My Heart Has Been Bleeding for Five Years since March 11th, 2011

When I woke up, I found myself so depressed that I didn’t want to do anything at all.

I was watching a freezing rain falling through the window while wondering why I was so depressed.

And then, I suddenly came to realize that it was March 11th today. It is the day when the Great East Japan Earthquake happened.

In my entry “How Many More Tragedies Must I Accept?” last March 11th, I wrote, “Although I know that so many tragedies happened after the Great East Japan Earthquake in the world, I can’t even accept the tragedy of the Great East Japan Earthquake.”

My heart has been bleeding for five years since March 11th, 2011.

How Many More Tragedies Must I Accept?

This is the fourth of March 11th since the Great East Japan Earthquake.

In my entry “A Freezing Winter in Temporary Housing”  in March 11th, 2014, I wrote, “Although many programs about the earthquake are broadcasted on TV, I can’t stand watching them well, because I am too upset. I could watch them before, but recently I can’t.”

Even now, I can’t watch such programs well.

In my entry “The J. G. Ballard's World” in March 12th, 2011, I wrote, “I can understand what happens in my head, but I can't accept that it is real in my heart. I'm living in the surreal world now.”

I have not been able to accept the fact that it was real in my heart until now.

Although I know that so many tragedies happened after the Great East Japan Earthquake in the world, I can’t even accept the tragedy of the Great East Japan Earthquake.

How many more tragedies must I accept? Where is the answer?

A Freezing Winter in Temporary Housing

This is the third of March 11th since the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Although many programs about the earthquake are broadcasted on TV, I can’t stand watching them well, because I am too upset. I could watch them before, but recently I can’t.

The disasters which hit victims of the earthquake were so overwhelming and tragic that I couldn't understand what really happened well. I used to watch TV programs about them, as if they were somebody else’s problems and a kind of myth.

I have seen the scene how the great tsunami went over a seaside town again and again, but I can’t still understand my feelings toward this scene.

In my entry “The J. G. Ballard's World” in March 12th, 2011, I wrote, “I can understand what happens in my head, but I can't accept that it is real in my heart. I'm living in the surreal world now.”

It is very cold this winter.

There are many victims who are still living in temporary housing. I really imagine how hard a freezing cold winter in such temporary housing is. It is not a huge tragedy, but a real hardship.

I deeply wish that they would move to their own houses before the next winter.

Don't Forget about Global Warming

It is extremely hot this summer in Tokyo.

From early July, the temperature has been over 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees ) almost everyday. In Japan we call the night when the lowest temprature is above 25 degrees Celsius “a tropical night (熱帯夜),” and almost every night in July and August has been “a tropical night.”

It isn't only that the temperature is high but also that the weather is tropical. Thunderstorms bring sudden heavy downpours and lightnining almost every two days. The weather this summer in Tokyo is similar to that of Bankok. Honestly, I used to be skeptical about global warming, but after I experiensed this summer in Tokyo, I couldn't deny it. 

Before March 11, 2011 Japanese mass media always discussed global warming, but they've rarely talked about global warming at all this summer. This phenomenon isn't limited to Japan either. President Obama also used to talk about green energy revolution, but he seems to have forgotten about it.

Now, just two nuclear plants in Japan are operating, and no one knows when the other plans will restart, so it's quite difficult to reduce green gas emissions in Japan. I'm guessing that this is the reason why Japanese mass media stopped talking about global warming.

Shale gas in the United States is rapidly increasing as a source of natural gas.  President Obama may think that the shale gas industry is more important that global warming in the United States.

However, it is clear that the overall global temperature is rising. We shouldn't escape from the reality.

Don't forget about global warming.

It Is Always Darkest Before the Dawn

Last Friday I got a holiday.

My wife and I went to Omiya Kokusai Country Club to play golf, and then we ate sushi with beer and white wine. In June, it is a rainy season in Japan, but this year, it has rained little until now. It was a really nice day for golf.

My last visit to Omiya Kokusai Country Club was on March eleventh, 2011. At that time I played golf with my parents and wife. Just after we finished the eighteenth hole, while we were walking to the clubhouse, the great earthquake happened.

I couldn’t keep standing and sat on the road. I saw the surface of the ground waving and the cars in the parking lot jumping up for several minutes.

I couldn’t remember well how I played that day, but I found that it was my best score in my lifetime by reading the scorecard.

After that I began completely to change my swing, because I thought that I couldn’t play better with my swing of that day. My score was getting worse and worse. Even I couldn’t hit a ball well.

I believed that someday I would be able to play much better, but at the same time I felt like being in the darkest dungeon. 

Tiger Woods had been in slump for two years after his scandal and injury, but he has changed his swing and been back in great form this year. I didn’t know if I could do as well as Tiger Woods, but at least it might be possible for me to get out of the dungeon.

Last Friday, my score was as good as on March 11. Finally I found the light of the exit of the dungeon. I was convinced that I would improve my score much better.

My golf coach said, "you won't lose easily what you learn with a great effort."

It's always darkest before the dawn.

Can the Japanese Government Promote “Cool Japan” policy and Japanese “soft power?”

Joseph Nye, a political scientist and a former chairman of the National Intelligence Council of the U.S., pointed out the importance of “soft power” in international politics.

Nye defined “power” as the ability to influence the behavior of others to get the outcomes you want. He wrote that there were two types of power, “hard power” and “soft power.” Diplomats mainly have been paying attention on “hard power”, which is the use of coercion and payment, but Nye insisted that “soft power,” which the use of attraction, was more important than “hard power.”

I translated Haruki Murakami’s speech at the Catalonia international prize into English in the entry “Haruki Murakami's Speech on Catalonia International Prize: As an Unrealistic Dreamer.” Kevin, who is managing the website “Senrinomich,” started the project of translating this speech, and now it was translated into thirteen languages.

After the earthquake and the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant, we, Japanese people, have been thinking about nuclear power deeply, but I think that people abroad have not heard much about what we have been thinking.

Although I knew that Haruki Murakami was popular in the world, I was really surprised that people from so many countries wanted to read his speech. When he made a speech about what Japanese people think, people in the world were willing to hear it.

The existence of Haruki Murakami is just Japanese “soft power.”

Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry of Japan is promoting “Cool Japan” Policy. They are trying to make Japanese culture more popular in the world and promote Japanese “soft power.”

But I strongly doubt that the government can promote them.

Haruki Murakami has “soft power,” just because he wrote novels that people in the world love. Japanese government has nothing to do with his works. Hayao Miyazaki, Akira Toriyama, Shigeru Miyamoto were not supported by the government, either.

I don’t believe that the government can find such people at all. Nobody thought that they would be success in the world, before they actually became popular across the world. The next person who wields this “soft power” will appear out of the wood works, a place which can't be predicted. How will the government support them?

The Accident of Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Plants and the Essence of Failure

Although it is two years after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the accident of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plants has not yet finished.

Many reports and books about this accident have been published in these two years and recently I read several of them. I basically agree with the report of the NAIIC (The National Diet of Japan Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission), and if you want to know more about this accident, you should read the executive summary of this report.

This report pointed out about the root causes of this accident as follows.

