Well, the Google Android Phone Japan Version is here, and it went to Docomo.

Other Docomo phones have gradually been increasing its compatibility with Google products such as YouTube and Google Maps here in Japan, and has always been cooperative with Google. (obvious if you consider that their competition in the mobile industry is Softbank, you certainly wouldn’t want to send any love toward Yahoo).

The good news for anyone who is a fan of Google or just a fan of healthy competition breeding innovation, then the good news is how much Google is using ads for the Android phone to introduce users to Google’s various services and alternatives to Yahoo.

Let’s see if the iPhone steps up. Maybe we’ll see some improved features in Japanese, and a little more on the GTD side of things instead of the flash things.

Maybe we have a future in Japan when finally all this mobile technology will pay off. We’ll have board meetings full of people with their iPhones and Androids and whatever AU KDDI comes up with to meet the demand. They’ll by synchronizing calendars and doing on the spot search, sharing files, projecting graphs and presentations from their phones.

Maybe kids in schools will be able to put this mobile technology to use, these phones they stick their noses in every waking moment outside of class will become learning tools. The instant access to information will convince schools of the importance of analytical skills over rote memorization of facts. More emphasis on the big picture, on analogy, on synthesis.

Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but if people can dream of world peace, then can’t a guy dream of world access to knowledge, and motivation to learn… can’t a guy dream of evolution?

Anyway, here’s an ad for the android from Google Japan’s YouTube channel. It’s interesting to take a look at this short video and what Google chooses to showcase.

• First search
• then business news and stock reports
• then Google maps, showing route searches and STREETVIEW!
• next, Gmail and its functionality
• followed by YouTube (possibly Google’s most popular feature in Japan), also emphasizing the ease with which one can upload videos as well

The commercial I saw today (during the Gokusen Reunion show) went by fast, but I’ll try to get it or find it on YouTube soon.

Doi is one of the best writers of the Japanese scholars I’ve read, and added a personal touch to a lot of his works that never impeded the intellectualism.

If you are a student of Japanese culture, I highly recommend Takeo Doi’s works, especially “The Anatomy of Dependence”.

Also for sociologists and people who do business with Japan can gain a lot from reading “The Anatomy of Self”.

“The Anatomy of Dependence” seems to be readily available, but “The Anatomy of Self” seems a little harder to find. I really think these are must-reads for anyone studying Japanese culture.

If you’ve ever been fascinated by or had personal experience with such things as the concepts of “uchi” and “soto” (inside and outside), “honne” and “tatemae” (true feelings and being up front), and “omote” and “ura” (which I’ll describe as the surface vs the underside, or the open vs the hidden), then Takeo Doi’s works are as good a place to begin your studies as any.

I’m sure I didn’t do him any justice, so if you get the chance, please check out the books.

After being promoted, the 42 year old man began working from before 6am until after 10:30pm every working day, and from 3 to 4 hours a day on days that were designated days off. In addition to berated and having epithets yelled at him by his boss, his name was erased from the company name list, and he was called over the company loudspeaker without “san” being added to his name. (note: Not adding “san” or some other term to a person’s name in Japan is called “yobisute” which is extremely rude.  It is much ruder than just calling someone by their last name in the U.S.). He was also sent to orientation sessions for new employees several times after being told he was “not needed” (again in front of other employees).

On May 16th and 17th he took a few days off citing depression. He returned to work on May 18th, and emailed his wife who was in Tokyo on a business trip. He wrote that there was no way he could solve his problems at work. He thanked her for everything, and told her that he had been happy. After sending the email, he jumped off the top of a local supermarket building to his death. I really wish the guy had known that his wife would fight for him as she is now. Just introducing the charges of power harassment must have taken courage for her. In a working environment where it is common for superiors to get angry and yell at workers, where various kinds of abuse and harassment are common place, it can especially be a problem if there is also no way for workers to report such problems.

I know of women who worked for companies, became pregnant and told their bosses thinking they would be congratulated. The bosses in this case asked them to quit immediately. When the women asked to be allowed the legal allowed time off for having a baby, the boss said something like “I guess I have no choice, but when you come back from your vacation I’m going to make it hell for you to work here.” In the end both women quit their jobs then. (The two cases I have personal knowledge of were in two very different industries, two different sized companies with near identical results.)

