 1, 2012 


Syria is State of War – 1 –

(Photo)
Armed terrorist with bishop’s robe on who plays with a cross in a destroyed church

June 29

In the suburbs of Damascus, a privately owned Syrian satellite TV station was attacked by armed insurgents.  In Homs, churches was attacked and destroyed.  Attackers were not “innocent citizens” but Sunni foreign terrorists who attacked “innocent citizens,” who were financed by Sunni Gulf monarchies which planed to overthrow the Shiite Asad regime and change Syria into the Sunni country.

“Innocent citizens” will never attack a privately owned TV station.  So it is high time for Japanese media including NHK to stop using such expression that the Asad regime in Syria has been oppressing innocent citizens.  With the coverage too different from or opposite to the truth, it seems to be quite difficult to keep our sanity.  Their foolishness seems never to end.

Under the situation in which NATO led by Europe and America, Turkey and Arabian monarchies overtly show their fangs and are going to attack Syria, Russia seems to have a faint hope for a meeting on Syria by the concerned countries to be held this weekend.  Considering the development to date, however, such hope may be futile.  We can see on the horizon a future of an all-out confrontation between a league of NATO/Turkey/Arabian monarchies and that of Russia/Iran/Hezbollah.

NY Times reported the demonstration as “Largest Protest in front of Prime Minister’s Official Residence since the 1960s”


NHK reported that there was a demonstration.  The coverage, however, was a mere formality.  No information on the scale of the demonstration and public anger is available on the NHK news.  There is no other way to say that NHK really plays dirty.
Masatoshi Takeshita


* Information from Mr. Takeshita posted on his blog – June 30, 2012


English translation of a Japanese article from “Monju Bosatsu” blog – June 30, 2012 

NY Times Reports Meeting to Protest against Restart of Ohi Power Station as Largest Protest in front of Prime Minister’s Official Residence since the 1960s

Photo from NY Times

On Friday last week 45,000 people got together for a demonstration, but NHK reported nothing special.
Organizers say that 200,000 people joined in this meeting to protest against the restarting of Ohi power station.
I guess that even NHK was not able to continue ignoring this size of demonstration.  However, other Japanese media had not changed a bit.
They never covered such a big scale of demonstration.
Instead they reported that the sister of Mr. Taro Yamamoto, an icon of no-nuke movement, had been arrested on suspicion of violating the Cannabis Control Law (possessing cannabis).
This has demonstrated anew how terribly rotten Japanese mass media is.

Photo from NY Times
In Tokyo, Thousands Protest the Restarting of a Nuclear Power Plant (NY Times)

Reprinted from NY Times

TOKYO ― Shouting antinuclear slogans and beating drums, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in front of the prime minister’s residence on Friday, in the largest display yet of public anger at the government’s decision to restart a nuclear power plant.

The crowd, including women with small children and men in suits coming from work, chanted “No more Fukushimas!” as it filled the broad boulevards near the residence and the national Parliament building, which were cordoned off by the police.

Estimates of the crowd’s size varied widely, with organizers claiming 150,000 participants, while the police put the number at 17,000. Local media estimated the crowd at between 20,000 and 45,000, which they described as the largest protest in central Tokyo since the 1960s.

Protests of any size are rare in Japan, which has long been politically apathetic. However, there has been growing discontent among many Japanese who feel that Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda ignored public concerns about safety this month when he ordered the restarting of the Ohi power station in western Japan.

Ohi was the first plant to go back online since last year’s accident in Fukushima led to the idling of all of Japan’s 50 operational nuclear reactors, which supplied a third of the nation’s electricity. Three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant melted down after a huge earthquake and tsunami knocked out crucial cooling systems.

Mr. Noda said he ordered the restarting of two of Ohi’s reactors to avoid power shortages that could cause blackouts during the sweltering summer and also cripple industry. However, political analysts have warned of a public backlash after opinion polls showed that two-thirds of Japanese opposed the restart, with many saying that the government had failed to persuade them that the plant had been made safe.

On Friday, many of the protesters complained that Mr. Noda was trying to take Japan back to its political business-as-usual of powerful bureaucrats and industry executives making decisions behind closed doors. Some described their outrage over the restart decision as a moment of political awakening, saying they were taking to the streets for the first time.

“Japanese have not spoken out against the national government,” said Yoko Kajiyama, a 29-year-old homemaker who carried her 1-year-old son. “Now, we have to speak out, or the government will endanger us all.”

“To restart the nuclear plant without ensuring its safety is crazy,” said Naomi Yamazaki, 37, another homemaker and first-time demonstrator. “I know we need these plants for power and jobs, but I don’t trust the authorities now to protect us.”

