Jason’s Random Thoughts

Young people and tech-savvy buyers across Japan are breathing a sigh of relief as yet another proposed Digital Copyright Tax fails to make the grade. Consumers cheered and celebrated by running to the nearest electronics store to grab the latest Sony digital device or Apple iPod, proclaiming loudly that any attempt to tax them on digital media would be doomed to fail as governments cannot regulate what they neither control or understand.

Wait … that’s not right. This is Japan. People don’t pay attention to proposed taxes, un-clear regulatory practices, or “alternative sources for media”.

The legislation dubbed as the iPod Tax has been kicked around for years and would allow anywhere from 1-3% of a digital recording device go to recording companies, artists and song writers. Exactly who would get the lion’s share of the revenue, and how it would be distributed was not discussed, which likely means that the government wasn’t clear whether they should follow the same practices they have on the sale of blank CDs and DVDs, or create something “uniquely Japanese” to go along with just about everything else that happens in the House of Representatives.

Oddly enough, one of the reasons this tax failed was because the people responsible for putting the legislation together, the Agency for Cultural Affairs, could not come to an agreement with electronics manufacturers. They had hoped to put a tax only on portable digital music players, but the electronics manufacturers argued that more equipment could be added as a source for royalties. Older devices, such as MiniDisc players, DVD recorders and VCRs are already subject to copyright fees in this country.

It seems that politicians weren’t willing to add additional devices not because they were worried about the impact from consumers, who often don’t realize just how many taxes they’re paying on electronics equipment, but because they were completely unaware these other recording and playback machines existed.

Why This Tax Shouldn’t Be Implemented

To be completely honest, I’m surprised that the government even looked at implementing this tax. Sure, it was initiated and pushed for by the record industry but, in a country where everybody follows the rules, is it really necessary to put more taxes and paperwork into something?

I’ve asked over a hundred people in several prefectures from the ages of 15 to 65 whether they download music, software, movies or TV shows from the internet. A remarkable 97% of the people replied with “you can download movies and TV shows?”

Perhaps it’s just the people I talk to, but many of the individuals I’ve had the opportunity to discuss this topic with neither download music illegally, use P2P software, or use the internet for anything more than search, email and Mixi. To think that record labels need to be reimbursed for the miniscule amount of theft by taxing 100% of the population is more than a little crazy … it’s ludicrous.

Luckily the residents and visitors of Japan have been granted a small reprieve from the incessant taxation we’re subject to. If only we could do something about the Provisional Gas Tax.

What do you think of taxing digital players and recorders to “recover losses” by the various industries? Is this a realistic way to compensate artists, creators and companies?

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It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Doraemon. Although I was born just a few days before the first episode of the anime was aired, and was completely oblivious to the futuristic feline’s existence for the next two decades, the ever-resourceful blue cat won a place in my heart that’s sure to stay with me for the rest of my life. Why? Because, for those who are down on their luck, Doraemon is just what the doctor ordered.

This was certainly the case this past weekend as Japan’s Cultural Ambassador traveled to the Nonthaburi Province in central Thailand to bring cheer to underprivileged children at a welfare centre on Sunday. Meeting close to 200 orphans and mentally challenged children, Doraemon shared some of his favourite Dora-yaki snacks and said “Boku, Doraemon” more times than one might think necessary. Nobita was nowhere to be found, but I’m sure Doraemon was better off leaving his clumsy friend in Tokyo.

Japan Needs This Cultural Ambassador

Doraemon was appointed as Japan’s Cultural Ambassador last year at a ceremony by the Foreign Ministry. Since then, the 元気ねこ (energetic cat) has made several appearances around Asia in an attempt to foster better communication with other countries and brought a glimmer of happiness to those who might not enjoy the same luxuries many of us take for granted.

This comes at an opportune time, as Japan has taken a political beating in recent decades for everything from poor leadership to whale hunting to having four distinct writing systems. And this is just the stuff we’ve heard about this week! So, by visiting those in need and bringing just a few minutes of childish joy to a group of young people doomed to a life of poverty, Japan is saying “we haven’t forgotten about you.”

It’s an absolute certainty that we’ll see Doraemon visit more places in the near future and, hopefully, he’ll be given some leave to pull a wad of cash or a carton of textbooks out of his pocket. Just because the people he visits are considered underprivileged doesn’t mean they need to stay that way.

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Nick over at RomanDock recently wrote a post discussing the importance of headlines, and decided to hand a few of them out in an effort to get some discussion going, as well as encourage some of the more silent sites to begin posting again. I’ll admit that I’m a bit tardy with this post, but it’s better late than never, right Nick?

