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Games of Suffering
All-Japan High School Baseball Championship Tournament performed every August thrills all over Japan even now when soccer became more popular than baseball. One or two teams are chosen from every prefectures and they play the games for determining the No.1 Team in the nation at KOSHIEN Ballpark in Hyogo Prefecture. Only at that time, people strengthen their love for their hometown, and cheer the teams of their home prefectures.
However, I'm one of the persons who cannot enjoy these games purely.
This tournament is sponsored by Japan High School Baseball Federation (JHBF). The other day, JHBF expressed the displeasure over the high school players' "hustle pose". They said that a runner who hit the HR should not raise his fist throughout his run because "it's not becoming to a high school student". JHBF always force the players to be "model students".
JHBF put their nose into the players' behavior even in other than games. If one of team members causes a scandal (ex. smoking), the team will be suspended. In the past, since a student without the relation to the baseball team committed a crime, the qualification for entry was taken from the team of the school.
Moreover, the players and teams are bound by the various strange orders like these.
- Practice games between two teams have to get the approval of JHBF.
- Retired professional players must not teach high school players without two or more years experience of teacher.
- Using a video image of high school baseball games more than 3 minutes is forbidden except for play-by-play broadcasting.
- TV talents must not to interview the players.
- In order to make a website of a team, the check and permission of the contents by JHBF are required.
- Cheering is only permitted with a few provided ways like wind-instrument music.
(Once, the cheering by a Vietnamese native dance for a certain player of Vietnamese nationality was stopped by JHBF.)
- In the games, judgment of referees must be followed absolutely, and video replays can never be used.
Last year, the manager of a certain team used the six spare players in a hopeless game in order to rest the prime players. JHBF insisted that they should have fought more fairly, and warned the manager.
Is it wrong to let players take a rest? Yes, JHBF think so.
Since the tournament games are scheduled tightly, the players are forced to be in heavy rotation. In 2000, a certain pitcher who took the mound in four consecutive games pitched a total of 773 balls . His shoulder bone was broken because of fatigue, and his life as a pitcher was terminated.
JHBF do not like even an intelligent strategy for winning. HIDEKI MATSUI, who joined the New York Yankees in 2002, was a famous slugger from his high school days. In 1992, a team which played against MATSUI gave him an intentional walk in each of his five at-bats, and did not give him an opportunity to hit during the game. The spectators protested this, and the chairman of JHBF expressed dissatisfaction at the press conference.
JHBF dislike that the players enjoy their games or they act like professional players. JHBF are only willing to show the people that the high school players are being dirty with sweat and mud, being tired, being frustrated, and losing their hope to the future. They claim that this is the "character-building through baseball". They are pleased to see that the young men of very short hair march in together forming a single line at the stadium when the air temperature climbs over 40C(104F). It seems that they desire to make their own "army".
I don't want to see the students falling victim in order to fulfill the fantasy of the old men of JHBF (The present chairman is 72 years old and the former chairman had stayed on until he became 92!) any more.
July 30, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack
Misunderstanding between Neighbors
Some Japanese are being excited in the South Korean drama. I want to talk about these mass hysterical "boom" often happened in Japan, in another opportunity. This time, I'm going to describe a serious divergence of information between South Korea and Japan.
There is different understanding of historical recognition between South Korea and Japan. Both countries' governments have not changed their claim in order to keep their national interests. And also now, strong anti-Japan feeling continues to exist among many Koreans.
In South Korea, though importing Japanese cultural things had been forbidden, Japanese anime had been exported to South Korea ahead of movies or Music CDs, because some of the anime had stories of other countries than Japan and some had the stateless atmosphere.
And in these years, Japanese culture was allowed officially in Korea. But the scenes that remind Koreans of the Japanese culture in anime are still "censored". An anime "Ghost-IGO-OU" has aired in South Korea with characters KIMONO being blurred by the digital effect, because the KIMONO is "too Japanese" for some Koreans.
http://japanese.joins.com/html/2004/0603/...(Japanese)
- However, after the program started, blames have been thrown at the part which was not able to be expected. It is that they (South Korean TV station KBS) made all the clothes of a main character 'Charan' white, and it made the people feel unnatural whenever they watch it.
"It was weird that only Charan's head seemed like floating". "It is meaningless that you erased all the clothes which symbolize the character... If it was such a thing, you should not have aired it at all." Many sentences which describe dissatisfaction were sent on the KBS bulletin board.