The operator (TEPCO), the regulatory bodies (NISA and NSC) and the government body promoting the nuclear power industry (METI), all failed to correctly develop the most basic safety requirements—such as assessing the probability of damage, preparing for containing collateral damage from such a disaster, and developing evacuation plans for the public in the case of a serious radiation release.
…
From TEPCO’s perspective, new regulations would have interfered with plant operations and weakened their stance in potential lawsuits. That was enough motivation for TEPCO to aggressively oppose new safety regulations and draw out negotiations with regulators via the Federation of Electric Power Companies (FEPC). The regulators should have taken a strong position on behalf of the public, but failed to do so. As they had firmly committed themselves to the idea that nuclear power plants were safe, they were reluctant to actively create new regulations.

I completely agree with this remark.

Apparently TEPCO and the regulatory bodies knew the vulnerability of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plants to tsunami before the earthquake, but they did nothing about it. The safety regulation of nuclear plants were based on the premise that the leakage of radiation from the site of nuclear plants could be prevented, so they didn’t prepare for such a severe accident.

I wrote about “the nuclear village” in the entry “Is Japan Really a Democratic Country?” 

The sub-government, which consists of some politicians, bureaucrats, electrical power companies, nuclear industries and specialists in nuclear power, has been controlling the nuclear policy in Japan, and Japanese people have almost no influence over it. A "Sub-government" is a group, usually consisting of politicians, bureaucrats and special interests, which controls public policy in a particular area in order to pursue their own interests. The "Military-industry complex" in the USA is a typical sub-government. The sub-government of the nuclear industry in Japan is called "the nuclear village."

I’ve read the book “the Essence of Failure: the Study of the Japanese Army in the Light of Organizational Theory,” which is about the cause of failure of the Japanese army in the Pacific War. I was surprised that the problems of the Japanese army, which were pointed out in this book, were so common with the problems of “the nuclear village” in this accident.

The officers in the Japanese army placed more value on their personal relationships than their organization goals, so they often couldn’t make a rational decision, which would be disadvantageous to some of them. They had been covering up for each other, and in the end they lost the Pacific war.

In “the nuclear village,” they couldn’t make a new safety regulation in order to prepare a sever accident, because the “new regulations would have interfered with plant operations and weakened their stance in potential lawsuits,” and in the end they caused this accident.

The Fukushima fifty and Masao Yoshida, the general manager of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plants, were quite brave. Even though they made mistakes, I think that it couldn’t be helped, because the site was really confused. The point was lack of preparation.

In the book “the Essence of Failure,” the words of Georgi Zhukov, who was a commander of the Soviet army, were quoted.

In the Japanese army, sergeants are tough and brave, and junior officers make a fanatically tough fight, but senior officers are ineffective.

Nothing has changed.

This time we, the Japanese people, should learn a lesson from this accident and MUST NOT do the same thing again.

On That Day, At That Moment, I Was...

On that day, I was playing golf with my parents and my wife. At that moment, we had just finished the 18th hole and were walking to the club house.

And then I saw the road paved with asphalt literally waving. I will write again, THE ROAD WITH ASPHALT WAS LITERALLY WAVING.

Everybody around me can tell what they was doing and what happened around them, on that day, at that moment.

I will never forget it.

The Interview with Moto Hagio about Receiving the Medal with Purple Ribbon

I introduced three of my favorite manga authors, Moto Hagio, Katsuhiro Otomo, and TaiyoMatsumoto on my weblog.

Moto Hagio was received the Medal with Purple Ribbon, which honors the achievement in the academic and artistic fields.

The entry about the translation　of "Haruki Murakami's Speech on Catalonia InternationalPrize" was well received, so I'd like to translate the interview with Moto Hagio about receiving the medal with purple ribbon (「萩尾望都さん・紫綬褒章インタビュー」) into English.

It made me understand what she said more deeply to translate this interview.

Interviewer: At first how do you feel about receiving the medal with purple ribbon?

Moto Hagio: I've been really surprised until now. I'm wondering if I am suitable for this prize.

When I was preparing for attending "Salon du Livre" at Paris, I heard about receiving the prize. I was so surprised that I can't remember what I replied to the call, which told me that this news wasn't unofficial and you shouldn't tell about the prize before the official statement. I told about it only to my stuffs.

I wanted to tell about this news to my father, because he was admitted to a hospital. I thought that he would pass way while I had been visiting Paris, and he did so. After I returned Japan, I went to the ritual at the forty-ninth day, and I reported about the prize to my father and mother.

She was also surprised and said to me, "Well, congratulations." She is a fan of the drama "the Wife of Gegege", which described the detail of the manga author's life, and she was surprised with it. She might realize that even manga authors lived seriously. She called me and said, "I watched "the Wife of Gegege", and I realized your life at last. I'm sorry." I thanked her.

Interviewer: How do you think about that your manga works are described as "literary?"

Moto Hagio: I have no idea about it. I'm introvert, so I tend to take everything too seriously. I've wanted to be a "girl manga" author, and I've been publishing my works as "girl manga", but at the same time I might be influenced by science fiction and the works of Herman Hesse and Romain Rolland, which I've read.

From my childhood, I've also read both of "boy manga" and "girl manga", and I thought vaguely that I could express my soul through the style of manga, so I began devoted to drawing manga.

Usually I couldn't share my worries, but I found people who worried about the same things, when I read Herman Hess's works, so I was fascinated by them and I felt that I got help from his works.

Interviewer: When did you read Herman Hess's works?

Moto Hagio: When I was about twenty years old. At that time I thought about the reason why I existed and the way that I should live. In everyday life people told me that you should stop thinking about them and do only proper things, like studying hard and getting a job. Ordinary people stopped thinking about them, because thinking about them impeded doing proper things.

But Herman Hess faced such worries seriously, and wrote about wondering how he himself should live and his failure and success. His novel told me that I could worry about them.

Interviewer: Did you want to express them through "girl manga?"

Moto Hagio: I might be permitted to this extent. In "Heart of Thomas (トーマの心臓)" the central character worried himself over. In my adolescence I also worried myself over about everything that my friends did and said. I thought that humanity was quite delicate and I wanted to express the delicacy.

Interviewer: How did people around you thought about expressing these things in "girl manga?"

Moto Hagio: I thought that the works of Osamu Tezuka, Sanpei Shirato, and Tetsuya Chiba actually expressed them. In "girl manga" world, Minori Kimura and Ryoko Yamagishi were pursuing the subtleness of the human mind, so I thought that I also could express them. But at that time we were minor.

Interviewer: How about the reaction from the readers of your works?

Moto Hagio: Some readers were moved deeply, and others complained that they couldn't understand at all.

Interviewer: But "the Poes (ポーの一族)" was sold out.

Moto Hagio: Fortunately "the Poes" in book form was sold out soon. It was really good.

Interviewer: Were you surprised?

Moto Hagio: When "the Poes" was sold out, I was drawing "Heart of Thomas" regularly for a magazine, but it was really unpopular. It could be dropped, but the editors changed their minds, because "the Poes" was sold well. It helped me a lot. I just felt relieved that I could continue "Heart of Thomas", and I couldn't analyze the popularity of "the Poes" objectively.

Interviewer: How do you think about the power of "girl manga?"

Moto Hagio: At Salon du Livre, I was asked why there were "boy manga" and "girl manga" in Japan. At that moment I couldn't understand the meaning of this question, because it was so natural for me that there were both of them. But a person who asked me couldn't understand the differences of these genres. To explain simply, the reason why there were the two genres is that interests of boys and girls are different. Girls are interested in love, and boys are interested in adventures and teamwork。

Most early works of "girl manga", which I read in my elementary school days, were almost stories about relationship between mother and child, valley ball, detective, in which girls played active roles or are faced with tragedies. As "girl manga" magazines increased, more female authors were needed. Kodansha and Shueisha established manga awards, and young authors applied to them. At the beginning Machiko Satonaka and Noriko Aoike came out. A little while ago Sachiko Nishitani drew love stories, and then Machiko Satonaka and other young authors began to make the second boom of "girl manga."