My assignment was to write about the 26 reasons I should have stayed in Canada and, being the obtuse Canadian I am, I decided to have a little fun with the article. While everything I’ve written about here is at least 1% accurate, it’s all said in jest. I’ll admit that there are some aspects of Japan I occasionally find frustrating, but I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.

So, without further delay, on with the list!

The Twenty-Six Reasons I Should Have Stayed In Canada are:

Zillions of Rules - Who knew that you could kill a business deal by offering a business card incorrectly? Who knew men shouldn’t press any buttons in an elevator if a woman is present? Who knew there was a wrong way to hand somebody a glass of beer? There seems to be an endless number of social rules and expectations that are not written in any text I’ve read.

Young ’til 30 - A 29 year-old woman in Japan can act like a 14 year-old right up until thirty (and sometimes longer). If this were to happen in Canada, they’d be walked on by every person around them and treated like an object by most every man they meet. It’s one thing to act younger than one’s age, but it’s another to portray innocence for too long.

X-Mas - Christmas in Japan seems to lack almost everything that makes the season so special in North America. Sure, everyone goes shopping and the endless parade of archaic Christmas music permeates the malls shortly before Hallowe’en, but where is the parking lot rage? Where is the mad dash and fist-fights at the toy store? Where are the aggressive Santas who accost city dwellers at every opportunity to collect coins for those in need? People are stressed at this time of year, but not because of shopping. And everyone knows that Christmas isn’t Christmas until somebody dies at a toy store after provoking the wrong parent.

Want to Be Friends? - Regardless of where I go, I can’t escape the lonely foreigners who spot me in a crowd and instantly try to start a conversation as though we’ve known each other for years. It’s gotten to the point where I actually respond in French with “Je suis désolé, je ne parle pas anglais” (I don’t speak English). I have nothing against people who want to chat, but when it’s the same questions over and over, enough is enough.

Vehicles Look Unsafe - In North America, cars are big and tend to look safe. We can see lots of horrible accidents where the crumple-zones of the vehicle have served their purpose and saved lives. Japanese cars, however, seem to be death traps waiting to metamorphosize from ‘mode of transportation’ to ‘coffin’.

Uniqueness Frowned Upon, Unless It’s “Style” - Even if we can program a PDA to fly the space shuttle remotely, we’re not permitted to use any of our skills or unique insights at our day job. Good thing we can at least try to blend in with big hair, loud clothes and gawdy sunglasses.

Television Is Weird - I recently wrote about Japan’s lack of breakfast cereal commercials and, rather than simply accept that the typical diet of Japan’s youth differs from what I’ve come to expect in my home country, I’ll just call it a deficiency and leave it at that. Oh, and game shows that regularily quiz people on the written language are just crazy … it’s like asking someone to decode binary to the roman alphabet.

Subway Traffic - Taking the subway in Japan is just as much an exercise in patience as it is a means of travel. How one avoids punching an oblivious school girl in the back of the head for obstructing more than one exit gate is a skill I’ve yet to master. (Note: No school girls have been punched in the back of the head as of this post)

Rental Fees - Why is it that it’s more expensive to rent a house than buy a car in Japan? Key money, security deposit, agency fees, consideration fees … All of this is in addition to first and last month’s rent! I had less trouble borrowing $20,000 from the bank to pay my tuition in 1997 than I did renting a home in Japan.

Quality Products - Why is it that if I buy something in this country, it will last for twice as long as the Canadian-sold equivalent? How am I expected to stay on the bleeding edge of technology if my current equipment just won’t stop working?

Printer Ink - ¥1200 for a new Canon ink cartridge? Are you nuts? If the replacement ink isn’t half the price of a new printer, then I have nothing to complain about. If I can’t air a grievance about an unfair price gouging practice, then why should I offer any sort of customer loyalty?

Overtime Is Mandatory - It’s bad enough we’re forced to take an expensive medical examination every year just to keep our jobs. Why complicate things with mandatory OT? That said, it wouldn’t be so bad if it was paid OT.

Natto - A fermented bean “treat” that looks like some unholy mixture of mucus and spider eggs. We’re expected to put this in our rice? No thank you.

Mandatory Retirement Age - Why are companies expected to force out employees once they hit the big six-oh? If I want to work with a reasonable salary until I’m 95, I should have the option!

Long Working Hours - Companies in Japan will expect about 12 hours of work for the price of 7, and God help you if you’re on salary. To add insult to injury, “flex time” in this country does not mean you do your 8 hours whenever you like, but instead you do your expected extra hours outside of the mandatory 8 am - 6 pm schedule.

Kanji - 危険！これで人が殺せるよ！ means “Danger! This could kill you!” Need I say more?