In July 2003, the Japanese fishing boat "KOYOMARU No.18" and the South Korean cargo ship "Heung-A Jupiter" collided, one of the KOYOMARU crew died, and 6 crew went missing.
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200307/02/...
Each Japanese media reported that the cargo ship was registered in Panama, but they did not tell that it was a South Korean ship.
Four days after, the South Korean ship "Korex Kunsan" and the ship "KARASHIMA" of Japanese Fisheries Agency collided while KARASHIMA was searching for the missing crew of KOYOMARU.
In both of the accidents, these South Korean ships escaped from the scene of the collision, and did not participate in the rescue of the victims. Some days later, search of the missing crew was closed, and the navigation officer of "Heung-A Jupiter" was prosecuted since he admitted his error.
It is wonder that almost no media told us the circumstances of these cases after their first news. So, probably, most of people of Japan and South Korea may not know about these cases.
I learned of this on the Internet. Some people personally investigated these cases and summarized the outline to their web site.
http://www.geocities.co.jp/WallStreet-Stock/1917/ (Japanese)
Compared with this, in the accident of "EHIME MARU" which occurred in 2001, many detailed reports have been added until now. In short, we cannot help thinking that the Japanese media are regulated not to report the cases by the Koreans, or they are too guarded to Korea or the Korean society in Japan.
The Japanese media are also too sensitive to anti-Japan protests of Korean people. They are afraid of being censured for discrimination by Korea if they report the cases by the Koreans, even if they are the truth. Nevertheless, the "friendly" reports of Korea are persistently repeated. Some people have began to feel the incongruity of that.
Many of Japanese people are only fascinated by the Korean drama, and they don't know that the media of Japan and South Korea are manipulating information each other. Some people are thinking that this "South Korean boom" will connect to the Japan-South Korea friendship.
But I think we have to find out and stop concealment of information in order to trust each other.
July 26, 2004 in Foreign Affairs | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Jinx
Here are some of Japanese strange jinxes.
- If a tea stalk is floating upright in your cup of tea, something good will happen to you.
- If you cut your fingernails at night, you will not be able to see your parents when they die.
- If you whistle at night, a snake will crawl out to you.
- If you lie down soon after you eat, you will become a cow.
- If you find a spider at morning, do not kill it because it is a good sign.
- If you pour piss on an earthworm, your penis will swell up.
- Never sleep with your head directed towards North. Only dead bodies can be done so.
- Do not start wearing your new shoes in the afternoon.
- When you eat seasonal food at the first of the season, you should face to East and laugh.
- If you put a piece of snake skin into your wallet, you will become rich.
- When your milk tooth come out, if it was a lower tooth, throw it over the roof. If it was an upper tooth, throw it beneath the veranda. Then your next tooth will be strong.
- When you get nervous in front of people, you should write the letter 'HITO' (human) on your palm and drink the letter through your mouth.
July 22, 2004 in Customs | Permalink | Comments (148) | TrackBack
Blood Thirsty People
Probably, there is no other people like Japanese who are interested in blood type. Many Japanese believe in a relation between a person's blood type and his/her personality, like they believe in horoscope. For example...
"If you have O-type blood, you always express your feeling straight and you have rich facial expression."
"If you have A-type blood, you are introspective, cooperative, and you always take care of the others."
"If you have B-type blood, you are aggressive and do everything without a preconceived idea."
"If you have AB-type blood, you have a rational view and you can make good relationship with everyone else."
"If you are a woman who has AB-type blood, an A-type man makes the best match with you, but an O-type man is worst nightmare..."
"You have a character that is suitable for B-type blood, but mine is not A-type-like..."
People always have such conversations. There were even some companies which employed only persons who had a certain blood-type. (Perhaps, that system must have been abolished.) Psychologist TAKEJI FURUKAWA pointed out the relationship of blood-type and personality on his book published in 1932. Although FURUKAWA's opinion had been forgotten for long, writer MASAHIKO NOMI spread the character judging by blood type with his several books in the 1970s. The NOMI's books based on the theory of FURUKAWA. Now blood-type has been featured in various media.
(Though the most general "ABO classification" is frequently referenced, the other classification like "Rh classification" are seldom mentioned. )
However, the relationship between blood type and personality has not been proved scientifically. The people who affirm the theory always assert that the theory was based on the result of statistics. But, it may be already impossible to get completely fair statistics about blood type in present Japan. Because the belief of the theory is spread too much among the people, the result of investigation will have a bias.
