{"id":33310,"date":"2013-12-30T16:14:01","date_gmt":"2013-12-30T20:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=33310"},"modified":"2013-12-30T16:14:01","modified_gmt":"2013-12-30T20:14:01","slug":"wit-life-259-%e5%8f%b3%e5%82%be%e5%8c%96-%e3%82%b9%e3%83%a1%e3%83%8f%e3%83%a9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2013\/12\/30\/wit-life-259-%e5%8f%b3%e5%82%be%e5%8c%96-%e3%82%b9%e3%83%a1%e3%83%8f%e3%83%a9\/","title":{"rendered":"WIT Life #259: \u53f3\u50be\u5316 & \u30b9\u30e1\u30cf\u30e9"},"content":{"rendered":"

WIT Life <\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em>is a periodic series written by professional Writer\/Interpreter\/Translator <\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em>Stacy Smith<\/strong><\/a> <\/em>(Kumamo<\/a><\/strong><\/em>to-ken<\/a> CIR, 2000-<\/strong><\/em>03).\u00a0 <\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em>She starts<\/strong><\/em> her day by watching Fujisankei\u2019s newscast in Japanese, and here she sha<\/strong><\/em>r<\/strong><\/em>es some of the interesting tidbits and <\/strong><\/em>t<\/strong><\/em>r<\/strong><\/em>ends along with h<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em>er own observations.<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em>\"\"<\/p>\n

As Japan enters its last day of 2013, the Abe administration is demonstrating a drift to the right which is alarming to some.\u00a0 The PM recently made news with his official visit to Yasukuni Shrine<\/a>, where the almost 2.5 million Japanese who perished during conflicts spanning from 1867 to WWII are enshrined.\u00a0 The reason this is so inflammatory to neighboring Asian countries, as well as the rest of the world, is that those buried there include convicted war criminals and it seems to indicate a flaunting of nationalistic views.\u00a0 This tendency is what got PM Abe into trouble during his first time in office, and once again there is nervous commentary regarding his \u53f3\u50be\u5316 (ukeika<\/em> or conservative swing), which some say supercedes his three-arrowed Abenomics economic revival efforts.<\/p>\n

This weekend the NYT highlighted this issue with an article on a local battle regarding textbooks<\/a> being fought on the eight-island township of Taketomi in Okinawa.\u00a0 Here you can see<\/a> a side by side comparison of several sections of the currently used textbook and the nationalistic one they are attempting to introduce.\u00a0 Besides the examples provided regarding the Emperor, Constitution and pacifism, other differences include whether the Japanese Army was involved with setting up the \u6170\u5b89\u5a66 (ianfu<\/em> or comfort women) sexual slavery system and the debated death toll in the Rape of Nanking.<\/p>\n

According to the school superintendent, Anzo Kedamori, the conservative textbook fails to teach children the hatred of war that his generation learned from bitter experience.\u00a0 In an attempt to overcome local educators like Kedamori, there is a pending proposal to put mayors in charge of their local school districts.\u00a0 This would make imposing a nationalistic agenda easier, and is identified in the article as a new strategy of “forcing change at the local level that has sometimes failed at the national level.”\u00a0 We will see what the new year brings for PM Abe and his right-leaning policies, but the country is clearly moving in a direction with potentially game-changing consequences.\u00a0 In the face of an increasingly belligerent China, this is something that the Japanese populace seems more willing to support.<\/p>\n

In lighter news, earlier this month there was an entertaining WSJ article<\/a> about how scented products are becoming more popular in Japan, and how these smells are offensive to some people.\u00a0 The Japanese media coined the phrase \u30b9\u30e1\u30cf\u30e9 (sumehara or smell harassment), to go along with the preexisting \u30d1\u30ef\u30cf\u30e9 (pawahara<\/em> or power harassment) and \u30bb\u30af\u30cf\u30e9 (sexuhara<\/em> or sexual harassment). \u00a0 There is even a group called the Society Demanding Fragrance Restraint, which sprung up in regard to the environment ministry’s suggestion that people combat body odor by using scented fabric softener, previously uncommon in Japan.<\/p>\n

I’m sure that 2014 will bring its own share of serious and frivolous squabbles, but for the time being the minds of the Japanese are focused on tonight’s \u6b4c\u7d05\u767d\u5408\u6226 (uta kouhaku gassen or New Year’s Eve singing contest) and \u304a\u305b\u3061\u6599\u7406 (osechi ryouri or traditional New Year’s food).\u00a0 \u826f\u3044\u304a\u5e74 (yoi otoshi wo<\/em> or Happy New Year)!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WIT Life is a periodic series written by professional Writer\/Interpreter\/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03).\u00a0 She starts her day by watching Fujisankei\u2019s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends along with her own observations. As Japan enters its last day of 2013, the Abe administration is demonstrating a […]<\/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_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18,1,36,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-translatinginterpreting","category-uncategorized","category-wit-life","category-writers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t