J-Pop “Fashion” Trends - Explain to me how women’s clothing, which is far less substantial than men’s clothing, can be successfully sold for ridiculous amounts of money while simultaneously making the high-spending fashion-chic individual look about as classy as a 5 yen coin. Every year the artists wear less, and every year the price goes up.

Interac - Why is cash the only payment option in this country? You’d think that Japan, a nation that carries an image of cutting edge technology adoption and consumption, would allow things like payment by bank card.

Honest Thieves - In Canada, you knew when you were being price gouged. However, it seems that determining the “true cost” of something to see if we’re being scammed is next to impossible.

Girls Were Girls - If you see a gorgeous woman in a red dress from behind in Vancouver, chances are you’re actually seeing a gorgeous woman in a red dress. This is not always the case in Japan.

Fat Is Uncool - When I left Ontario, I weighed 242 lbs. In Vancouver I averaged 192 near the end. However, to be so heavy in Japan is just uncool. How can I enjoy excessive quantities of potato chips, pastas, cakes, breads and red meat if I can’t maintain the girth necessary to store the food for extended periods?

Elevator Customs - Men don’t touch the controls if a woman is present. Women stand near the controls, and are the last to leave. Extended conversations are frowned upon, even in whispers. It’s 1920 all over again.

Donarudo Maku-Donarudo - Or “Ronald McDonald” as he’s known outside Japan. The red-haired Michael Jackson wannabe is nothing more than an annoying ceramic fixture in Canada. However, seeing this failed mime in Japan is a regular occurrence. The company should learn that clowns aren’t cool and replace him with someone more appropriate; Dr. Nick, comes to mind.

Cheese! - My God, I miss cheese. One of my sinful indulgences while living in Canada was consuming 200 grams of high quality cheddar, marble, or edem cheese while playing video games. No such luck in this country.

Baseball Shouldn’t Be Fun - When was the last time you went to a major league ball game in North America? I love the sport, but I’ve come to love it as a 4 hour ordeal involving unhealthy amounts of patience, deep pockets and having the obvious tedium of the game interspersed with a few seconds of action. In Japan, every inning is as exciting as the last, and great seats can be had for a minimal cash outlay. How dare they!

Asian Women Are Gorgeous - I am a married man and, as such, I (technically) shouldn’t be looking at the opposite sex unless I’m looking at my wife. In Canada, this was a relatively simple task as only 40% of the population was Asian, and only 60% of those were female. The ratio is a little different in Japan.

So there you have it. Twenty-six reasons I should have stayed in Canada. While some of these issues are more important than others, they’ve all played a role in my life.

Have I missed anything? Is anything glaringly incorrect? What keeps you in the land of the rising sun?

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The use of foreign workers in any nation is often a touchy subject, eliciting a population’s fear of losing jobs to people who will often work for much less money than a regular citizen. However, using foreign workers to the nation’s best interests is an important task and should be handled properly by any government who is seeking to sustain growth and vitality amid declining birth-rates, a shrinking labour force, and ageing society.

Prime Minister Fukuda established yet another panel last month in an effort to study how Japan can accept more foreign workers with specialized skills and knowledge. Reporting to the chief cabinet secretary, these experts are expected to find ways the country can make itself more appealing to the better educated. Whether this exercise will bear any fruit, however, is yet to be seen.

For the moment, Japan does not technically allow the entry of unskilled foreign labourers, but has a very streamlined (a.k.a. Requiring less than 8 kanji-heavy documents to complete) process for accepting highly skilled people. That said, despite this paperwork concession, it’s often difficult to draw the world’s best and brightest to a nation that is known to treat its foreign workers very differently than the citizenry.

As of January 2008, there were 2,152,973 foreigners registered in Japan. While many seem to be here on a spousal or educational visa, about 158,000 were given resident status as researchers, engineers, teachers (language instructors not included) and other professionals. However, only half of these people are employed with 30 or more hours per week, and a piddly 5% are employed at one of Japan’s major organizations.

Non-Japanese people tend to have difficulties in getting promoted at Japanese corporations and research institutes. This isn’t due to language barriers, either. Many people who have invested years studying proper use of Japanese often find themselves looked over when it comes time to move up a rank. This glass ceiling is often a huge problem for highly motivated and driven individuals with great educations and ambition. It’s no wonder that after a few years of working in Japan, many transfer or move to Europe and North America to earn more respect and responsibility.

To solidify the country’s international competitiveness, the government panel must establish a functional, two-way, collaborative relationship with both industry and academia to attract people to the nation. On top of this, implementation of measures to help foreign students find work in this nation should be made a priority. For these reasons, Tokyo should consider expanding the list of conditions where foreigners can be granted residence in the country.

