TALKING HEADS

In Japan, at Zen temples I have experienced school-girl groups with their query-the-foreigner English assignments when all I wanted was to focus on my self-inititated talk-to-inner-buddha assignment. It instigated my realization that the gaggle of school girls well reflected the gaggle of rushing thoughts I had inside. When the ten-headed mass passed on downhill, I was able to focus more on the attempt at single-mindedness.

Somewhere Henry James the Elder said (in 1883) that, "The visible world is but man turned inside out that he may be revealed to himself." If that's true, then perhaps I am but a squalling multi-cephalic mass of protoplasm walking the Zen temple of life.

If asked, I'll answer in my best English.

JAPAN AND WHALING

The government of Japan does not stop Japanese whaling for several reasons. First, there is no domestic constituency that can pressure the Government of Japan to end whaling. This is partly due to a weak Japanese environmental movement. Most Japanese see environmental problems in terms of air and water pollution and have little awareness of animal rights. They also equate harvesting whales to the cattle industry.

Second, the government of Japan is vitally concerned with protecting its rights to global resources, especially those of the oceans, from which Japan gets about 40% of its food. Without considerable international economic pressure to its economic interests, it will never change its whaling policies, even with the anti-whaling diplomacy of the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand through the IWC (International Whaling Commission).

Third, the Japanese whaling industry is a significant part of the politically powerful Japanese fishing industry. As I explained above, in terms of diet and environmental attitudes, the Japanese people do not support, or even understand anti-whaling sentiment, which, in any case, is not reported in the Japanese press. (I am just returned from eight days in Japan.)

When I first heard that some schools in Japan were trying to feed whale meat to Japanese school children, I thought surely not, but then I found the following 2005 article from BBC News about that very practice: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4106688.stm So, the campagn is unfortunately true. The article makes the point that whaling is not important to the average Japanese, thus there might be hope that they can be reached with the anti-whaling message.

If diplomatic pressure is not working; if the confrontational direct actions of Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd are not working; then boycotting Japanese products is probably the only hope. But, it would have to be so massive that it would enter the civic dialogue in Japanese society. Right now, this is not happening; and, powerful forces are at work to prevent the message from affecting the government of Japan and reaching the Japanese people. It will have to be a message sufficiently powerful to shake the table on which Japanese eat.

HAIKU--BALANCED BUDDHA

Composed at Buddhist temple, Kyoto, summer 2002.

Quiet, still statue
People walk chattering by
--Balanced Buddha sits

HAIKU--CROWS SQUAWK OVER SILENT MOSS

Composed in Zen temple garden, Kyoto, summer 2002.

Crows squawk overhead
Noisily talk: the students
--Wet moss lies silent

DEATH FROM OVERWORK

Death from overwork in Japan is called karoshi. I sometimes have my students read an article about a Japanese man who worked without a single day off for a whole year and collapsed and later died. The news angle of the article is that his family did not receive death benefits because he had not waited the required three days before dying! Yes, the labor laws in Japan require that before a death can be classified as karoshi, the death cannot occur before three days after the onset of the illness. In other words, no deaths are so classified that occur while actually at the work site or within the three days.

The main point I present to my students is that if a society recognizes a situation in its national vocabulary and labor laws, then it must be a problem and must occur in great numbers (or is thought to).

A larger point is the acknowledged dedication of Japanese workers. A salaryman (the Japanese word) will work long hours and neglect his family. This is a contributing factor to the drastic decline in the Japanese birthrate: Increasing numbers of Japanese women do not marry.

Interesting how social problems are interrelated.