I personally think that our personality must not be related to our blood type. It is foolish that people are going to bring their characters close to suitable for their blood types.
Are you cooperative? Are you aggressive? Do you have rich facial expression?
How can we judge such matters about ourselves? Or are these matters should be judged by others? And should they be called "personality"?
I don't feel like concluding my or others' character too easily. That is probably because I have A-type blood and am introspective...
July 20, 2004 in Customs | Permalink | Comments (352) | TrackBack
Who is Yakamoto?
Let me talk about movies again...
A person named 'Yakamoto' often appears on Hollywood or UK movies. This IMDB search result is not enough because I heard the name on other movies and TV shows like Minority Report and Monty Python. I know Yakamoto is one of the sounds-like-Japanese surname which is frequently used, but actually, there is no one named 'Yakamoto' in Japan.
I heard that the first appearance of a Yakamoto person might be on the 1950s British radio program 'The Goon Show'. Mr. Yakamoto seems to had been portrayed as various stereotype Japanese morons on the show. I don't know the detail, though.
Then, if you are a movie writer (or any kind of fiction writer) and you need a reality for your work, you would rather name your Japanese characters as follows.
SATO, SUZUKI, TAKAHASHI, TANAKA, WATANABE, YAMAMOTO
These are the top 6 of most popular surnames in Japan. As for the first name, HIROSHI, TAKASHI, AKIRA are men's and KEIKO, YOSHIKO, YOKO are female's top 3.
July 18, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack
Added in Translation
I hope I could watch the foreign movies without Japanese subtitles someday... It seems to be a long way. But I sometimes realize the difference of feeling between the original English dialogues and its subtitles. (Yeah, very very rarely...)
As for comedy movies, though the translator of subtitles always make their efforts to translate various kind of gags, it cannot say that all the efforts bear fruit.
'Rat Race' is one of my favourite, and I especially love this episode. Whoopi Goldberg and her daughter, Lanei Chapman asked a woman (Kathy Bates), who was selling squirrels on the road side, the way to Interstate. Kathy urged Whoopi and Lanei to buy her squirrel but they declined it. Then Kathy told them the shortcut way. When they were driving along it, the road dead-ended suddenly. And during slipping down the cliff, they read a signboard saying...
"You should have bought a squirrel"
Already many weathered cars had been piled up on the bottom of the valley... Funny, isn't it? The madness of Kathy's role reminded me her another movie 'Misery'.
But the Japanese subtitle for that signboard said like this...
"It's all your fault, it serves you right! by squirrel"
I think that the translator thought this was easier to understand that gag, but it seems to be little bit wordy. More simple translation might have been enough. Too much explanation always destroys a joke.
July 15, 2004 in Language | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack
DA-JA-RE
Among Japanese people, humor had been thought not to be important for a long time. For example, the MANGA, which became to be well-known over the world, had been despised by many domestic people until about 20 years ago. Only a seriousness was considered as a virtue, and the persons who like joking were regarded as useless. However, the persons with the capability of making people laugh have got popularity after the 1980s. Some of MANGA creators have became billionaires, and a number of comedians are appearing on TV all day long. In order to be liked by others, people have come to express positively that they understand humor. But, I think that the quality of Japanese humor has not improved so much.
Men of middle age in Japan, "OYAJI", love puns. Since the puns are too boring in many cases, the people who heard that are very embarrassed, but the OYAJI who said that are always satisfied. In Japan, a pun is called "SHA-RE". SHA-RE has also the meaning of "being tasteful or witty". The puns of OYAJI are called "DA-JA-RE" ...SHA-RE attached with prefix "DA" which means being boring.
This is a example of DA-JA-RE.
"Coordinate WA KOU-DE-NEETO!" (The coordinate should be like this.)
Since "KOU-DE-NEETO" (should be like this) is pronounced just like "coordinate", some people (OYAJI) think it's funny. But it's not funny at all for the others. (BTW, The word 'coodinate' is mainly used in a meaning of "combination of clothes" in Japan. I don't know why, though.)
Some Japanese people understand a high level humor, which are tasteful, satirical, and not too vulgar. But, all other people cannot react to jokes which the "punch line" is not clearly shown. Some people love puns because they mistake "success of playing on words" for "being funny". Though people are always wanting to laugh and make others laugh, they don't know what is funny and what is not. They are only searching for the point where they should laugh at. If you come to Japan and watch TV programs, you will be surprised in the subtitles being continuously shown on the TV screen. They are quoting "the spot that you have to laugh at" from the performers speaking. It is for the humorless people to realize something funny is on TV.