They described girls' minds from the girls' stand point of view. Almost of their works were fantastic and some of them were about sports, for example valley ball. From the late 1960s to the 1970s, they draw these manga works, and manga readers liked to read them.

Interviewer: What do you think of the attractiveness of manga?

Moto Hagio: Graphics and words. We, manga authors, construct frames in order to express a story by graphics. When we make perfect series of frames, they could move readers deeply like great films or music. They pierce directly through readers' hearts. I, myself, was moved by great manga works, and I'd like to give something back by drawing manga, which will move someone.

I think that manga, as a genre, resemble to music and films. When we read a novel, sometimes we stop reading them and think about the reason why the main character talked about such things, but we watch through a film without stopping it to think about the meanings. It's the same with music. We don't think about the meaning of the sound of a cymbal, when we heard it. Films and music move us at once. Manga is like them. When we want to stop reading, we couldn't stop reading through, if we watched the next frame.

Interviewer: Manga is the art of time, isn't it?

Hagio Moto: Yes, it is. We manipulate time freely.

Interviewer: After you have been drawing in the front lines for forty years, what would you like to draw now?

Moto Hagio: I wanted to keep drawing manga in the same way, but I was really shocked with the images of the earthquake and the tsunami of the East Japan last year. And then I could hardly believe that it was real to explode Fukushima nuclear power plants, because I had believed that it should be the happening just in the science fiction. I felt like that the world came to the end.

I found that I only draw the stories about this disaster, so I intend to draw other kinds of stories, like "Nanohana." It's really hard to think only about the disaster, so I'd like to get away from it and draw science fiction or a historical story, in which beautiful costumes appear.

I tend to be drawn into this topic, and the half of the books that I read is about nuclear power.

Interviewer: What manga authors should express in this situation?

Moto Hagio: Some manga authors, for example KotobukiShiriagari and Osamu Yamamoto, drew manga works about last year's disaster in their own ways. Someone drew a fantasy, and another drew a real story. I can understand that there are someone who can't help but drawing about this disaster, because it is a really big affair.

Interviewer: It's a long time since manga have taken root in Japan. Do you think if manga will be attractive?

Moto Hagio: Yes. When I was a child and I just became a manga author, the genre of manga was criticized, especially at school. But now people are favorable about manga. I wonder when they turned to be favorable. I guess that the generations who read manga in childhood have grown up and they are not negative about manga.

American Heroes and Godzilla

I wrote about American heroes in the previous entry, and I'd like to write about the same topic more.

I've been interested in American culture for a long time, partly because it is so exotic for me. Although Japanese culture has been westernized for 150 years, now it is deeply based on elements that are quite different from Western culture. Sometimes I find something in American culture that I can't understand at all, and it's really fun for me to think about it.

One of these things is "American Heroes." I know that "heroes" are quite important in American culture, but I can't understand why they are so important.

I found articles about "Fukushima 50" in American press after the Tohoku earthquake and the accident of the Fukushima nuclear plants. I didn't read about their stories in Japanese mass media at all, and I felt that it was exotic that American press sought "heroes" in such tragedies.

Of course Japanese media reported about heroic acts, which are done by firefighters, policemen, army, and ordinary people. But it mainly focused on the uncontrollable natural threat, which was beyond justice and evil.

The story of Fukushima 50 is like American hero movies, and the story reported by Japanese mass media is like Godzilla (Not the Godzilla made by Roland Emmerich in Hollywood in 1998 but is the first Godzilla movie made in Japan in 1954.)

A nuclear experience awakened Godzilla, who was sleeping in the deep sea, and Godzilla landed on Japan, destroyed everything, and spread radioactivity. Godzilla doesn't have any morals, and human beings couldn't even know if it had any intention.

Haruki Murakami said, as follows, in his Catalunya International Prize speech.

In Japanese, we have the word “mujō (無常)”. It means that everything is ephemeral. Everything born into this world changes, and will ultimately disappear. There is nothing that can be considered eternal or immutable. This view of the world was derived from Buddhism, but the idea of “mujo” was burned into the spirit of Japanese people beyond the strictly religious context, taking root in the common ethnic consciousness from ancient times.

Godzilla destroyed everything, ultimately because this world is "mujo". Human beings can't do anything, and we, Japanese, don't believe in heroes. American people, including press, can't accept "mujo" of the disaster, so they seek heroes.

In the next entry I'll write about relationship between ethics and American Heroes.

The Meaning of Learning a Foreign Language

I read the article "Why are Japanese so bad at English?" on the internet magazine. I almost agree with the opinion that the author said.

I think the reason why most Japanese are bad at English is that they do not have the opportunity to use English in their daily life. I'm living and working in Tokyo, and I hardly have to speak English at all, if I don't intentionally create an occasion to speak English. For example, by going to an English conversation school or by speaking with a native English speaker over Skype at midnight.

I think that we can find the same situation in some other countries. In the 1990s, when I was a university student, I toured across East Europe with my backpack. At Budapest station I found that a traveler, who looked depressed. Hence I talked to him. He said that he was an Australian and that he envied my English. In fact my English was awful at that time.

In Budapest in the 1990s, the first foreign language for Hungarian people was German and there were few people that could speak English. I guessed that it was first time for that young Australian man to get into the place where no one could speak English and he realized the meaning of learning a foreign language.

In the article "Why are Japanese so bad at English?" the author wrote, "And what’s the future language of the Internet going to be? Not Japanese, that’s for sure." I wrote an entry about the internet in China, which was separated from the internet by the Great Firewall. In this world there are two huge networks, the internet and China net. And there is another small network in Japan, in which people write in Japanese. Japan net is a kind of the Galapagos Islands in the internet world.

I just finished reading V. S. Naipaul's novel "Half a Life" and I found following passage.

Ana was now at a language school in England. She said, 'I wanted to break out of the Portuguese language. I feel it was that that had made my grandfather such a limited man. He had no true idea of the world. All he could think of was Portugal and Portuguese Africa and Goa and Brazil. In his mind, because of the Portuguese language, all the rest of the world had been strained away.

Ana was born in the Portuguese colony on the east coast of Africa. Like her grandfather most Japanese had no true idea of the world, because they live only in Japanese world. When people master English, they can recognize the new idea of the world. Of course, although this new idea of the world can't be "the true idea of the world", they become able to see the world from multiple perspectives.

After the accident of Fukushima nuclear plants, I realized that we should get news from a variety of sources, not only Japanese mass media but also foreign press, because Japanese mass media was really biased.

Japanese people can live and work just in Japan and just with the Japanese language, but it keeps them in a small world.

I'd like to listen to your sad story, but could I l smile while I listen?

I often hear that it's not good to say "gambare (がんばれ)" to someone who is depressed. I can't translate the word "gambare" exactly into English, but it might be something like "Go for it!"

Speaking as someone who has suffered from depression, I myself don't mind people saying  "Go for it", because I understand that the person who is saying "Go for it" has good intentions. I also think, however, that they don't understand my own feelings.

