{"id":11354,"date":"2010-04-01T11:47:13","date_gmt":"2010-04-01T15:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=11354"},"modified":"2010-04-01T11:48:54","modified_gmt":"2010-04-01T15:48:54","slug":"wit-life-85-new-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/01\/wit-life-85-new-start\/","title":{"rendered":"WIT Life #85: New start"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/category\/wit-life\/\"><em><strong>WITLife<\/strong><\/em><\/a><em><strong> is a periodic series written by professional     Writer\/Interpreter\/Translator <\/strong><\/em><em><a onclick=\"javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('\/outbound\/article\/www.stacysmith.webs.com');\" href=\"http:\/\/www.stacysmith.webs.com\/\"><strong>Stacy     Smith<\/strong><\/a> <\/em><em><strong>(Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She     starts her day by watching Fujisankei\u2019s newscast in Japanese, and  here    she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together  with  her   own observations.<\/strong><\/em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2008\/01\/02\/business\/02japan.600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"412\" height=\"274\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Whereas here in the States today we celebrate April Fool&#8217;s Day, April 1st in Japan is a beginning.\u00a0 It is the start of the new fiscal and school years, and the blooming and subsequent falling of the cherry blossoms serves as a way to mark this transition.\u00a0 This morning&#8217;s news outlined several changes that will be taking place in accordance with the new year, but whether they will make life in Japan easier or harder remains to be seen.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The child allowance law  giving parents 13,000 yen per child per month goes into effect today, fulfilling one of the DPJ&#8217;s  key campaign pledges.\u00a0 It differs from <!--more-->the previous student allowance in that the amount is higher and it lasts until the child finishes junior high, whereas before it was elementary school.\u00a0 In addition, foreign residents who have lived in Japan for more than  a  year are  entitled to the money regardless of where their children   live.\u00a0 The party believes this allowance will help families raise their children so much  that they hope to double the amount to 26,000 yen per child  next fiscal  year, though where this money will come from is still undetermined.\u00a0 Will this help remedy Japan&#8217;s decreasing birth rate?<\/li>\n<li>The DPJ will also follow through on its promise to make education free through high school, whereas before the government only covered through the mandatory education age of junior high.\u00a0 This is the case for public high schools, and families with children at private schools will be able to receive a subsidy of 120,000 yen as long as the curriculum is equivalent to that at public schools.\u00a0 Another incentive for families on the fence about having children.<\/li>\n<li>Kanagawa Prefecture introduced Japan\u2019s first ordinance banning  smoking in public facilities such as hospitals, schools and government  offices.\u00a0 Facilities that are found to be in violation of this will be charged 20,000 yen, and individuals 2000 yen.\u00a0 Governors of seven other prefectures are also considering mapping out their own measures to  prevent secondhand smoking, but others have said they expect the central government to enact laws with penalties to prevent  passive smoking.\u00a0 Looks like Japan is losing its reign as a smoker&#8217;s paradise.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And in a look at the past as opposed to the present, an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/news\/2010\/03\/31\/as_film_japan_massacre_documentary\/index.html?source=newsletter\">article in Salon<\/a> yesterday highlighted a documentary made by a Japanese activist exposing the actions of Japanese soliders in Nanking in 1937.\u00a0 This retired teacher seems to be the Iris Chang of Japan in regard to this issue.\u00a0 This doc had its first screening outside Japan in Hong Kong, and I wonder when it will make its way over here.<\/p>\n<table id=\"photoright\" border=\"0\" width=\"250\" align=\"right\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\"> <\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<p><!-- MooterMedia Javascript Ad Snippet start --><\/p>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"right\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\ngoogle_ad_client = \"pub-4223870936880387\";\n\/* 250x250, 10\/8\/08, all stories *\/\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"3591625005\";\ngoogle_ad_width = 250;\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\n\/\/ ]]><\/script> <script src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"> <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\ngoogle_protectAndRun(\"ads_core.google_render_ad\", google_handleError, google_render_ad);\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<p><!-- MooterMedia Javascript Ad Snippet end here --><\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p id=\"paragrah\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer\/Interpreter\/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei\u2019s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations. Whereas here in the States today we celebrate April Fool&#8217;s Day, April 1st in Japan [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42,4,30,18,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anecdote-article","category-articlejournalism","category-japan-trends","category-translatinginterpreting","category-wit-life"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-2X8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11354"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11365,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11354\/revisions\/11365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}