I think not all people have humor, and I don't think all people should have humor. I cannot stand only that the humorless people are going to make the others laugh with their tasteless joke.
...And judging from taking humor seriously like this, I also may be one of the humorless person.
July 14, 2004 in Language | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack
Lost or Not in Translation
Japanese movie distributors sometimes change the titles of foreign movies which they imported. The following are examples of translated titles classified by patterns of translation.
1) The titles which were replaced by familiar English words.
| Original titles | Japanese titles |
|---|---|
| Legally Blonde | Cutie Blonde |
| Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon | Green Destiny |
| Where the Money Is | Get a Chance! |
| AntiTrust | Surveillance |
| Riding in Cars with Boys | Thank You, Boys |
| 3000 Miles to Graceland | Scorpion |
| The Man Who Wasn't There | Barber |
| What's the Worst That Could Happen? | Big Money |
| The Crew | Miami Guys |
| Billy Elliot | Little Dancer |
| Shadow Conspiracy | The Target |
| Strictly Ballroom | Dancing Hero |
| Curdled | Fetish |
| Single White Female | Roommate |
| Look, Who's Talking | Baby Talk |
2) The titles in Japanese, which are made to be easy to imagine the story of the movies.
| Original titles | Japanese titles |
|---|---|
| Me, Myself & Irene | FUTARI NO OTOKO TO HITORI NO ONNA (Two Men and a Woman) |
| Bedazzled | WARUI KOTO SHIMASYO! (Let's Do a Naughty Thing!) |
| Spellbound | SIROI KYOHFU (White Fear) |
| Sixteen Candles | SUTEKI NA KATAOMOI (Nice One-sided Love Affair) |
| Zapped! | CHONORYOKU-GAKUEN Z (Psychic School Z) |
| Short Time | TENGOKU NI IKENAI PAPA (Daddy Who Cannot Go To Heaven) |
| Death Becomes Her | EIEN NI UTSUKUSHIKU... (Be Beautiful Forever...) |
| Coming to America | HOSHI NO OHJI New York NI YUKU (The Star Prince Goes to New York) |
| Notting Hill | Notting Hill NO KOIBITO (Lover in Notting Hill) |
| Being John Malkovich | Malkovich NO ANA (The Hole of Malkovich) |
| Close Encounters of the Third Kind | MICHI TONO SOHGU (Encounter with Strangeness) |
| Sleepless in Seattle | MEGURI AETARA (If I Can Meet You) |
| 2001: A Space Odyssey | 2001NEN UCHU NO TABI (Space Journey in 2001) |
| A Hard Days Night | Beatles GA YATTEKURU Yah Yah Yah (Beatles Comes up Yah Yah Yah) |
| The Thing | YUSEI KARANO BUTTAI-X (Object X from Planet) |
| Raising Arizona | AKACHAN DOROBO (Stealing the Baby) |
3) The titles in Japanese, which are used by literary expression of the impression of the movies.
| Original titles | Japanese titles |
|---|---|
| Almost Famous | ANO KORO Penny Lane TO (That Time with Penny Lane) |
| Shallow Hal | ITOSHI NO Rosemary (Darling Rosemary) |
| Someone Like You... | KOI SURU IDENSHI (Gene in Love) |
| Scary Movie | SAISYU-ZEKKYO-KEIKAKU (The Last Scream Plan) |
| Finding Forrester | SYOSETSUKA WO MITSUKETARA (If You Find a Novelist) |
| Apocalypse Now | JIGOKU NO MOKUSHIROKU (Revelation of Hell) |
| An Officer and a Gentleman | AI TO SEISYUN NO TABIDACHI (Start of Journey through Love and Youth) |
| Dead Poets Society | IMA WO IKIRU (Living on Now) |
| How to Steal a Million | OSYARE DOROBO (Chic Thief) |
| Stealing Home | KIMI GA ITA NATSU (The Summer You Were Here) |
| Basic Instinct | KOHRI NO BISYO (Smile of Ice) |
| Cry Freedom | TOHI YOAKI (The Far Daybreak) |
| The Secret of My Succe$s | New York WA BARAIRO NI (New York Goes to Be Rose Color) |
| Awakenings | Leonard NO ASA (Leonard's Morning) |
| Texas chainsaw massacre | AKUMA NO IKENIE (Sacrifice of Devil) |
4) The titles which fake as the sequel (or spinoff) to other hit movies.