When I feel bad, sometimes I can't even get out of bed. Nor can I think about the things that I have to do. At such times, if someone said to me,"Go for it!", I'd think "Sure, but how?"

I have enough experience now to accept myself who can't do anything but get into the bed when I feel bad, but before I used to feel guilty about my inability too to work before. The tiredness was painful, and at the same time the guiltiness was also painful.

After March 11 2011, many messages were sent to the victims of the earthquake. Most of them were "Go for it" messages. Of course many people would have been encouraged by the phrase "Go for it", so I don't deny it, but I imagine that there were many other people like me who don't know who to "Go for it."

When I hear the message "Go for it", I think of two things.

The people, who say "Go for it", might believe in their own good will, and their belief would make them blind to understand what the victims really feel.

And more the messages "Go for it" are very stereotypic. I've heard that many people saying stereotypic massages. I understand their "good will", but I can't touch their own feelings from their hearts.

Recently I've been listening a lot to  Gen Hoshino's song "The Song of Habits (くせのうた)" very much.



I like the phrase of the lyric of this song.

I'd like to listen to your bad story, but could I listen to it with smiling?

When I find the people who are in time of hardship, I, as an ordinary person, think what I can do for them. At first I try to understand what they are feeling  and the relationship between them and me.

In the end I think that the only thing to say to them is,"I'd like to listen to your bad story, but could I listen to it with smiling?"

I don't know about general depressed patients, but at least I myself would like it if someone were to listen to my bad story with smiling. I also think that some of the victims might think of same thing.

The Myth of "Democracy": "the State of Nature" and "the Social Contract"

Since the accidents at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Plants, I've seriously doubted if Japan is really a democratic country. So I wrote the entry "Is Japan Really a Democratic Country?".

Now, I want to understand what "democracy" really is, so I'm trying to read classics about democracy, such as Thomas Hobbes' "Leviathan", John Locke's "Second Treatise of Government", Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "The Social Contract", and John Rawls' "A Theory of Justice".

I'd like to know why they started their discussion about democracy from "the State of Nature".

In the beginning of "Second Treatise of Government" John Locke said as follows.

To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider, what sate all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bonds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man.

(Section 4)

John Rawls' idea of justice, a modern political philosopher, is based on the concept "the veil of ignorance", which is also one of the variations of the concept of "the state of nature".

John Locke said that human beings in the state of nature were in "the state of perfect freedom". But "the state of nature" is hypothetical and actually there is no "the state of nature" on the earth.

Even the most uncivilized people have their society. Every society has its own rules, which usually aren't written law but are shared by the members of the society in the forms of customs or culture.

Everyone is born into their society with its rules, which exist before they are born. So they are obliged to the rules of the society and they aren't in "the state of perfect freedom".

John Locke thought that "the natural law" was universal. But the customs and the cultures are different between each society, so customs and cultures aren't "the natural law".

And then, they discussed about "social contract". I'd like to quote a phrase from "Second Treatise of Government" again.

Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent. The only way whereby any one divests himself of his natural liberty, and puts on the bonds of civil society, is by agreeing with other men to join and unite into a community for their comfortable, safe, and peaceable living on amongst another, in a secure enjoyment of their properties, and a greater security against any, that are not of it.

When the United States of America was founded, the people agreed on a "social contract" in the form of the United States Constitution with their free will. And the people who get U.S citizenship make the Oath of Allegiance, including "allegiance to the United States Constitution". This is a form of "social contract".

But in Japan (and I guess, in many other countries), we are born as Japanese people without any agreement. People who are the children of Japanese become Japanese without any free will.

John Locke wrote as follows.

It is plain then, by the practice of governments themselves, as well as by the law of right reason, that a child is born a subject of no country or government. He is under his father's tuition and authority, till he comes to age of discretion; and then he is a freeman, at liberty what government he will put himself under, what body politic he will unite himself to: for if an Englishman's son, born in France, be at liberty, and may do so, it is evident there is no tie upon him by his father's being a subject of this kingdom; nor is he bound up by any compact of his ancestors.

If we can freely change our nationality, it can be said that we make our democratic country based on our free will. I don't know about the situation in Europe at that age, but it was free to change nationality, wasn't it?

Logically I can change my nationality, for example I can become naturalized as a Singaporean. But actually it's quite difficult.

I was born into Japanese society and culture and brought up as Japanese, so it's not easy to change nationality and live as a Singaporean. In fact there are few Japanese people who change their nationality and few foreign people who get Japanese nationality. Most people who get Japanese nationality come from former Japanese ex-colonies, such as Korea.

Most Japanese people don't think (even imagine) that they choose to be Japanese with their will. They are just Japanese. If they heard, "You contracted to be Japanese with your will, so you have responsibility as a Japanese citizen. If you don't like it, you could leave Japan", they must be quite surprised.

Most Japanese don't feel reality with the concept of "the state of nature" and "social contract". I doubt if they understand the concept of "democracy". I guess that they think of "democracy" just as "taking a vote". And when I see "Arab Spring", I wonder if they also really understand what "democracy" is.

"The state of nature" and "social contract" isn't real history, and in this sense, they are a kind of myth of "democracy". We, who don't share European traditions and myths, need a different undersstanding philosophy and myth of "democracy", which isn't based on the concept "the state of nature" and "social contract", don't we?

Life and Death Are Both Sides of a Coin

Today's topic is very controversial, so I'm afraid that readers will misunderstand what I mean. Anyway I'll try to do my best.

There are over nineteen thousands dead or missing from the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11.

A lot of people all over the world were really worried about the victims of this earthquake, and in fact they've encouraged and helped the victims in many ways.

I often watched on TV the victims expressing their appreciation and saying that they wanted to restore their own villages and towns even if it would take a lot of time.

But watching them talking about positive things broke my heart. I think that they really feel positive, but at the same time they must feel badly about their lives. I hope that there are the people who hear about their negative feelings.

Steve Jobs died on October 5. In his speech at Stanford University he said as bellow.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Just for a few years before he died, he did the best work in his life, because he got nearest to his death.

The positive and the negative, life and death are both sides of a coin. The dark side of the life has meanings for us.

We can get rich lessons even from death and misery. Of course it's important for everyone to overcome sadness, but it also important to live with sadness, misery and death.

I've suffered from depression. My depression has taught me a lot of precious lessons and I'm living with depression.

I want to encourage the victims of this earthquake. I hope that they'll over come the damage of it. At the same time they have to live with the earthquake and I hope that it'll make their lives richer.

I'm Not Alone in This Enormous World.

I'm writing journals on two weblogs; one is written in Japanese, the other is in English (this weblog), every other day.

I've written Japanese journals for fourteen years and English ones for nine months. Recently I'm enjoying writing English ones but getting tired of writing Japanese ones.

Since the disaster of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plants, I've been thinking about the democracy of Japan seriously. It may be an exaggeration, but this disaster was the conclusion of Japanese democratization after the defeat of World War II, as if the defeat of World War II was the conclusion of Japanese modernization after the Meiji Restoration.

I wrote many journals about Japanese politics and governments, and democracy itself on both of Japanese and English weblogs since 3.11.

But I haven't gotten almost any reasonable comment on my Japanese journals about them. They'er are full of superficial blames and anger at TEPCO and the government in Japanese mass media and Internet, but I haven't been able to find any deep consideration about the causes of this disaster or any fundamental proposition about the reform of Japanese governments and democracy.

I've got tired of writing journals about this disaster and Japanese democracy, because I've felt as if I was the only one who thinks about such things.