Organizers said a such mistrust has led to a quick growth in the size of the protests, which have been held every week since late March. The protests began with a few hundred participants, but rose into the thousands after Mr. Noda’s restart decision, said one organizer, Misao Redwolf, a illustrator based here in Tokyo.

Tetsunari Iida, director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies, an energy policy group based in Tokyo, said the protests reflected wider discontent toward the government, which many say failed to protect public health after the accident, and then rushed to get the country’s reactors back online.

“There is anger and a loss of confidence in the government,” Mr. Iida said. “This is an irreversible change, and I expect this type of movement to continue.”

For his part, the prime minister seemed unfazed by the protests. “They’re making lots of noise,” Mr. Noda remarked to reporters as he left his office for his private quarters.

While noisy, the protesters on Friday demonstrated Japan’s penchant for being well organized and fastidiously polite. In many places, they kept passages clear for pedestrians and stood in neat lines along sidewalks. When the protest ended at 8 p.m., organizers quickly dispersed participants using megaphones, with hardly a scrap of garbage left behind.

Hiroko Tabuchi contributed reporting.

The Most Peaceful and Biggest Demonstration in the World (in Japan, Tokyo – June 29, 2012)


* Information posted by Unity Design – June 30, 2012

English translation of a Japanese article from Mr. Naoto Amaki’ s blog – June 30, 2012

The Most Peaceful and Biggest Demonstration in the World

Naoto Amaki

I joined in a demonstration around the prime minister’s official residence to protest the restart of the nuclear power plant operation.

First, I was surprised at the number of participants.  That many protesters got together in the demonstration around the prime minister’s official residence for the first time since the struggle over the U.S.-Japan Security Pack.

Moreover, participants will increase from now on.  This is literally the first movement in Japanese history.

Secondly, I hear this demonstration was completely different from any conventional one whose participants are mobilized by political parties or labor unions.

I say “I hear.”  This is because I don’t know the difference between the two.

However, a certain leftist party member demonstrator said that he hardly found regular demonstrators and the participants were not organized crowd.

What he says is true because he is a regular demonstrator.

Thirdly, this demonstration was the one in which strangers got together with one purpose.

Chants of anti-nuke sometimes intermitted.  In the interval there were public speeches with a microphone.

Most of the speeches were given by politicians.

Each of them started his speech with the political party he belongs to and his name.

However, such self-promotion seemed to throw a wet blanket on the demonstration led by ordinary citizens.

It does not matter what your social standing is or where you come from.  Only the protest against the use of nuclear power and the restart of nuclear power plant operations is a matter of importance.

It is the most important that an overwhelming number of unknown people voice their anger to the Noda administration that plans to restart the nuclear power plant operation, and they encompass the prime minister’s official residence.

Only those who join in the demonstration and voice an objection are not clever but it is important to take action in the hope that the voice will change the politics.

Incidentally, I saw so many beautiful women, young and old, standing out in the demonstration.


It does demonstrate that doing right makes a person beautiful, I think.


Lastly, I have realized that this is the most beautiful demonstration in the world.


It does not mean the demonstration took place quietly.


The crowd angrily shouted the slogan of anti-nuke.


Normally, no doubt such a large scale demonstration is likely to bring about violence between the demonstrator and the police.


However, the demonstrators acted in an orderly manner as instructed by the police.  Policemen with microphones informed the demonstrators to keep on walking not to cause traffic jams.  The organizers of the demonstration called for the demonstrators on obeying the instruction of the police, and the demonstrators followed them.


I am sure there is not such a peaceful demonstration in any other country than Japan.

And yet, the demand of demonstrators is so radical.  They call for the Noda administration to step down.

Can a demonstration without leader, a demonstration not led by specific political party or organization can move the politics?

I was wondering about it while putting myself in the demonstration.

What will happen if this demonstration never stops as long as the DPJ led by Noda tries to restart the operation?


What will happen if the number of demonstrators increases week by week and has reached one million?


If so, as is to be expected, the government cannot force the nuclear power plant operation to be restarted.


Even if politics cannot stop the government from restarting the nuclear power plant operation, a demonstration will be expanded in the form of peace movement unless the public allows the restart and the government stops the demonstration.


The government cannot help but follow their voice.


This is the very example that a peaceful demonstration can change the government politics.


An unprecedented peaceful and biggest demonstration will correct the mistake the government made.


To become a central player in this remarkable accomplishment, let’s join in this historical demonstration once at least!


If this kind of demonstration takes place one after another, with whatever slogan may be: consumption tax increase or Osprey deployment, no doubt Japan will change!


I left with a sense of satisfaction because I found hope in the demonstration.