Let's Japan.org Debunking Eikaiwa and Ramblings in Japan

Police in Japan are remarkably reactive and don't spend much time or energy working on crime prevention. Besides stopping the occasional cyclist and verifying ownership of said bicycle, offering directions or taking a spin on their scooters, they remain very low-key, but they are a constant presence. The officers are largely relegated to their small community police boxes that are centrally located close to train stations all over the country. The policing approach has been one that is based on police officers maintaining a visible presence. “Patrols are the most important duty for community police officers in that the visible presence of police officers in their uniforms prevents crimes and gives community residents sense of security.” (1)

This type of policing is often a proactive approach, but the general disregard for blatant warning signs and growing unease has led to citizens in Japan, calling for an increased effort to stamp out the causes of crime.

The National Police Agency announced this week that they are enacting a set of regulations based on prevention of crime. The service is committing itself to the documentation of all tips, inquires and consultations. The move comes on the heals of public complaints over the way police officers handle tips from citizens. According to reports, the police had failed to follow-up on tips offered before crimes were committed.

“At present, some police officers do not leave documented records when people come in to report potential crimes, saying the reported incident didn't yet constitute a crime or that the matter was outside their jurisdiction.” (2)

This documentation initiative is a welcome step in community safety, and can only help one of the world's safest nations. If the strategy is adhered to and implemented effectively then the result will likely slightly lower an already low crime rate. It is a step in the right direction and should be followed with more moves towards an increased focus on crime prevention and a pro-active focus.

In many regards, the institution of policing in Japan is not focused on the study of criminology and addressing the underlying issues of crime. The nation is still under the guise of the evil foreigner committing all the crimes.

This is largely apparent in recent reporting on the hit-and-run case in Nagoya, involving suspects carrying Brazilian citizenship when headlines such as “3rd Brazilian arrested over fatal hit-and-run in Nagoya” and “Brazilian arrested over deadly hit-and-run in Nagoya,” (3) were splashed everywhere in the Japanese media. The fact that the suspects were Brazilian had little to do with the story, but soon became the central issue. Only the latest example, where crime perpetrated by foreign residents in Japan is held out as the norm and throughly reported by the Japanese media.

Until Japanese society can begin to wrap its collective head around the fact that Japanese citizens commit the majority of crimes and that foreign citizens commit, per capita less crime than the domestic population, there is no sense in studying crime prevention techniques. Occasionally a foreign citizen will be apprehended and convicted of a crime, allowing the domestic population to breathe easy; “Oh another foreigner convicted, the crime rate is rising due to their transgressions.”

Under the new system all interactions with officers will be documented, no matter how minor, and they will be passed on to the relevant section so that it can be handled in an appropriate manner. Police chiefs will be in charge of enforcing the new measure, and if Japanese bureaucratic systems are any example, the new regulations will be religiously followed in every regard. The fact that the National Police Agency is at least paying lip-service to the issue and making small steps in the right direction is to be commended.

(1) http://www.npa.go.jp/english/seisaku1/JapaneseCommunityPolice.pdf
(2) http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20100219a2.html
(3) http://www.newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/79472.php
(4) http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/honkawa/2788d.html

Japan Today has started a regular series on the state of the language school industry, in particular eikaiwa, written by Dean Rogers, president and CEO of Dean Morgan Co Ltd, the school that sounds like an investment company.

The first installment is an introduction laying out the ground to be covered, so there's not much meat in the article to talk about. However, I want to comment on the teacher statistics he uses. He talks about there being tens of thousands of English teachers in Japan. Fortunately, Adamu at Mutant Frog has done some research and found that the number of language instructors in Japan at the end of the 2008 was around 9,500. This is for all languages being taught in Japan, not just eikaiwa. If you factor in JETs, the number jumps to more than 10 thousand, but not tens of thousands.

If you're a regular reader of LJ, then you know that teaching English in Japan has been in the dumps for quite some time and is still in decline. The prospects for eikaiwa don't look bright when you factor in falling wages for instructors and lack of job security, the industry's tarnished image largely due to, but not limited to, the fallout from Nova's bankruptcy (lack of consumer confidence), an aging population (a shrinking customer base), and economic recession (less consumer spending and lower tax receipts putting the squeeze on local governments hiring instructors).

The series sounds promising though, so here's hoping that Dean makes the most of his columns.