But I've got many brilliant comments on my English journals about them. I translated Haruki Murakami's speech about the earthquake and the accidents of nuclear power plants ("Haruki Murakami's Speech on Catalonia International Prize "As an Unrealistic Dreamer"") into English. I'm really glad that so many people understood my translation and gave me many excellent comments. I know that there were many people all over the world who cared about this disaster in Japan and shared the same concern with me.

Haruki Murakami himself rarely appears in public places in Japan, but he casually gives lectures and speeches in foreign countries. I can guess the reason why he doesn’t like to appear in Japan.

Tony, a friend of mine on lang-8, who always writes quite intellectual journals and comments, gave me a comment below.

Isn't the same thing happening in Japan at the moment, as a result of the natural disaster and the resulting nuclear accidents? It appears to me that many people who never even thought of questioning the decisions of politicians and corporations before are asking how the decisions were made which contributed to the severity of the nuclear accidents. Would you describe that as questioning the principles on which Japanese democracy is based? Certainly it involves questioning how Japanese democracy actually functions in practice.

This is exactly what I want to say.

And then, 252, another friend on lang-8 from France, gave me a comment.

It is a great pleasure to read that many people over the world also think that our political systems have to change and that it's worth fighting for increased democratization.

When I read them, I think that I'm not alone in this enormous world, even if I'm lonely in Japan. And I smile a little to myself.

Am I being too sentimental?

The Laws of "Salaryman" (1) "Cool Biz"

When I wrote about "Salaryman" ("English Words" Made in Japan ), I got a comment "I do hope you'll survive!" I've survived as an ordinary "Salaryman" in Japan for twenty years.

I have to keep many laws, which seem to be quite ridiculous for the people who aren't in the Japanese companies' culture, to survive as a "Salaryman".

Today I'll write about "Cool Biz".

It's quite hot in the summer season of Tokyo, but, as I wrote in the previous journal, a typical "Salaryman" always wears a dark business suit and tie, no matter how hot it is.

The ministry of Environment started a campaign called "Cool Biz". They insisted that "Salaryman" should take off their jackets and ties in order to save the environment. Do you understand the relationship between "Salaryman's" suits and the environment? They said that companies should raise the temperature in their offices to save electricity and "Salaryman" should take off their jackets and ties to stand high temperature. Poor "Salaryman"!

Anyway "Cool Biz" has spread over "Salaryman" and they have taken off their jackets and ties in the summer season. And of course it has been hotter in their office.

Japanese government has been worried about shortage of electricity because of the accident of Fukushima dai-ichi nuclear plants, so they started the campaign "Super Cool Biz". They are recommending that "Salaryman" should dress down more.

My company is very Japanese, so they obey the policy of the government. In my company's website I found an announcement as below.

Announcement: Light Closing in the Summer Season

We will relax the dress code in the summer season in order to meet the request power saving by the government.

1. Light Closing in the Summer Season
1) Implementation period: June 20th (the date of closing period will depend on the supply of electricity)
2) Dress code:
Both of men and women basically should wear "clean and moderate" clothing.

The purpose of the light clothing is to promote ease comfort to work in the office, but we show the example of "inappropriate clothing" in order to keep the minimum manner and working environment. Please keep the dress code.

This dress code is applied to only in the office. Please consider and wear appropriate clothing with your common sense when you visit your clients and keep confidence of them.

For male
The present dress code
tops & bottoms
Basically wear a business suit and tie, or clothing corresponding to them, and be allowed to take off a jacket and tie in the working time.

The new dress code
tops
Be allowed to wear a polo shirt and an open-necked shirt.
bottoms
Be allowed to wear chinos and cotton pants

The inappropriate clothing
tops
Flamboyant shirts
Putting a shirt out of pants
bottoms
Half pants, cropped pants, pants without press, gym pants, jeans and so on
Sandals

For female
The present dress code
tops & bottoms
Wear clean and moderate clothing corresponding to a suit or a jacket

The new dress code
tops & bottoms
We don't show a concrete guide, but don't wear inappropriate clothing as below

The inappropriate clothing
tops
A sleeveless dress without a jacket, a T-shirt, scanty clothing (a camisole, halter-neck and so on) and clothing with a slogan or logo
bottoms
A too short or too long skirt, a skirt with long slit, casual pants (short pants, jeans and so on), jersey pants and skirt, leggings and gym pants

When I read it, I literary laughed out loudly.

Why did they prohibit "putting a shirt out of pants" or "clothing with a slogan"? Women in the office are prohibited to wear shirts with the slogan "save the earth" in order to save the earth. That's the low of "Salaryman".

I tried to break this ridiculous low and put my polo shirt out of my chinos in the office.

Three days after I started a tiny revolt against the low of "Salaryman", the person in charge of risk management said to me in whispers that the president didn't like "putting a shirts out of pants".

Our president might think that "putting a shirt out of pants" would be a huge risk of our company. I'm living in such a ridiculous world.

Is Japan Really a Democratic Country?

Is Japan really a democratic country? The answer is that "yes, it is formally."

We have a democratic constitution, and the Constitution of Japan stipulates that Japanese people elect the House of Representatives and they elect the prime minster. He appoints ministers, and they control their ministries. The will of Japanese people "should" be reflected in the government and its policies through election of the House of Representatives logically.

But in fact public opinion isn't always reflected in the government and its policies. Now Japanese people are seriously criticizing the nuclear policy of the Japanese government, because of the accident of the Fukushima nuclear power plants. But the nuclear policy hasn't been under civilian control, and I'm not sure that Japanese people will be able to control it.

The sub-government, which consists of some politicians, bureaucrats, electrical power companies, nuclear industries and specialists in nuclear power, has been controlling the nuclear policy in Japan, and Japanese people have almost no influence over it. A "Sub-government" is a group, usually consisting of politicians, bureaucrats and special interests, which controls public policy in a particular area in order to pursue their own interests. The "Military-industry complex" in the USA is a typical sub-government. The sub-government of the nuclear industry in Japan is called "the nuclear village".

In Japan there are not only "the nuclear village" but also many sub-governments controlling the policies in their areas, such as the agriculture sector, the construction industry, the postal service and the financial industry. These sub-governments came into being before and during World War II.

In Japan even the prime minister can't completely control these sub-governments, and of course Japanese people can't control them, either. When a sub-government is formed, its goals and policies are usually rational. But once it exsits, it begins to pursue its own special interests and maintaining itself becomes its primary goal. And then it can go against the public interests of the entire nation.

Before and during World War II Japan was a fascist country like German and Italy, but the system of Japanese fascism was quite different from German and Italy. The dictators, Hitler and Mussolini, were ruling their countries and they embodied the national wills. In German and Italy the dictators went entirely wrong way, so the countries went to ruin. On the other hand there was no dictator in Japan and no one unified the national will. The problem was that many sub-governments made chaotic actions by themselves.

The Meiji Constitution of Japan, which was reformed after World War II, stipulates that the Emperor represented the national will formally, but in fact he didn't have any real power. The Prime Minister didn't control the Japanese army, either. At that time, politicians, bureaucrats, Zaibatsu (which was conglomerates in Japanese) and the Japanese army made up many sub-governments and they each went their own way by themselves. Japanese army was independent in the Japanese government, and Japanese army itself was divided into many sects and they were almost chaos.

