Kakuta Haruo---Decoding Japan---

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Location: Sakai, Osaka, Japan

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

What Pirates Are

I saw the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. As it was popular, the cinema was full of children with their parents. I thought, however, few of them knew the essential difference between those pirates on the screen and those who used to be called Wokou (Japanese pirates in 13-16 centuries). Japanese pirates boarded on smaller fast boats, which used to be called sekibune, hayafune, or kohaya in Japanese those days, rather than on Tall ships. In addition, above all, they were not the objects of punishment like those on the screens who were chased by governments’ fleets, arrested, and hung. I’d like to note 2 public characters the Japanese pirates had on this issue. 1) They controlled various checkpoints in important ports, which used to be called fudaura in Japanese, along the sea, rivers, and lakes. They collected some taxes, such as sekiyaku (checkpoint fees), uwanoriryo (on-board fees), and as such. 2) They were navies who handle war boats skillfully, and sometimes took part in armies of feudal lords or war lords. In this sense, they are called sui-gun (navy) technically in Japanese. As for 1), pirates put up some checkpoints forcibly in the medieval period, but they were sanctioned overtly in their society. Levying checkpoint fees and on-board fees were claimed rightfully. The matter, however, impressed sea travelers absurdly since the pirates the travelers happened to encounter in the sea called themselves seki or sekimori, checkpoints or keepers of the checkpoints, and demanded fees forcibly. There were several kinds of fees checkpoints levied. Hobetsusen, a sail tax, was imposed according to how big each ship was. Dabetsusen, a freight tax, was imposed on goods. Uwanoriryo, an on-board fee, was imposed as a piloting fee. Uwanori, to board on, means to hire a pirate to board on a ship, and that saved the ship from being attacked by his fellow pirates. In the 27th year of Oei, in 1420, a Korean ambassador, Song Huikyeong, came to Japan as a return call for an envoy sent by the then shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimochi. He kept a diary, Roshodo Nihon Koroku, and wrote, “We hired Tozoku, pirates in the East Inland Sea, near Kamogari (today’s Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture) so as not to be attacked by Saizoku, pirates in the West Inland Sea.” That clearly shows they had uwanori system already at the time. As time comes down, the system became an official one in the Inland Sea, which was utilized even by war lords. As for 2), I’d like to emphasize one point. The word pirates sounds as if they had acted in a free and hard-boiled manner as mercenaries on the sea. They were, on the contrary, respectable warriors on the sea, who rallied round to answer the call-outs by shogun Ashikaga or war lords to get a fief or a local magistrate job. In that sense, they should never be regarded as unlawful people.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Crowdsourcing and Students' International Communication

Crowdsourcing might be an efficient and productive procedure to start and maintain a certain type of international communication among high school students. International communication among high school students needs international communication among high school teachers as its precondition. As those teachers are hardly organized internationally, an organized procedure to start communication is very difficult, unless we are to depend on those international entities such as UNICEF or UNESCO. Crowdsourcing procedure starts with “an open call” from someone, in this case, some teacher. As far as teachers are networked, and if the open call is relevant and interesting enough, the call will create a certain stir among teachers, and consequently among students. The question is who will throw an open call first. The answer is “Nobody knows.” We have varieties of cultures. Our interests may be generated or controlled by varieties of bureaucracies we have. Each of us should throw a call, and someone will throw a fluke.

Friday, February 17, 2012

"Third World America" or Third World in America?

I have read through Third World America (Arianna Huffington), which describes the details of the widening gap between the rich and the poor in the American society. The gap is widening, the author argues, because of the massive loss of the middle class there. The gap is deepening because of the fall of their middle class into poverty. The situation the fallen middle class face there, is devastating. The first 4 chapters, accordingly, sound very pessimistic and grave. A businessman was, for example, laid off. He joined “a number of LinkedIn groups”, used Twitter, “which he discovered can be a powerful jobsearching tool,” and did countless other digital efforts only to be “still looking for a job.” In the 5th chapter, however,the tone changes dramatically. The author talks positively about legislatures and community NPOs to suggest solutions. Here, even those digital efforts read promising. I wonder, if they can work, why they haven't worked. The contrast between the pesimism in the 4 chapters and the optimism in the last one seems to me to imply the depth of crisis itself. After World War II, western developed countries came to import various second-industry goods from developing countries then. As a result, some developing countries, including Japan for example, have become or ar becoming developed countries. During the process, those western countries “exported” second-industry jobs in other words. The export has led to the large-scale loss of their middle class, especially after the fail of their third industry. Is America becoming Third World? I don't think so. By exporting their middle class jobs, they have imported not only low-wage jobs, but also unemployment and underemployment. That is, they have imported Third World in return. Today, as the result of globalization, every developed country is going to have its Third World in itself. If we should narrow the gap between haves and have-nots, we should materialize the policy worldwide, avoiding conflicts among global have-nots.