Hoo boy. A lot of people have been talking about a recent measure taken by the Japanese government, wherein the offer immigrants and Nikkei (Japanese who lived abroad/foreigners of Japanese descent who have moved back to Japan) $3,000 to leave Japan and and never return to work.
Jiro Kawasaki, "a former health minister and senior lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party" said: “We should stop letting unskilled laborers into Japan. We should make sure that even the three-K jobs are paid well, and that they are filled by Japanese. I do not think that Japan should ever become a multiethnic society.”
Japan's always had its issues with immigrants, but this is incredibly stupid. For one, Japan already has a labor force issue. It's an aging society, where nearly 1 in 5 Japanese are 65 or over, and not enough babies or young people. Its population rate is too low; an average of 1.32 in 2006. Immigrants would help that. "It could also hurt Japan in the long run. The aging country faces an impending labor shortage. The population has been falling since 2005, and its working-age population could fall by a third by 2050."
Articles at here and The Economist.
I'd write more but running off to dinner. :p
Friday, April 24, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Circles and Dancing
"Circles" - school clubs - are very popular at Waseda. There's 1 or 2000 officially recognized clubs, and another thousand unofficial ones (I think at least; read that somewhere but can't find it again). In the beginning of April, there was a huge information fair for the incoming Japanese freshmen (the school year starts in the spring semester, not the fall). I've wanted to join a club, because it will really help me make friends and force me to use Japanese, but there wasn't much information about them last semester.
I spent several hours being completely overwhelmed enthusiastic kids popping up next to me and trying to get me to join their clubs (lots of sports; one that feeds stray cats; diving where they go down to some Pacific island and scuba dive; waterskiing; music clubs and musical/theater/orchestral clubs. They had EVERYTHING). I finally found a ballroom dancing club, which is something I did a little bit back at college in the States and was hoping to do again. There were a few weeks of demos and drinking parties that were incredibly cheap for the newbies, and practice started last night.
At first it was really, really intimidating. I was the only visible foreigner there (at practice I saw one other girl though), and when I went with another friend (also very obviously foreign), we were ignored for a while when the older students went up to talk to the new students one-on-one. Once they realized we spoke some Japanese and hadn't wandered into the wrong place accidentally, they were incredibly friendly and I've gotten so many new numbers haha... It's been great fun.
Practice is 2 1/2 hours, two days a week (Wednesday and Saturday). Going to that from no exercise was a little bit painful. :p It was somewhat chaotic, as there are over 100 students in the ballroom circle, but actually surprisingly organized and I got to dance a lot with more experienced dancers. It really helps to do that; when it's just two newbies muddling along and getting the steps wrong together it's hard, and I've done ballroom for about a year though not too seriously. And whew, I have certainly been using a LOT of Japanese! My listening is definitely getting better. There's a lot of words people use that I don't know, but I'm picking up what I do know a lot better. My speaking is still quite disorganized (as soon as I open my mouth - grammar? I've learned grammar?), but apparently my pronunciation is getting better and I can usually get my point across well enough. There's a few people in the club who know English though, as well as another exchange student friend that I got to join, so I can get translations. :)
I just need to buy proper ballroom shoes, which are quite painfully expensive...
I spent several hours being completely overwhelmed enthusiastic kids popping up next to me and trying to get me to join their clubs (lots of sports; one that feeds stray cats; diving where they go down to some Pacific island and scuba dive; waterskiing; music clubs and musical/theater/orchestral clubs. They had EVERYTHING). I finally found a ballroom dancing club, which is something I did a little bit back at college in the States and was hoping to do again. There were a few weeks of demos and drinking parties that were incredibly cheap for the newbies, and practice started last night.
At first it was really, really intimidating. I was the only visible foreigner there (at practice I saw one other girl though), and when I went with another friend (also very obviously foreign), we were ignored for a while when the older students went up to talk to the new students one-on-one. Once they realized we spoke some Japanese and hadn't wandered into the wrong place accidentally, they were incredibly friendly and I've gotten so many new numbers haha... It's been great fun.
Practice is 2 1/2 hours, two days a week (Wednesday and Saturday). Going to that from no exercise was a little bit painful. :p It was somewhat chaotic, as there are over 100 students in the ballroom circle, but actually surprisingly organized and I got to dance a lot with more experienced dancers. It really helps to do that; when it's just two newbies muddling along and getting the steps wrong together it's hard, and I've done ballroom for about a year though not too seriously. And whew, I have certainly been using a LOT of Japanese! My listening is definitely getting better. There's a lot of words people use that I don't know, but I'm picking up what I do know a lot better. My speaking is still quite disorganized (as soon as I open my mouth - grammar? I've learned grammar?), but apparently my pronunciation is getting better and I can usually get my point across well enough. There's a few people in the club who know English though, as well as another exchange student friend that I got to join, so I can get translations. :)
I just need to buy proper ballroom shoes, which are quite painfully expensive...
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Sliced my finger on my razor while showering this morning, and freaked out the guy cleaning the bathroom by running past him in just a towel to grab toilet paper because it was bleeding a lot (community baths & showers in stalls in the same room). Also just realized I was trying to tell him "すみません、くびを切った” instead of ”ゆびを切った.” Kubi, a friend pointed out to me when I told them after, means throat. Yubi means finger. I was telling the guy I sliced my throat instead of my finger.
...Woops!
...Woops!
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