Germany started invading countries around itself by the will of Hitler, but Japan started invading China on the decision of the unit of the Japanese army stationed in China. The Japanese government tried to stop fighting against China, but they couldn't control the Japanese army and finally got drawn into a protracted war against China.

The war with China completely disrupted the relationship with the US. No Japanese people thought that Japan could win against America while fighting China at the same time, but Japan couldn't unify the will of Japanese nation and they made the Pearl Harbor attack without any expectation of winning the war. In the end US army bombed most Japanese large cities and two nuclear bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and then Japan surrendered United Nations.

After World War II, the US occupation forces dismantled the Japanese army and Zaibatsu and made up more democratic Constitution of Japan. Sub-governments, which had been based on Japanese army, broke up, but the ones, which had been made up by Japanese bureaucrats during World War II, have continued to exist.

And then Japan's economy recovered rapidly. The sub-governments brought special interests to particular industries and companies, but Japanese economy as a whole had been growing, so there were few people, who were frustrated with the injustice of distribution of wealth, because every Japanese people had been getting wealthier more or less.

Since Japanese army was deconstructed, Japan have depended its security completely on US army. Japanese people and government have never taken a decision about their security policy by themselves. During the Cold War, the common enemy of US and Japan was Soviet Union, and it was obvious that our goal was to counter the threat from Soviet Union.

From 1955 to 2000s Liberal Democratic Party had keep their power. LDP don't have their own ideology and goal, but it is an aggregation of representatives of sub-governments and coordinated their interests. There was no opposition party, which could take over from LDP, so we had no alternative to LDP. In fact Japanese people had no chance to control the government and policies through election of the House of Representatives logically.

In 1960s the anti-America student movement got higher, but they couldn't get a wide support from Japanese people. Finally they were beaten by the sub-governments, which wanted to keep their interests.

But in 1990s the bubble economy and Berlin wall was broken down and the period of economic growth and the Cold War ended. The harmful effects of the sub-governments have been getting clear for Japanese people. The sub-government has been criticized seriously, but they have been quite firm and haven't been broken up.

Especially bureaucrats were criticized, because they controlled the sub-government. Some politicians, including the members of LDP, insisted that they should get power from bureaucrats and control the government by themselves (in fact these politicians consisted the part of the sub-government and got interests from them). These politicians tried to make a new political party, which could manage the government and provided an alternative to Japanese people. This is the Democratic Party.

In 2009 the Democratic Party got the power from LDP. They promised major policy change, but they haven't been able to reform the government because of the obstruction of the sub-governments and the internal conflict of the Democratic Party.

Before World War II a two-party system had been formed, but Japanese people lost their trust of these parties, because of the corruption and dispute of them. Finally the two-party system collapsed. This regime change from LDP to the Democratic Party isn't successful now, but I hope that a two-party system will be established in the future.

Now the nuclear policy is criticized seriously, but the Democratic Party doesn't seem to try to deconstruct "the nuclear village". Prime minister Naoto Kan will change the nuclear policy, but Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Banri Kaieda is resisting changing it. Naoto Kan is isolated in the Democratic Party, so I'm not sure that he can deconstruct "the nuclear village".

How about Japanese people? Most Japanese people are against nuclear power, but anti-nuclear movement isn't active now. Why don't they and I fight against "the nuclear village"? In Japan only Okinawa people are seriously fighting against the Japanese government and US army. What are the other Japanese people doing?

If Japan is a democratic country, we should fight them in order to realize our own will. We, Japanese people, don't believe in the ideal of democracy, do we? I'm now deeply skeptical.

As a Realistic Observer

I translated Haruki Murakami's speech "As an Unrealistic Dreamer" into English.

I think that his speech is sincere and I agree with his conclusion that that nuclear power generation should be stopped in Japan. But I don't agree with all of his speech, especially about ethics and norms of Japanese people. He made his speech "as an unrealistic dreamer", but I'll write this journal "as a realistic observer".

I strongly agree with president Obama's speech about nuclear abolition in Prague, and I never allowed nuclear attacks at Hirosima and Nagasaki, which was cruel and unethical. But I've not been able to sympathize with the anti-nuclear movement in Japan. My uncomfortable feeling about Murakami's speech might be common to the anti-nuclear movement.

In his speech there were two things, which I feel uncomfortable about.

Why did this happen? Where had our feeling of rejection of nuclear, which we had held after World War II, gone? What made our peaceful and wealthy society, which we constantly had been pursuing, spoiled?

The reason is simple. That is "efficiency".

The electrical power companies had been insisting that nuclear plants are efficient power generation system. It's the system that they were able to get profit from. And especially after the oil shock, Japanese government doubted the stability of supply of petroleum and had been promoting nuclear power generation as a national policy. The electrical power companies had spent huge money on advertisements to bribe the media to impress Japanese people with the illusion that nuclear power generation was completely safe.

I guess that the electric power companies, themselves, might not think that nuclear power generation was "efficient" system.

They've known very well how much money they have paid compensation to build nuclear power plants, used advertising expenses "to bribe the media" as Haruki Murakami said, and they would have to pay huge money to dispose nuclear wastes and decommission nuclear reactors. And they might also know how much damage the accident of the nuclear power plant would give and they would bear huge burden.

Why did the electric companies build nuclear power plants and have they been operating them?

The reason is simple. That is "supports of Japanese government".

Nuclear power plant system isn't totally "efficient". If electric companies bear all of the cost of nuclear power generation system, it's hard to think that they wouldn't select nuclear power generation as a business judgment. In fact Japanese government will pay the compensation of the accident of the Fukushima Dai-ich nuclear power plants for TEPCO. If they don't pay it, TEPCO will be bankrupt.

Japanese government has been promoting nuclear power generation system as a national policy. They have paid the cost, which the electric companies should primarily pay, and the electric companies are under the control of the government. So the nuclear power generation, which pure private company can't operate, was selected and operated by the electric power companies.

I'm a conservative of a Hayek way. I don't trust a rational decision of a few excellent persons, but I can trust more a collective decision, such as a tradition or market. If the government had not choice the policy of promoting nuclear power generation and they left it on the decision of market without privilege measures, the electrical power companies would never choice it because of high risks of it.

We, Japanese, should have been saying "No" to nuclear. This is my opinion.

We have to develop alternative energy replaced nuclear power at state level by gathering all of technologies, wisdom and social capital. If people all over the world laughed at us and said "Nuclear power is the most effective power generation system, and Japanese people are so silly that they don't use it," we have to keep the allergy to nuclear by the experience of nuclear bombs. We must have made the development of power generation without nuclear power the main policy after World War II.

This should be the way to take our collective responsibility for the victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These fundamental ethics and norms were necessary for us. We should send social messages, and this would have been a chance for our, Japanese, to contribute to the world truly. But we missed that important road, because we take an easy road of the standard of "efficiency" on our rapid economic development.

I don't like to link the problem of nuclear power generation with "the allergy to nuclear bombs" and I don't think of the nuclear power generation with the ethics for nuclear bombs and the victims of them.

Of course there are a lot of unethical aspects of nuclear power generation in Japan. Japanese government and urban population have impressed rural population with risks of nuclear power generation in return for huge subsidies. The government and electrical power companies ran a campaign for the safety of nuclear power generation, even though they actually knew its potential danger. There were the dubious flows of money related to building nuclear power plants. Nuclear power plants can’t be operated without many radiation-exposed lower labors, and they actually run without any plan of disposal of nuclear wastes. There is collusion between bureaucrats, politicians and big business, so called "an Atomic Village".