TBS correspondent in Australia, Hiroki Iijima, is covering the GEOS school closures and would like to hear from you.

Help him out. Contact him at: 0419 432 758 (mobile phone in Australia) or email hiroki [at] mcmstv.com.au.

Here's some video to show you what I'm talking about when I wrote about Fuji TV using The Terminator as their election theme this year:

Not to be outdone, TBS has it's own doom and gloom election special:

What's with the fire and brimstone? Barack Obama campaigned on a platform of change. It was an uplifting message that even politicians here in Japan were quick to mimic. The election tomorrow is destined to be one for the history books, but TBS and Fuji seem to be telling its viewers that change will tumultuous if not horrific. Or are they saying that this election spells the end of the LDP?

I'll be watching the coverage with morbid fascination. Will they be tallying the votes with flames and explosions?

(h/t Japan Probe)

G.communication continues to believe that the NOVA bunny has some value left in keeping it as the mascot of the company. I saw their latest commercial last night, not long after the news had broadcast that Sahashi had been found guilty and sentenced to prison. Here's the latest NOVA commercial.

Flipping through the channels this evening, I nearly spat my dinner out as I landed on Fuji TV and caught one of their commercials for their coverage of the upcoming election. This is undoubtedly a historic election for Japan as all indications point to a major defeat of the LDP. So, how would you go about marking this momentous changing of the guard? Some sort of historical retrospective put to martial music? Something more somber with subdued trumpets in the background?

How about The Terminator?

Apparently, impending doom it their theme for this election. Sadly, I couldn't find any video so this picture will have to do for now. It's not the greatest but you can clearly make out the 審判の日 and Judgment Day. Unfortunately the broadcasters media workers obscure the apocalyptic background. What the commercial showed was Taro Aso and other politicians from the Terminator's interface, complete with targeting bull's eyes and scrolling data, all set to the movie's iconic music. Seriously, WTF?

Is Fuji TV trying to tell us that the apocalypse is upon us or are they so desperate to attract viewers that they have no qualms about cheapen the election by associating it with a movie about the end of the world? If it's the latter, they've got me hooked. It'll make for some interesting viewing this weekend, not for its in-depth coverage (with Aya-pan!) but because I won't believe it until I see it with my own eyes.

How did this get past the editors?

Regarding the Aug. 15 editorial "Dangerous revisionist sentiment": Little did I imagine that I would come across such an odious article. I totally agree with Toshio Tamogami, who has been bravely trying his best to convince the mentally retarded aliens who read The Japan Times that Japan was not at all to blame for World War II. The left is looking for ways to disgrace Japan, and The Japan Times is part of the left.

Alarmed by the appearance of Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere, the United States and other Western cowardly nations cut the supply of oil to Japan. This left Japan with no choice but to attack the so-called ABCD nations — America, Britain, China and the Dutch. What Tamogami says is 100 percent correct.

Wow, troll alert! I didn't know you could get inflammatory letters to the editor like that published in the newspaper you're insulting. Does the Japan Times get so few letters that they published this rant just to fill up space, or did they run it knowing that it would generate a flood of angry responses that they could use to fill a page? If the JT wants to boost its readership and attract more people to its website, why doesn't it do what other newspapers have already done and open up its articles to commenting?

This should be a story about a candidate for the Darwin Awards:

With a belly full of food and sake, Armand Nelson Schneider just wanted to get rid of his nausea and empty his stomach before hopping on a train back to his study-abroad home in Yokohama, Japan.

Schneider, 22, was throwing up over the platform when a high-speed commuter zoomed into the station and smashed into him.

Fortunately for Armand, someone pulled him back just enough to save his life. Unfortunately, the train hit him so hard that it's left him a little delusional:

"It's a miracle," his mother said. "This kid should be dead."

Schneider said he doesn't struggle with alcohol and has always been a safe drinker -- his mother calls him "Mr. Responsibility."

"There's no denying I was very drunk," he said. "But I don't think the accident was caused by that."

Riiiight. Alcohol had nothing to do with sticking his head over the tracks and puking. But the point is not to ridicule Armand. Rather, this passage caught my eye:

His recovery, however, wasn't as fast as he had hoped. Schneider stayed in the Japanese intensive care unit for 12 days, kept his spot in the ward for four weeks and was moved to a nearby rehab facility for another four weeks. Nelson stayed by his side -- along with the Japanese nurses and doctors who "fell in love with him" -- for a month.

Endless droves of friends and his Japanese family members visited him often. His Oregon study-aboard peers folded him 1,000 origami cranes, following an ancient Japanese fable symbolizing a speedy and safe recovery.

Nelson returned to the United States after "I saw him get out of that hospital and go upright." When she returned to Japan weeks later, the doctor gave Schneider the surprise go-ahead to return home with his mother.

Nelson said she was prepared to make a hefty payment -- above $300,000 -- for the months of care. Instead, she said, they informed her of the national health care system and asked her for about $3,000.

"Twelve days in the ICU would have cost a quarter million in the United States," she said.

There were some trade-offs for the less-expensive treatment, Schneider said. For instance, he had to pay for meals and to use the TV and refrigerator. He also had to share a bedroom with six people, and pay for his pajamas and diapers.

"But you're happy not to have the frills to walk out with no bills," Schneider said.

And, he said, his treatment was unparalleled.

"I thank God he was in Japan when this happened," Nelson said.

The United States is currently grappling with health care reform that would introduce some kind of universal coverage, with Canada's system frequently held as an example. The typical arguments against universal coverage range from 1) it's run by the government and therefore bad, 2) long wait times for elective surgery, and 3) it costs too much. These "arguments" are all silly. First, the Canadian government doesn't run health care, it pays for it. Doctors bill the government and doctors what treatment to give. At no time does the government step in and decide who gets treatment and who does not. Wait times are an issue in the Canadian system, but waiting for an elective procedure is far better than not getting any treatment at all. Costs, too, are always an issue, but even though there are more Americans without health care than there are Canadians covered, Canada still manages to spend less per capita than the United States.

Had this accident occurred in the US, the mother would probably be paying off the bill for the rest of her life. As a Canadian, I can't figure out why the US hasn't gotten around to adopting universal health care. This accident seems like a good reason for it--you shouldn't have to face financial ruin to get medical treatment.

(via FG)

This:

Man gets drunk, takes off his clothes off, and howls at the moon normally doesn't warrant any coverage on the news, but since it's Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, member of SMAP, the media goes into a frenzy. Here we have Fuji TV recounting the story with a scale model of the neighborhood just in case viewers have trouble visualizing the park Kusanagi was in.

Reporting on celebrities and their scandals is low-hanging fruit for the media in Japan. Despite the distinctive lack of talent among Japan's TV personalities, the incident reveals the close relationship those personalities have with media outlets and their sponsors:

The reaction from private and public sponsors was immediate. Toyota Motor Corp. and Procter & Gamble responded by halting all ads featuring the pop star, even his frequent TV commercials.

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, which recruited Kusanagi to promote the nationwide conversion to terrestrial digital broadcasting, said it will immediately stop distributing flyers and posters with Kusanagi in them.

"It's embarrassing. He is a character who is calling for public understanding of the cancellation of analog broadcasting, which will burden the people. I have no choice but to think he is a disgusting person," communications minister Kunio Hatoyama angrily told reporters.

Likewise, the Association for Promotion of Digital Broadcasting has decided to stop airing Kusanagi commercials.

Kusanagi's agent, Johnny and Associates, later in the day released the statement: "We deeply apologize for causing lots of trouble and worry to fans and many other people."

The idol will refrain from entertainment activities for the time being, the company said Thursday evening.

Kusanagi's "crime" amounts to nothing more than bad stupid behavior, but his actions immediately elicited reactions from the government and one of Japan's largest companies, Toyota. In other words, Kusanagi's drunkenness is going to cost his sponsors a lot of money.

The TV news could spend their time reporting on and informing the public about issues that matter, but there's no bigger story for broadcasters when sponsors start pulling their ads.

I'm no prude, but I wonder what the Japan Times is thinking when they run two articles in the Sunday paper about porn actress awards and hostess clubs with porn stars. How are these "specials" or even relevant to a newspaper? Or is it that they miss the readership they used to get with the Tokyo Confidential column they ended not long ago?

Tokyo Confidential wasn't nearly as salacious as the Mainichi's WaiWai column, but I wonder why any newspaper that wants to be taken seriously and portends to be "the world's window on Japan" would legitimize porn by running "specials" that essentially advertise an awards show.

Like WaiWai, the problem with running this kind of content is that it reflects poorly on the Japan Times. Do they really not care about what they print or are they more interested in attracting eyeballs to their website?