A lot of what I have seen in Japan would send the boss into anger management classes, but in Japan it’s common. I’ve even heard people suggest that the worker who was yelled at and embarrassed might take small opportunities to get back at the boss to make themselves feel better. Again, in my experience this is not the case at all. A scary boss is a scary boss, and if a worker makes things harder there is a danger that the boss will realize what happened and come down even harder on the worker. Sadly the problem is that there is not a large system in place to protect these workers or an easier way for people to be able to lodge complaints or work out disputes. I hope the wife of the Sagawa express worker fights to the end leading to some kind of legislation that will provide people in similar situations with an outlet, a means to take action, or a place to get counseling.

The cynical side of me worries that the woman will must settle for monetary compensation and Sagawa (often rumored to be rife with bullying, sexual harassment, and abuse of power by superiors) will never have to be investigated.

The winner was actress Norika Fujiwara (pictured to the right) who recently divorced comedian Tomonori Jinnai. Number two was Becky, an extremely well-liked tv personality who boasts one of the largest portfolio of sponsorship deals in Japanese entertainment (pictured below). Third place went to sixty-four year old actress Sayuri Yoshinaga, also pictured below.

The net was abuzz with accusations that Becky was the real number one and Norika Fujiwara was placed up there by the power of her talent agency alone, as she is generally not thought of as highly as Becky or Sayuri Yoshinaga.

Becky

Sayuri Yoshinaga

The settlement seems to imply that the six Kyoto University of Education students were guilty as charged although the case will now never go to trial.

So what does this mean?

There is a very good chance that all six of these guys will be teachers within the next few years. It also sets a scary precedent when you think of how the situation unfolded.

A gang rape at a party. One graduate who is currently a teacher in an elementary school in Nara was a lookout for six student athletes who took advantage of a drunk female student. The university found out about what happened but never reported it to police, instead suspending the six students temporarily and temporarily avoiding any media coverage.  By the time the story broke, the rape was months old. As far as I know, Kyoto University of Education received no penalty or reprimand for not reporting the case to police.

Once the case went public, people close to the case or people involved slandered the girl on social networking sites while the bulletin board dwellers went to her defense.

Now that the case has been settled, many of the people on the bulletin boards are crying foul for the girl having given up the case. Some people are accusing her of having had yen signs in her eyes from the beginning. Other people argue that this is clear evidence that all six were guilty, and if they really were telling the truth they would have gone to court to fight the charges. For the record, many people were unclear on the exact meaning of “settlement” or “jidan” in Japanese.

The bottom line is the case has been settled, and this clears their records. It seems to mean that they will graduate and probably be teaching children soon.

If any more news is leaked about the conditions of the settlement and what will become of the Kyoto University of Education rape case six, I will be sure to post an update.

Recently Billy Blanks and his new wife Tomoko had their wedding ceremony and pictures of the wedding have been released to the media. Here’s a shot of the happy couple:

He looks really really good for a 53 year old guy. If a little Billy’s Boot Camp and Tai Bo makes you that fit for that long, I may have to find some DVDs on Yahoo Japan auctions.

This is an awesome song for kids. It has enough rock n roll to it for parents to enjoy. It’s written and sung by the lead singer of Ulfuls, named Tortoise Matsumoto. He’s got a good voice, and Ulfuls is an all around great rock band.

It’s a nice change from some of the cutesy kids songs around… and yes, they found a way to involve chairs in a song called “Tamago” or “Egg”.

CHAIRS!

There are skits of interactions between a real live girl, a giant talking cactus, and a chair. The cactus plays kind of a fatherly role, settling little arguments between the little girl and the chair.

Please don’t get me wrong. It’s a great kids show… funny, colorful, educational, and well thought out.

There is just one aspect of the show that I can’t seem to understand….

It doesn’t happen every time, but the Cactus, which is usually quite manly (referring to himself as “ore” and speaking in masculine Japanese), sometimes gets excited. When Sabo-chan (the cactus’s name) gets excited, a flower on his head blooms, and then…

he becomes extremely effeminite, using feminine language and gestures.

The first time I saw this it was kind of surreal.