| Original titles | Japanese titles |
|---|---|
| Runaway Bride | Pretty Bride |
| Say It Isn't So | Gilly WA KUBITTAKE (Gilly Is All in All to) |
| Per un pugno di dollari (A Fistful of Dollars) | KOYA NO YOJINBO (Bouncer in Wilderness) |
| Django | ZOKU KOYA NO YOJINBO (Bouncer in Wilderness Part2) |
| Pagó cara su muerte (Death Knows No Time) | SIN KOYA NO YOJINBO (Bouncer in Wilderness Part3) |
| Every Which Way But Loose | Dirty Fighter |
| Trial and Error | Mr. Dumber 2 1/2 (Mr. Dumber 2 1/2) |
5) The titles which were put in very weird way.
| Original titles | Japanese titles |
|---|---|
| Don't Say a Word | Sound of Silence |
| Miss Congeniality | Dangerous Beauty |
| Bring It On | Cheers! |
| On Deadly Ground | CHINMOKU NO YOUSAI (Fortress of Silence) |
| Under Siege | CHINMOKU NO SENKAN (Battleship of Silence) |
| Fire Down Below | CHINMOKU NO DANGAI (Cliff of Silence) |
| Ticker | CHINMOKU NO Terrorist (Terrorist of Silence) |
July 10, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack
Corrupted Newspaper #1
YOMIURI is the world's most sold newspaper recognized by Guinness Book of Records and has the circulation of 10 million copies. ASAHI, MAINICHI, NIKKEI, SANKEI... Every national paper of Japan is published more than any newspaper of the other countries. But, it does not mean that they have a good quality. It's because of the weird selling system of Japanese newspaper.
In Japan, 93% of whole newspaper are provided by the delivery service. The newspaper publishing companies do not deliver directly to the customers, but they have entrusted the distribution to the delivery agents. The delivery agents are not the subsidiaries of the publishers but the independent companies. A contract made between the publishers and the agents is quite unfair. Since usually one delivery agent must contract with only one publisher, one agent hardly delivers the newspaper of two or more different publishers. The newspaper publishers can unilaterally cancel the contract with their delivery agents. Therefore, in order to continue the contract, the agents have to be a slave to the publishers. The delivery agents also are entrusted with collecting the charge for delivery and extending the customers. The publishers supply the newspaper of required number of copies for every agents, and the agents deliver them to each household. In once a month, the agents collect the charge from the customers, and pay the wholesale price to the publishers. It may be no problem.
But, the publishers have forced many newspapers on the agents rather than actually delivered, and have padded their circulation number according to get many advertisers. So the agents must pay the publishers much more than profits recoverable by the delivery. This is the "OSHIGAMI (the pushed paper)" which poses a problem. Journalist TETSUYA KUROYABU said that 40% of the circulation number of a certain newspaper is the OSHIGAMI. In short, most circulation number of the national papers of Japan are lies.
The many advertisement fliers are inserted into the newspaper which are delivered in Japan. The advertisers of the fliers pay the commission for delivery to the delivery agents. Though this is a net profit of the agents, sometimes they have to use this for the payment of the OSHIGAMI. If it's still insufficient, the agents reduce the remuneration of their employees. The newspaper carriers are forced to work hard for cheap wages. There are many bankrupt agents which could not pay for their OSHIGAMI and were fired out by the publishers. Though some agents prosecuted the publishers which canceled the contract because of the OSHIGAMI, there is still no agent who won these cases.
First of all, the publishers should be charged with fraud since they have deceived their advertisers by faking their circulation. If this crime is accepted, the amount of frauds must be larger than any before. But, since the police agency and the prosecutors have collude with the newspaper publishers, they never prosecute this case. (I'll explain this later) And naturally, since the newspaper publishers cannot report about the OSHIGAMI, many of people not know about it and trust the newspaper blindly.
Where have the OSHIGAMI gone? These surplus newspapers are usually used as recycled paper. But 50% of the paper material of the newspaper is made of virgin pulp. So the newspaper publishers have taken part in the environmental destruction. I think they have no right to criticize anyone from the position of social justice at all!
Then, why do other mass media not mention this? How is TV? Though regrettable, hope does not exist because all the major commercial TV stations in Japan are owned by the newspaper publishers.
I really hate Japanese newspaper.
July 2, 2004 in Culture | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack
