吉田　智

Birth rate problem

吉田　智 — 2012-05-21T00:21:51+09:00

We are facing a birth rate problem in Japan these days, and we have a problem about an increasing number of people who don’t want to get married. I found some really interesting data on the Internet. The Japanese birth rate in 2010 was 1.39. I was shocked to discover that. The Japanese population is decreasing more and more, and we are also facing the problem of an aging population.

When I was young, almost all people got married by the time they were 30 years old, and they had more than two children. If they hadn’t married by the age of 30, their friends or relatives introduced marriage partners, and they accepted their friends’ and relatives’ offers.

However, these days, people tend to choose marriage partners by themselves. In addition, females have strong academic backgrounds and high incomes, so they earn their living by themselves. As a result, they are able to be independent, and they don’t need a marriage partner.

Have you heard the terms “herbivorous boys 草食男子” and “carnivorous girls 肉食女子”? Young, Japanese males tend not to be interested in females. They don’t like dating with females, and they don’t like approaching them.

Last November, I watched a really interesting TV program, and it gathered together single people and talked about why young people don’t want to get married. One guy told of his experience.

When he was in his 20s, he declared his love for his female friend and invited her for dinner. She told him, “I’m sorry. I have another plan,” but a few days later, she told her close friend in confidence, “He declared his love for me. He is strange and weird.”

He was deeply hurt by her words. As a result, his distrust for females increased, and he never declared his love again.

When I was young, young people tended to declare their love easily, and they had girlfriends or boyfriends. Sometimes they broke up, but they had a lot of experience before getting married.

As far as I’m concerned, young people should think more about what will happen after they retire if they are single. They will have no partner, no child, and no family. If they don’t have a marriage partner, they will be living alone when they are elderly people.

NASA lost moon stones

吉田　智 — 2012-05-18T11:26:34+09:00

I found a really interesting article saying that NASA had lost more than 500 pieces of moon rock, soil, lunar dust, meteorites, and other space and moon materials since 1970. They are thought to have been stolen or have just gone missing. NASA has also lent them to researchers and museums around the world, but some researchers have kept them for a long time. Some of them have died, so the samples couldn’t be found. Hundreds of moon samples have been lost. The writer said, “NASA doesn’t consider these national treasure assets to be at high risk.”

Some young people say the moon landing footage was fake, like a movie. They say the scenes were broadcast on TV from a false moon studio, like a virtual reality moon.

My son and I sometimes talk about whether the Apollo astronauts really landed on the moon. He said, “I don’t know why the US spaceships landed there but the Soviet Union’s didn’t. At that time, the Soviet Union had great technology in the same way as the US.” I said, “I watched the Apollo 11 moon landing on TV in real time. Of course it was real.”

However, if NASA doesn’t take more care of the moon materials, it won’t be able to convince the skeptics.

Chinese trademark

吉田　智 — 2012-05-05T22:59:17+09:00

Chinese trademark

Recently, I watched an interesting TV program. According to the program, Chinese people tend to trademark a lot of things and also tend to imitate things in the world like Mickey Mouse, Hello Kitty, and other things.

In 2001, the Chinese company Proview trademarked the iPad in China. Apple sued Proview for dealing the iPad in China. However, Apple lost in court. As a result, Apple won’t be able to sell the iPad in China. In addition, the fashion company Hermes lost in court in China in a similar case.

Nowadays, Chinese people continue to trademark a lot of name brands in the world, even place names. Sixty names have been trademarked in China. Japanese products have been trademarked too. In particular, Japanese rice brands Akitakomachi, Koshihikaru, and Sasanishiki, as well as a Japanese famous beef brand, Mastuzaka Beef, have been trademarked.

The program continued to say that these days there are so many Western-style shops in China. However, they imitate overseas companies like the U.S. corporations McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken. These shops are built in the same colors and some of the same patterns, and their names are similar to the original names.

As far as I’m concerned, Chinese people need morality in dealing with other countries. The Chinese economy is developing rapidly. If they don’t recognize that they have to follow international law, they will be isolated by the world.

Consumption Tax

吉田　智 — 2012-02-23T18:27:09+09:00

We should raise the consumption tax as soon as possible. Then the government will be able to spend more on retirement and health care centers.

As a result, it won’t be necessary to save lots of money for your retirement, and you can spend more on shopping or on purchasing many expensive things.

In addition, the government will get more income tax, city tax and consumption tax. In turn, the Japanese economy will develop and this will enrich our lives. That’s why I strongly believe we should raise the consumption tax as soon as possible.

Japanese social welfere benefits system

吉田　智 — 2012-02-23T18:24:46+09:00

Until about five years ago, we could often see a lot of homeless people in the stations or the underground corridors connected to the stations.

At that time, to address the problem, the former government passed a new social welfare benefit bill to ensure that homeless people and poor people could receive social benefits or payments. As a result, they get lots of welfare money and can live in apartments. The number of visible homeless people has decreased in the stations. It’s a good system for them.

However, as a result, we now have different problems to face. Some people say that they get more money from the welfare system of the local government than a lot of young people’s salaries. Young people can’t get full-time jobs easily and work hard every day in part-time jobs.