Anyway, here’s a video of Sabo-chan getting excited. The story of the video is Sabo-chan explaining how electricity flows through the wire, into the lamp providing power. When the little girl asks how a remote control works, Sabo-chan, who apparently doesn’t know the answer… blows a fuse. The flower blooms and he gets girly.

Let’s watch.

In an explanation meeting held on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009, Kyoto University of Education president Mitsuyo Terada  spoke in front a nearly full, four hundred fifty person classroom, and addressed students directly.

During the meeting, Terada explained why the six perpetrators were never expelled from the school despite having gang raped another student by explaining that the university itself is an educational university, and it is their responsibility to help rehabilitate the perpetrators and help them become productive members of society.

Here is an article (in Yahoo News in Japanese) describing Kyoto University of Education’s meeting with students.

Since, I feel its therapeutic for me to comment on the stories, please indulge me in a little sarcasm…

…I believe what this educator and university president has thought of  is quite revolutionary. He has decided to open his school up and offer it as an alternative to prison. If he feels there is a place in a well-regarded education university for six violent rapists, I’m sure he would be honored to accept a Yakuza member whose only crime is shooting a few rivals. The Yakuza member would probably never think to do harm to other members of the university community, unlike the six criminals he has offered golden tickets to. If his school’s responsibility to society is to rehabilitate felons, I’m sure he would be happy to play host to any illegal immigrants in Japan who have been discovered after countless years of living a law abiding life in Japan. Maybe the next generation of teachers in Japan will all have a “story to tell”. I also expect these future ex-killers and rapist-turned-teachers to cast a very forgiving eye on students who’ve forgotten to do their homework.

Stable leader Junichi Yamamoto (formerly Tokitsukaze) who ordered members of his Sumo gym to beat and abuse a sixteen year old junior Sumo wrestler (including breaking beer bottles over his head and hitting him with an aluminum baseball bat) resulting in his death, could be a future valedictorian.

Thank you for indulging me in a little sarcasm there, but I am surprised the Japanese authorities are not coming down on Kyoto University of Education for trying to handle this crime off-record and for even now making a mockery of any laws designed to protect victims of sexual assault.

Arrested were six male members of Kyoto University of Education sports teams, including members of the (American) football team, the track and field team, the handball team, and the soccer team. They met the victim at a “kompa” or a party at which males and females of the same number get together with the intention of finding a boyfriend of girlfriend. Other than the six perpetrators, there were reportedly several other people there who had knowledge of, and could have prevented or put a stop to the crime.

The party at which the rape happened occurred on February 25th of this year. Kyoto University of Education officially knew of the incident in March. The university decided not to report the incident to police and to deal with it independently. Although the university decided to deal with the matter internally, officials also deny that Kyoto University of Education is in any way responsible in the matter because the party was not organized by the university.

The crime was never publicly announced by the university because officials said they were concerned that the perpetrators would try to hurt themselves (or commit suicide). The perpetrators were given open-ended suspensions from the university at the end of March. (Note: not expulsion!) Some of them were seniors, but I have not been able to find whether they were allowed to graduate (which would have happened in February or March).

The students involved were education majors. Most of them were future gym teachers. Teachers and coaches in the physical education department also reportedly could not agree that this was a case of rape and that (supposedly) also prevented the crime from being reported to police.

I have reported about countless cases when something happened at a university or school, and nothing is done until it is far too late. Although there is no mention in the article, my personal concern about the story is the victim. What happened to the victim in this case? Did she quit school? Will she be able to finish? What of the other people who were at the party, and according to the news, “could have prevented or stopped the crime”. Will they be prosecuted or sued? Probably not, but I would like to see the punishment fit the crime in this case.

There have been other cases in the news of a similar nature; the Keio University Med students who gang raped a student from another university during a “kompa” party at a karaoke shop, and others. I have been looking for verification of this, but I heard that many of them simply transferred to less well-known medical schools and are now working as doctors. There are also accounts of parties at well-known universities designed to set up rape situations. Here is an article from the Times Online in 2003 about some of the rapes that have occured in universities in Japan.

We need openness, and a country in which victims of crimes can feel that if they talk to someone about what happened to them, they can at least get some sort of vindication, rather than being victimized again by the system.