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Matayoshi Jesus poster
A quick translation of this year’s election poster for Matayoshi Jesus, running once again in Tokyo 1. If I were doing this as a proper translation I would get rid of the repetition and the WALL OF TEXT single paragraph approach, but then you wouldn’t get the full impact of the original, would you?
MATAYOSHI
Matayoshi Jesus, the one true God, states that certain people must “slice their bellies open and die.” This seppuku represents the very spirit of the Japanese sense of responsibility. Matayoshi Jesus, the one true God, speaks of the attitude that “money is most important; money is everything” and the economy built on belief in the supremacy of profit as the “instigator and source of sin and crime.” This economy brings about war, conflict, terrorism, murder, suicide, industrial accidents, pollution-related disease, poverty, and starvation that kill more than 50,000 people every day in Japan and around the world. Matayoshi Jesus, the one true God, is the only one who can protect the lives of these more than 50,000 people who die each day. Matayoshi Jesus, the one true God, can accomplish this through his World Economic Community, Japan, and World Economic Community. Therefore, all who would politically interfere with or obstruct the World Economic Community, Japan, and World Economic Community of Matayoshi Jesus, the one true God, are the killers of those 50,000 people who die each day. These are the candidates opposing Matayoshi Jesus, the one true God, in the Tokyo 1 District in the House of Representatives election, who include Yosano Kaoru, Kaieda Banri, Tomita Naoki, Mac Akasaka, and Tanaka Junko. Therefore, Yosano Kaoru, Kaieda Banri, Tomita Naoki, Mac Akasaka, and the others must slice their bellies open and die. Tanaka Junko, too, must of course slice her belly open and die. This is because it is only meet for those who would kill others to die themselves. Furthermore, their deaths will not mean a final end for them: Matayoshi Jesus, the one true God, will cast them into the fires of Hell. The same goes for all voters who support them. Let all know these facts and heed the stand being taken. Unless they do, there will be no protection for the lives of the Japanese and the rest of humanity. Gain a full understanding at my Website.
World Economic Community Party Chief
Matayoshi Jesus (Mitsuo)
http://www.matayoshi.org/
Mangled Mifune on the Menu
A very quick heads-up to a translator who wants to make an interesting (and potentially delicious) cold call: 料理屋「三船」 (Ryōri-ya Mifune) is a restaurant that takes the great actor Mifune Toshirō as its theme. Part of me hopes this means Belushi-style swordplay à la “Samurai Delicatessen,” but the place looks like it’s shooting for something a bit more classy.
Expressing a view of Mifune Toshiro’s world in to the plate, and the food he loved the most, to your satisfactory.
Unfortunately, the class doesn’t extend to the English portion of its website. Hence the translation sales angle. Go for a meal, thank the owner for the culinary experience, and mention that you’d like to help brush up the multilingual site so it matches the stature of the man whose name is being borrowed.
(Via @Nictos.)
How it may have gone down
So I have decided to build more traffic for my site by writing things that outrage certain foreign Japan residents.
Speaking of outrage, how ’bout them 帰国支援金 payments to unemployed Nikkei to help them go back to Brazil, Peru, and so on? The New York Times has covered this dastardly attempt to give the boot to non-Japanese workers once their cheap labor is no longer needed, and even the local papers are looking at this as a case of cold-hearted government policy steamrolling constitutional rights (Mainichi, in Japanese and English).
There hasn’t been much coverage (in English, anyway) looking at the actual rules for this system as spelled out in this PDF file, though:
入管制度上の措置として、支援を受けた者は、当分の間、同様の身分に基づく在留資格による再入国を認めないこととする。
My quick and dirty translation: As an immigration control measure, recipients of this support will not be allowed to reenter Japan for some time with a status of residence based on the same situation [i.e. the visa exemption rule for people of Nikkei descent].
Discussion on the NBR mailing list has looked at the precise meaning of 当分の間 to decide whether it means “for a little while” or something closer to the “semipermanent” length of time mentioned in the Mainichi piece linked above. It’s hardly clear enough to be written into law as it stands, but the language here isn’t spelling out a cancellation of that Nikkei status forever.
In any case, I don’t see this situation as a clear-cut case of discrimination against those who aren’t pure Japanese. One idea for the discussions in Nagatachō/Kasumigaseki that may have led to all this:
“Hmm, the economy has gone to shit and Toyota is firing all its cheap labor. We’ve got a bunch of Brazilian citizens sitting around with no jobs.
“Who knows when those jobs are coming back . . . If they have no work in Japan, I suppose they might want to go back to their country of birth.”
“But they don’t have the money to do that! Is their only option to go homeless or turn to crime here in Japan?”
“No, nobody wants that. Let’s do a humanitarian thing and provide the money they need to get back home.”
“Sounds great—hey, but wait a minute. Won’t they just take the money and use it for a free trip back to Brazil, and then come right back? We’re back at the ‘out of work in Japan’ thing.”
“Hmm, you’re right. I guess we’ll have to add the proviso that they can’t come back.”
“Ever? They’ve learned some Japanese and may be valuable to Japanese employers again once the economy picks back up.”
“Well, all right, but let’s cancel their automatic status of residence based on Nikkei blood. If they’re coming back to Japan let’s make sure it’s on the strength of their employability, or something else that lets them obtain another SOR.”