Recently, a nurse who gets social welfare benefits applied for a job at omy clinic. She had had asthma and had gotten ￥126,000 from the social welfare system for 20 years, but luckily, her illness was cured. She explained the welfare system to me.

According to her, she always gets ￥126,000. If she earns ￥100,000 as a nurse, she can get ￥26,000 from the welfare system and if she earns￥200,000 at a hospital, she has torefund (pays back) ￥74,000 to the welfare system. It means people who get the welfare benefits always get ￥126,000 each time, whether they work or not.

As far as I’m concerned, this system needs to be improved. The system doesn't encourage poor people to look for a job or to be independent. They have no incentive to work. Japanese welfare benefits money should be decreased, maybe to ￥70,000 or ￥80,000. They need to work and to be independent, like young people. Anyway, we have to continue to support poor people and young people.

Video game

吉田　智 — 2012-02-23T18:10:21+09:00

Video games are　becoming more and more advanced these days. There are virtual reality worlds in them. You can experience doing a lot of things, fighting a war, intergalactic travel, traveling to strange places and fighting monsters, and even killing people while playing video games.

Some people say it’s a good chance to experience things you have never done. These games allow you to build up your imagination. They attract children, and young people, everyone in the younger generation.

Two years ago, I watched a shocking TV program on NHK. According to the program, some young people play Video games online in their rooms, lean back on their chairs and sometimes laugh ominously, while eating snack, cup noodles or hamburgers. All days, they don’t eat meals with their family or friends, and don’t communicate with anyone except through the net. Of course they don’t have jobs. They seem very lazy. The program called them “the video game generation”.

As far as I’m concerned, playing video games strongly influences children. Was the invention of video games good for us? I strongly believe that the invention of video games had a bad influence on children and young people, causing them to lose motivation, the ability to “make an effort”, originality and creativity

We have to face the reality that video games exist. They are a part of our culture now. And they do have a big influence on children. At least parents should restrict them to how long and what type of games children play. Children should play with their friends outside and they need to learn to socialize with each other.

吉田　智 — 2012-01-15T01:02:44+09:00

Hotel Rwanda

I watched a movie called Hotel Rwanda. I was really shocked. There are a lot of violent and cruel scenes in the movie. You even see huge amounts of bodies along rivers and roads. Some Hutu civil soldiers set fire to Tutsi people’s houses, and some of them raped Tutsi women. These were real events that actually happened. The Tutsi and the Hutu are both Rwandan people, but Belgium people gave priority to the minority Tutsi tribe, so the Hutu majority had been feeling an inferiority complex and that they couldn’t get jobs easily. As a result, The Rwandan Genocide broke out in 1994.

As far as I’m concerned, after European countries ended their long colonial rule of African countries, they only left these nations after making arrangements to suit themselves. They only allowed governments to form that would be amenable to them. These policies have led to several problems in African countries and the Middle East, including the Rwandan Genocide. We are also facing the collapse of Arab nations as well as problems with Israel and Palestine these days.

We have to take care of these people’s equality and human rights. I won’t ever forget this movie.

Hotel Rwanda

吉田　智 — 2012-01-15T00:51:26+09:00

Hotel Rwanda

We have to take care of these people’s equality and human rights. I won’t ever forget this movie.

2011.10.31

吉田　智 — 2011-12-15T18:39:49+09:00

I’ve been reminded of the time when I went to

Korea

seven years ago. There were a lot of beautiful women there. They had sharp chins, double eyelids, big eyes, high noses, and long legs, and they were taller than Japanese women.

On that trip my daughter asked my Korean guide, “I heard some Korean ladies get plastic surgery. Is this true?” She responded, “Yes.” I saw about 15 little children on a kindergarten bus who had single eyelids and wide chins. The children proved what she had said.

Today is Halloween. I don’t take part in any special events on Halloween, but my son and several of his friends wore special costumes in their classes at their university. Yesterday he made the costume. He used a hemp bag with two holes for eyes to cover his face, and painted red colors on his T-shirt. His concept was a farmer who had killed someone. He enjoyed Halloween this year.

My town

吉田　智 — 2011-12-15T18:30:49+09:00

I live in Ebina, which is a suburb. Near the station, there’s a commercial area. It has a big shopping mall, two theaters, and many restaurants that young people like, so a lot of young people go there every weekend. It takes 15 minutes to walk there from the station, and you can see a lot of rice fields and crops, as well as the Tanzawa Mountains and Mt. Fuji. If you go to a rice field in June, you can listen to a chorus of frogs. You can feel a sense of natural beauty. I live in Sugikubo. It takes 20 minutes by bus from the station. The area is residential. It’s kind of a sea of houses. There are a lot of two-story houses, twelve-story buildings, and the Tomei Highway. We have a great atmosphere in Ebina

吉田 智

Birth rate problem

NASA lost moon stones

Chinese trademark

Consumption Tax

Japanese social welfere benefits system

Video game

Hotel Rwanda

2011.10.31

My town

吉田　智