Paper vs. Sweat

I’ve discussed some of the reasons Japan should accept more skilled workers to the nation, but it’s also important to examine some of the problems with accepting too many unskilled workers. Contrary to popular belief (and government policy), a large number of non-Japanese are working in the agricultural, manufacturing and construction industries. These are often foreign nationals with Japanese ancestry and trainees who come under the guise of the “foreign trainee system,” which was created to foster international co-operation.

The foreign trainee system has been little more than a loophole for many employers who wish to bring in lots of labourers who will work ridiculous hours for illegally-low wages. Naturally, this needs to be stopped and should be followed up with measures to reform the system.

Marketing Meets Muddled Mindsets

Very few highly skilled foreign nationals will come to Japan if companies continue to follow the status quo. They will never consider Japan to be an option if their perceived careers entail working on a minimal salary like a pyramid-building slave, only to be discarded at will.

Japan imports thousands of care workers from Indonesia and the Philippines under bilateral economic partnership agreements. And, considering the aging population, these people should be nurtured carefully as they will be the ones to provide the vital medical and welfare services this nation needs.

That said, there are some people who are pushing to establish a system to accept unskilled foreign workers in an effort to ramp up production at factories and processing plants. Hidenao Nakagawa, the former Secretary General, is just one example.

Of course, like we see in other nations with high immigration numbers, the population is expressing some concerns with the number of foreigners coming in to the nation. They argue this measure will reduce the employment opportunities for Japanese citizens, which could instill some “social discontent.”

Suffice to say, the topic is only lightly discussed in the halls of power. The Prime Minister should aim to encourage deeper discussion on the matter and provide a clear direction on how the country should handle its worker shortage, as well as how Japan should attract intelligent foreign workers.

What’s your take on the foreign situation in this country? Should Japan just follow the same route until there aren’t enough Japanese people left to do the work? Is it a good idea to change the corporate culture to help reduce or eliminate the glass ceiling?

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Politics, it seems, is much like the WWE. Ministers change sides, fight, grand stand and beat each other with (metaphorical) chairs in an endless drama with the same type of ebbs and flows one expects to see in a daytime soap opera. Regardless of nation, the issues are essentially the same. Japan is no exception.

Since winning the majority of the upper house in January, the leader of the opposition, Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, has gone from a man I thought would be a catalyst for change, to being a selfish little baby who gives little regard to Japan as a nation and the role we’re expected to play internationally. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, on the other hand, has gone from a soft spoken man with no real political agenda to a fired up individual who, on the surface, seriously wants to accomplish the promises he made to the party last year.

Abandoning his usual style of quiet indignation, Prime Minister Fukuda went on the offensive during Wednesday’s session of question-time. During the 45-minute debate with opposition leader Ozawa, Fukuda repeatedly used his answers to criticize the Democratic Party of Japan.

Ozawa, who was unaccustomed to but welcomed the challenge, reiterated his opinions despite their growing unpopularity. The confrontational atmosphere is growing ahead of the coming battle over the provisional higher gasoline tax, and it’s great to see the Prime Minister is willing to fight for what he believes to be worthy goals.

“I Have A Lot More Things I Want To Say To You” - Prime Minister Fukuda

The Japanese Prime Minister grilled his main opposition for most of the question period, demanding justification for the rejection of three Bank of Japan Governor nominees, the provisional gas tax, and the political deadlock in the Parliament.

Ozawa insisted the government and ruling camp were responsible for the political impasses that have recently plagued Tokyo, to which the PM fired back “I’m having a frustratingly difficult time in dealing with the Diet.” Even after the Diet session, Fukuda was still openly aggrivated by the DPJ president, telling reporters that he wasn’t convinced of anything his opponent said.

This Is How It Should Be

It’s about time that the Japanese Prime Minister dropped his mild-mannerisms and assumed a stronger role. The leader of a major economic power should not be seen as a meek individual, or at the mercy of those who hold lower offices. This isn’t to say that the Prime Minister should have dictatorial powers, but instead should have a strong vision of the future with the passion to make those ideas become reality. In the world of politics, very little has been accomplished by asking nicely.

In less than 90 days the G8 summit meeting will be held in Hokkaido and, as the host nation, Japan cannot come to the table with a leader unable to make committments for fear of another Diet impasse. If there is any doubt in the leadership from the other seven members of this exclusive economics club, the consequences for this country could be dire. To that end, it would be in Japan’s best interest if opposition leader Ozawa would keep his mouth shut for a few months.

Of course, knowing Ozawa, he’ll be back on the offensive when the Prime Minister returns from France next week.

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