“Sounds great.”
I have no idea about what exactly transpired, but it isn’t hard at all to think up the above as one possibility. The observers leaping to the “Japan is exploiting cheap labor and kicking people to the curb when they’re no longer needed” conclusion seem a little hot-tempered to me.
This is not to say that the government hasn’t been ham-fisted in its handling of things, of course. The newspaper coverage has been filled with quotes from local bureaucrats telling potential applicants for these funds that “no, you can’t ever come back, and neither can your children,” and the LDP’s Kawasaki Jirō, charming man that he is, has stated “I do not think that Japan should ever become a multiethnic society.” Any good intentions this program was founded on have been lost in the justified furor over these antagonistic positions. The constitutional angle mentioned in the Mainichi article is also worth examination: that the ministries spelling out these no-return rules don’t actually have the authority to make certain statuses of residence unavailable (something the Diet would have to do by amending the law) is definitely something to consider carefully.
But is it really so simple as “Oh, there goes that xenophobic Japan again?” Why is all this anger focused on a public program to give these people financial aid, rather than on the private companies that saw them as disposable factory automatons in the first place?
EDIT: The April 1 Nihon Keizai Shimbun (paper edition, no link; sorry) carried a small article on the 3/31 announcement of—wait for it—a set of policies to aid the Nikkei population, not just the “get out” money. In part (with my translation following):
厚生労働省は三十一日、失業して帰国を希望する日系外国人に対し、帰国旅費を支給する制度を四月から始めると発表した。日系人の在留資格で再入国しないことが条件 . . . 再就職を目指す日系人を対象に日本語能力などを高める研修制度も始める。
The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare announced yesterday a new system that from this month will provide travel expenses to unemployed Nikkei foreign nationals who want to return to their countries. Funds will be provided on condition that the recipients do not reenter Japan on the Nikkei-based status of residence . . . A training system will also be launched to improve the Japanese language and other skills of Nikkei residents who are seeking new employment in Japan.
This article makes it clear that the travel funds were one among several measures mentioned in the MHLW announcement (the parent page to that PDF I linked above) on things the government intends to do for the Nikkei population. I haven’t seen any English-language coverage of this set of steps being taken, though.
Yomiuri archives free this month
A common lament among Japan observers is the horrible state of online news archives. Once upon a time the Saga Shimbun had a great archive going back to the dawn of its Web existence. It was shut down, probably at the insistence of Kyodo et al., whose wire articles were also available going back to the mid-1990s.
Good news, for a limited time: Yomiuri has made its ヨミダス歴史館 available to all for the month of April. Search the main Japanese paper or the Daily Yomiuri, narrow your search to noteworthy people or to a certain era. If this was permanently open to the Web-browsing public it would be a formidable database for Japan researchers.
The info you need:
ID: ustemp
Password: m7k77s
(Via the H-Japan list.)
Ray Downs, 1932–2009
Update: The Downs family now has a website up. Go to RayDowns.com for information on the memorial service and so on.
Ray Downs was headmaster at ASIJ during my years there, and the one who signed my parents’ contracts to work at the school. He was the sort of administrator who had done his long years of teaching, making him deeply aware of the needs of students and faculty and willing to consider them before the needs of the private school as a business venture.
Mr. Downs (as well as his wife Lavinia, the school’s head librarian) had an encyclopedic memory of the students who had made their way through the Naka Meguro and Chofu campuses over the decades. More than a decade ago I mentioned that I had gotten a job at Japan Echo, and they instantly asked whether Suzanne Trumbull (an early 1960s ASIJ grad) was still there. Some info on this couple and the role they played at the school is on the ASIJ website.
Reposting a letter from one of his children, since it’s easier to point people to the info here than to forward it to everyone:
To my dear ASIJ friends,
It is with both sadness and relief that I pass on the news that our father, Ray F. Downs, died peacefully on March 27th, Friday. Since his brain tumor diagnosis in May 1997, Dad led a remarkable life, largely due to the untiring efforts and determination of our mother, Vicky. Following their move to Seattle in 1999, Dad’s strength and cognitive abilities improved sufficiently for him to live a fairly full life including taking adult education classes (which he loved – particularly music), walking, birding and even traveling to Japan, China, Mexico and Belize. By all accounts, it is almost miraculous that he was able to do so much and for so long following such a serious brain injury. While he never recovered fully to the point of being the “old” energetic, intelligent Dad we love and miss so dearly, his thoughtful, loving personality was clearly in evidence throughout the remainder of his life. He is and will be greatly missed.
I deeply regret that his four grand daughters (Sophie age 11, CC age 8, Rachel age 6 and Becca age 1) will have never known the Dad who epitomized so many wonderful virtues including humor, intelligence, compassion, and commitment, but as I said to Dad so many times in his final days, we will do all we can to ensure that they grow up knowing what a remarkable man he was. Hopefully, he can go on to inspire them as he inspired his own children and so many others.
We are planning a service in Seattle in late April. Details will be forthcoming and I will gladly pass them on to any who are interested and might be able to attend. Participation by all who knew and loved Dad would be most welcome.
This brings much love to you from all of us,
Constie
Rest in peace, Mr. Downs.
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