But should these ethical problems relate to "the allergy to nuclear bombs"? I don't think so. Can this kind of approaches prevent similar problems? I doubt it. Japan was dropped nuclear bombs and an earthquake country. The fact that Japan is inappropriate for nuclear power plants because of frequent earthquakes is independent of the experience of nuclear attacks in World War II. There may be a lot of places where are inappropriate for nuclear power plants for many reasons, but how do they stop the nuclear power plant there? At least it isn't "a collective responsibility for the victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki".

Russians, who caused Chernobyl catastrophe and is promoting export of nuclear power plants now, should be blamed ethically. Do they really access enough the technological safety of their nuclear power plants and operation of their plants by people of the countries where they export plants? It's also true of Japanese nuclear plant manufactures.

But the experiences of nuclear attacks have deep and ethical relationship with nuclear weapons. Japanese people have strong consensus against the possession of nuclear weapons supporting by the experiences of nuclear attacks.

Although Japanese army doesn't have nuclear weapons, we are under the nuclear umbrella of US army and we actually permit US army to bring nuclear weapons into their bases in Japan. This fact is unethical, but it is a quite difficult problem between ethics and national security. Although I feel guilt, I accept the fact that we are under the nuclear umbrella positively. I think that passive acceptance and implicit assumption are unfair.

Haruki Murakami's Speech on Catalonia International Prize "As an Unrealistic Dreamer"

Haruki Murakami criticized Japanese Government, TEPCO and Japanese people for the accidents of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plants in his speech on Catalonia International Prize.

I don't agree with all of his opinions, in fact Haruki Murakami is criticized for this speech in Japan.

But his speech caused discussions about the nuclear power and these discussions are very important, so I think it's worth
translating it into English.

I know that it's too long to upload it as a journal on a weblog, but I want as many people as possible to read it, so I'll translate it as follows.

Haruki Murakami's Speech on Catalonia International Prize "As an Unrealistic Dreamer".

The last time when I visited to Barcelona was the spring for two year ago. When I took part of my autograph event in Barcelona, I was surprised that so many readers came. They lined up to wait for getting my autographs. It took more than one and half hour to sign for all of them, because many women of my readers wanted to kiss me. It took much time.

I've taken part of autograph events in many other cities all over the world, but only in Barcelona women wanted to kiss me. I found that Barcelona was a wonderful city from this fact. I'm very glad to come back to this city, which have a long history and a high culture.

But I’m sorry that I have to talk about a more serious story than kissing, today.

As you may know, at 2:46 pm on March eleventh the great earthquake struck the northeast area of Japan. This earthquake was so great that the earth rotation period got faster and a day got shorter 1.8 seconds.

The damage of the earthquake itself was quite serious, but the tsunami after the earthquake caused more serious damage. In some place the tsunami became 39 meters high wave. Since 39 meters high wave came, people couldn't save their lives even to run up the tenth floor of a common building. People living near coast couldn't run away, and about 24,000 people were afflicted and about 9,000 of them are still missing. The great wave over banks took them away, and we've not been able to find their bodies yet. Many of them went under the cold sea. When I think of it and I imagine that I suffered from such a tragedy, I really feel a constriction in my chest. Most survivors also lost their families, friends, houses, properties, communities and bases for their lives. There were villages that were destroyed completely. Many people were deprived of their hope for living.

Being Japanese might mean that living with natural disasters. Typhoons pass through most Japanese territory from summer to autumn. Every year they cause great damages and many lives are lost. There are many active volcanoes in every region. And of course there are many earthquakes. Japan mounts dangerously on the four huge plats in the east end of the Asian Continent. It's said that we almost live on the nest of earthquakes.

We can expect time and route of typhoon to some extent, but we can't predict when and where an earthquake will occur. What we only know is that this isn't the last great earthquake and another great earthquake will happen in the near future. Many specialists predict that a magnitude 8 earthquake will strike Tokyo area in twenty or thirty years. It will happen 10 years later or tomorrow afternoon. No one knows how large damage we will receive precisely, when an inland earthquake strike such a density city like Tokyo.

But there are 13 millions people living "ordinary" lives only in Tokyo area. They take crowded trains to go to offices, and work in skyscrapers. Even after this earthquake I've never heard that a population of Tokyo declines.

Why? You might ask me. Why can so many people live ordinary lives in such a horrible place? Don't they go out of their mind by fear?

We have the word "mujo (無常)" in Japanese. It means that nothing lasting forever. Everything born in this world always has been changing and will disappear after all. There is nothing eternal or immutable, which we can rely on. This view of the world was derived from Buddhism, but the idea "mujo" was burn into the spirit of Japanese people, and unchangeably took over from ancient as an ethnic mentality in the other way of Buddhism.

The idea "everything just has gone" is the view of resignation. We think that it's no use going against the nature, but Japanese people have positively found the ways of beauty in this resignation.

We love cherry blossoms in spring, fireflies in summer and red leaves in autumn in the nature. We think it's obvious that we watch them eagerly, collectively and customarily. It's quite crowed and it's difficult to make a reservation of hotel in the famous places of cherry blossoms, fireflies and red leaves in their high season.

Why?

Cherry blossoms, fireflies and red leaves loose their beauty in a very short time. We go far away to watch the glorious moment. And we are rather relieved to confirm that they are not just beautiful but scattering fleetingly, losing their small lights and their vivid beauty. We find peace of mind in the fact that the peak of beauty has passed away and disappeared.

I don't know if natural disasters have affected such a mentality, but I'm sure that we've collectively overcome natural disasters striking one after another and accepted as things that we couldn't avoid in some sense through this mentality. These experiences and sense of beauty might affect us.

Most Japanese were deeply shocked by this earthquake, and we can't accept the scales of its damage until now, even if we were used to earthquakes. We feel unhelpful and are anxious about the future of this country.

Finally we'll revitalize our minds and stand up to revive ourselves. I'm not afraid about it very well. That's just the way how we've been surviving in our long history. We can't help but standing still by shock. Broken houses can be rebuilt and broken road can be restored.

In a word we rent a room on the planet earth without any permission. The planet earth never asks us to live on it. If it shakes a little, we can't complain about it, because sometimes shaking is one of the properties of the earth. Whether we like or not, we have to live with the nature.

What I want to talk about here isn't a thing like buildings or roads, which can be restored, but things which can't be restored easily, such as ethics or norms. They aren't the things, which have their shapes. Once they are broken, it's hard to restore them, because we can't restore them with machines, labors and materials.

What I talk about is concretely the Fukushima nuclear power plants.

As you may know, at least three of six nuclear plants, which got damages by the earthquake and the tsunami and have not been restored yet, have been spreading radioactivity around them. Meltdown occurred, and soil around them has been contaminated. Water, which was contaminated by radioactivity, has been drained to the ocean around them. Winds are spreading radioactivity to wider areas.

Hundreds of thousands people had to evacuate, and farms, ranches, factories and ports are abandoned without any people. People, who had lived there and may not be able to return there. I'm really sorry that the damage of this accident will spread around the countries.

The cause why such a tragic accident occurred is almost clear. People who built these nuclear plants had not supposed such a big tsunami would strike them. Some specialists pointed out that the same scale of tsunami used to strike these regions and insisted that the safety standard should be revised, but the electric power companies ignore them, because the electric power companies, as commercial companies, didn't want to invest much money to prepare for the tsunami, which will occur once in hundreds years.

