"English Words" Made in Japan

There are "和製英語" (wasei eigo), which means "English words" made in Japan, in the Japanese language. It sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Is "wasei eigo" English or Japanese?

There are English borrowed words from Japanese, such as tsunami, sushi, otaku and so on. But "wasei eigo" doesn't mean English borrowed words from Japanese but they are Japanese words. Most Japanese native speakers believe that they are borrowed words from English, but in fact they were made in Japan.

The subtitle of my weblog is "Journals by an ordinary Japanese "Salaryman" living in uptown Tokyo". "Salaryman" (サラリーマン sarariiman) is the typical "wasei eigo" word.

The word "Salaryman" can't be precisely translated into English. If I dare to translate it into English, it would be white-collar employee. But the word "Salaryman" has different connotations from white-collar employee.

The culture of Japanese companies deeply reflects the word "Salaryman". It has self-deprecating connotations. A "Salaryman" wears uncool dark business suits, takes a crowed train to his office for a long time sweating a lot, and go to a cheap pub complaining about a boss after work.

The word "Salaryman" also represents the gender segregation of Japanese companies. A "Salaryman" is a "man". A woman employee isn't called a "Saralyman" but an "OL", which is the abbreviation of "Office Lady". An "OL" assists "Saralyman" and can't promote herself to an executive.

Recently the culture of Japanese companies is changing and "Saralyman" and "OL" are getting exterminated. . I'm an endangered species, "Saralyman".

"Old soldiers never die. They just fate away." by Douglas MacArthur

"Slow Ballad" by Kiyoshiro Imawano

Kiyoshiro Imawano (http://goo.gl/eyxgL), who is one of the most respected rock singers in Japan, suffered from throat cancer in 2006, and in 2007 he came back to Budokan, where the Beatles used to have a live in Japan. Finally he's passed away from cancer in 2009

Some musicians in Japan call themselves "artists". I feel that this is really funny. Bob Dylan said, "I'm just a song and dance man." If I they are really proud of playing music, they would never say "I'm an artist", but just say "I'm just a musician." Kiyoshiro had never called himself an artist, either. He was just a "great" rock singer, not an artist.

"Slow Ballad" is one of the most favorite songs by Kiyoshiro. I'll introduce a link to a video of him singing this song and translate his lyrics into English.

I'll also put a link to a video UA's (http://goo.gl/9pe8s) version of "Slow Ballad" mourning his death.

Slow Ballad by Kiyoshiro Imawano


Slow Ballad by UA


Last night we slept in a car
holding hands with her
in the parking of the municipal ground
wrapping ourselves in a blanket.

I heard a slow ballad from the car radio.
There was night fog outside of the windows.
I had no bad hunch.
I heard talking in her sleep.
I'm sure I heard it.

I heard a slow ballad from the car radio.
There was night fog outside of the windows.
I had no bad hunch.
We had dreams,
very similar dreams.

Getting Addicted to the Magic of Mac

Basically I hadn't been particularly concerned about the brand of PC I used. It was enough for me just to be able to use a mailer, a browser, MS-Office and iTunes on PC.

I use a Lenovo desktop PC with Windows XP at my office, just because it's my company's standard PC. I don't especially like Lenovo PC, but I have no complaints about them either. It's just a tool for my work. That's all.

At home, I used to use a home-made PC, for no reason other than it was cheap. Then when I couldn't be bothered putting together another PC for myself, I bought Dell PC again, because it was cheap.

I wasn't particularly enamoured of these either, but nor did I didn't have any complaints about them, either. I was able to check e-mails, view websites and write and upload journals onto my weblog. That was more than enough.

But then the Dell PC started to break down frequently, so I decided to buy a new one. I went to a PC shop and looked around for a PC, but couldn't find the one that I wanted to buy. PCs made by Japanese made PCs were not so simple and had a lot of functions that I would never use. I didn't want to watch TV programs on PC and I didn't need a key to launch a mailer.

I walked around the shop, and I saw an iMac. I hadn't been interested in Macs before, but the iMac looked both cool and simple at that time. So I bought an iMac on impulse, and as a result I pleased with its simplicity.

iMac consists of one body, and I use Wifi, a wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse, so I don't get annoyed by cables anymore. I had no trouble changing over from Windows XP to Mac OS X and I've been able to use a mailer, a browser, MS-Office and iTunes smoothly.

After I began to use iMac, I found myself seduced by the Magic of Mac. The function and performance of an iMac isn't that different from a Windows' PC (at least for me). But I feel good using an iMac. I'm using an Apple Magic Mouse, and it's a great pleasure to stroke it.

In the morning I check e-mails and some websites on my iMac at home, and enjoy the feeling of the mouse. And then I touch the Lenovo's mouse at the office, it feels wrong somehow. Something about it is different from the Apple Magic Mouse. This is the magic of Mac.

Right now I'm using an ordinary cell phone but someday I'll buy a smart phone. I think that an Android smart phone is OK from a functional standpoint. But I'll probably buy an iPhone, because of my growing addiction to the Magic of Mac.

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.

Why I Translated Haruki Murakami's Speech into English

I translated Haruki Murakami's speech for the Catalonia Prize into English.

Kevin, who has tried to support Japan in recovering from this disaster, read my translation, and revised it, and translated it into many other languages.

I got an e-mail message from him to requesting my comment about the reason why I translated this speech.

This is my reply.

Hello Kevin, I'm glad to read your mail.

I don't have enough time and ability to write a long comment, so I'll write a short comment. If it sounds unnatural, please correct it.

Why I Translated Haruki Murakami's Speech into English

I've been a fan of Haruki Murakami for 25 years and watching that he's been transforming a young author into a worldwide author.

Japan's been keeping excess of exports over imports of industrial goods, but we import a lot of foreign culture and export very little Japanese culture. So I'm glad that Haruki Murakami's works have been translated into many foreign languages and he's popular all over the world.

After the earthquake and the accident of the Fukushima nuclear plants, we, Japanese people, think about nuclear power deeply, but I think that it's hard for us to express our thought abroad.

I don't agree with everything in Haruki Murakami's speech, but his speech expressed Japanese people's thought. I hoped that foreign people would read his speech and I thought that they would pay attention to what Haruki Murakami said.

I'm really glad that many people have read his speech and know what Japanese people think of the earthquake and the accident.

Thank you very much, Kevin.