The government, which should manage the safety of nuclear plants strictly, seemed to lower the safety standers in order to promote nuclear power generation.

We should investigate these reasons, and if we find mistakes, they should be corrected. More than hundreds of thousands people were forced to leave their own lands and change their lives. It's right that we must be angry about it.

I don't know why Japanese people rarely get angry. They are good at being patient but aren't very good at getting angry. They might be different from Barcelona citizens. But now that Japanese people will get angry seriously.

At the same time we have to denounce ourselves, who had allowed or tolerate these disordered systems.

This accident related to our ethics and norms.

As you may know, we, Japanese people, only have the experiences of receiving nuclear bomb attacks. In August 1945, US bombers dropped nuclear bombs at two big cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and more then two hundreds thousands people died. Most of them were unarmed common people. But I don't ask if it was right or not, now.

What I want to point out here is that not only two hundreds thousands people died just after the nuclear bombing, but also many survivors would die suffering from radiation with long time. We've learned how large damages radioactivity caused to the world and people from the victims of the nuclear bombs.

We had two fundamental policies after World War II. One was the recovery of economy and the other was the renunciation of war. We would never use armed forces, and get more wealthy economically and pursuit the peace. These two things became new policies of Japan.

These words are carved on the memorial for the victims of the nuclear bomb in Hiroshima.

"Please rest in peace. We will never make the same mistake again."

These are lofty words. These words mean that we are victims and assailants at the same time. Before the predominant power of nuclear, we are victims and assailants. Since we are threatened by the power of nuclear, we all are victims. Since we use it and couldn't prevent using it, we all are assailants, too.

66 years after the nuclear bombing, Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plants have been spreading radioactivity for three months, and contaminating the soil, the ocean and the air around them. No one knows how and what time we can stop it. This is the second damage by nuclear in Japan, but at this time anybody didn't drop a nuclear bomb. We, Japanese people, caused it and made mistakes, and have been destroying our own lands and lives.

Why did this happen? Where had our feeling of rejection of nuclear, which we had held after World War II, gone? What made our peaceful and wealthy society, which we constantly had been pursuing, spoiled?

The reason is simple. That is "efficiency".

The electrical power companies had been insisting that nuclear plants are efficient power generation system. It's the system that they were able to get profit from. And especially after the oil shock, Japanese government doubted the stability of supply of petroleum and had been promoting nuclear power generation as a national policy. The electrical power companies had spent huge money on advertisements to bribe the media to impress Japanese people with the illusion that nuclear power generation was completely safe.

And then we found that 30 percent of electric power generation became to be supplied by nuclear power. Japan, which is a small islands country frequently struck by the earthquake, become the third highest nuclear power generating country, without notice of Japanese people.

We had gone beyond the point of no return. The accomplished fact was created. People, who are afraid of nuclear power generation, are asked the threatening question "Do you allow the lack of electricity?" Japanese people began to think that it couldn't be helped that we relied on nuclear power. It's almost torture to live without air conditioning in hot and humid Japan. People, who doubt nuclear power generation, were labeled as "unrealistic dreamers".

Finally we are here. Nuclear power plants, which should be efficient, become in the awful condition like opening the cover of the hell. This is the reality.

The reality, which people promoting nuclear power generation insisted, isn't the reality at all but just the superficial "convenience". They replaced the problem with something else by referring to "convenience" as "reality".

This is the collapse of the "technology" myth, which Japanese people had been proud of, and the defeat of our Japanese ethics and norms, which had allowed such deception. We blame at the electrical companies and Japanese government. It's right and necessary, but at the same time we should accuse ourselves. We are victims and assailants at the same time. We have to review the fact seriously. If we don't do so, we'll make the same mistake again.

"Please rest in peace. We will never make the same mistake again."

We have to curve these words on our mind.

Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, who was a main person of the development of nuclear bomb, was quite shocked by horrible condition in Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused by nuclear bombs. And he said to president Truman "Our hands are bloody."

Truman took a clean and neat white handkerchief from his pocket and said "Wipe your hands by this handkerchief."

But of course there is no clean handkerchief in the world, which we can wipe so much blood with.

We, Japanese, should have been saying "No" to nuclear. This is my opinion.

We have to develop alternative energy replaced nuclear power at state level by gathering all of technologies, wisdom and social capital. If people all over the world laughed at us and said "Nuclear power is the most effective power generation system, and Japanese people are so silly that they don't use it," we have to keep the allergy to nuclear by the experience of nuclear bombs. We must have made the development of power generation without nuclear power the main policy after World War II.

This should be the way to take our collective responsibility for the victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These fundamental ethics and norms were necessary for us. We should send social messages, and this would have been a chance for our, Japanese, to contribute to the world truly. But we missed that important road, because we take an easy road of the standard of "efficiency" on our rapid economic development.

As I mentioned, we can overcome the damage of natural disaster, even how it is horrible and serious. And sometimes it makes our mind stronger and deeper to overcome it. We can manage to accomplish it.

It is the job for the specialists to restore broken roads and buildings, but it is the duty for all of us to regenerate damaged ethics and norms. We start it from mourning the dead people, taking care of victims of this disaster and natural feeling of not wasting their pains and injuries. It will be an ingenuous and silent handwork, which require us patience. We have to join the forces to do it, as if all of a village people go to fields to cultivate them and to plant seeds in a sunny spring morning. Everyone does what they can do holding their heart together.

We, professional authors, who are specialized in languages, can positively contribute to this large scale collective mission. We should connect new ethics and norms to new words, and create and build new lively stories. We'll be able to share these stories. They have rhythm, which encourage people, such as a song, which farmers sing while planting seeds. We had rebuilt Japan, which had been completely destroyed by World War II. We have to return to the starting point.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this speech, we are living in the changing and impermanent world "mujo (無常)". Every life will be just changing and die out. Human beings have no power before the great nature. The recognition of impermanence is one of the basic ideas in Japanese culture. Although we respect things passing away and think to live in fragile world with full of dangers, at the same time we have silent wills to be living and positive minds.

I'm proud that my works are highly regarded by Catalan people and I was given such a great prize. We live apart from each other and speak different languages. We have different cultures. But at the same time we are the world citizens, who share the same problems, joy and sadness. So stories written by Japanese author were translated into Catalan language, and Catalan people have picked them up. I'm glad to share the same stories with you. Dreaming is the job for novelists, but sharing dreams is more important job for us. We can't be novelists without the sense of sharing something.

I know that Catalan people have overcome many hardships, and have been living vigorously and keeping a rich culture in your history. We must share a lot of things.

It's really wonderful that you and we equally can make "the house of unrealistic dreamers" in Japan and Catalonia, and "the moral community", which are open to every country and culture. This is the start point of our reborn, since we experienced many sever disasters and terrorisms recently. We must not be afraid of dreaming. We should never allow the evil dogs named "efficiency" or "convenience" to catch up us. We must be "unrealistic dreamers", who go forward vigorously. Human beings must die and disappear, but humanity will be lasting, and will be inherited forever. At first we must believe in this power.

At the end I'll give this prize money to victims of the earthquake and the accident of the nuclear plants. I'm deeply grateful to Catalan people who give me such a chance and people in Generalitat de Catalunya. And I express my deepest sympathies on victims of the earthquake in Lorca the other day.

I can't translate his literary expressions very well.

While I was translating it into English, I deeply think of the problem of nuclear plants. I'll write about it on this weblog.