Wedding

Last Saturday, I went to Tokyo because my oldest sister celebrated a wedding. It was the first time for me to join a wedding. So I was really looking forward to the wedding.

We went to Omote-sando where the wedding was going to be held. I had not been there before and I did not know about there. So I was surprised at the dense crowd. It was not to be compared to the crowd in Osaka, I thought. I don't like to walk through the crowd, so I was exhausted when I got to the hall. (A picture of OMOTE SANDO HILLS)

However, as soon as the wedding started I forgot tiredness and I was impressed by my sister because she wore a beutiful white dress and she was mede up beutifully. At the wedding reception, we had some events like watching movies about historis of bride and groom and film about ho they met and decide to get married. The latter fiml was made to imitate Ainori which is a Japanese romantic TV program and the film was so amusing.

I enjoyed the wedding, but I thought my family, my sister and her husband were very very busy both at the wedding and before the wedding. They had many things to do like addressing the people who came to the wedding, remembering the procession of the wedding and preparing things for the wedding. So arrangement for the wedding took about one year.

Anyway, it was very good wedding.

Response to a letter, "Common protection and control"

Today, I write a response to this letter, “Common protection and control”. This letter talks about fingerprint and photograph of foreigners arriving at Japanese air ports.

First, the author of the letter, Hideo Kaito, talks about a purpose of fingerprint and photograph of foreigners. He says that the measure is not carried out to violate human rights and discriminate certain groups of people, but to protect people from danger. This statement is used to impress a good image of the measure on people. Also this statement says that people who are bothered are only people having done or are going to do something wrong, so it emphasizes that general people have no reason to care the measure.

At the last paragraph, he talks about common security and self-sacrifice. He insists that people have to sacrifice their some freedoms and rights in order to maintain common security. To say the statement, he asks people that which is more important whether personal rights or safety for people around the world. It is a question style, but he does not intend to give choice. He forces people to choose latter one because no one can invade a right of saving life of others’.

Response to an article about fingerprinting

Today I will write a response to an article, “Not so welcome to Japan any longer”, written by Kevin Rafferty.

The article says that Japan introduces a measure of fingerprinting and taking pictures of every foreigner who came to Japan so as to protect Japan from terrorists. However, the author of the article, Kevin Rafferty, says that the measure is a violation of human rights and nonsense, so he insists that Japanese government has to discuss the measure thoughtfully again.

I do not think that fingerprinting is a violation of basic human rights and a meaningless measure. Fingerprinting just saves life of Japanese and, of course, foreigners to remove dangers. There is no reason your rights are violated. The government says that the measure protects people from terrorists, but it can remove other dangers like murder, theft or traffic committed by foreigners because police can find criminals or suspects easier.

Discrimination in Japan

I think that Chinese are discriminated against in Japan.

Of course, Japanese like Chinese food, actors, and sightseeing. Japanese also need the power of making products of China so as to make profit and supply cheaper products to consumers. The relationships between Japan and China should be good, but Japanese have negative images of Chinese.

First, Chinese make fakes and sell them far cheaper than genuine products. It annoys not only Japanese, but also people living in other countries whose products were copied. This is a big problem for other countries because fakes decrease profit genuine products are supposed to make.

Second, it is said that Chinese are so rude. TV programs broad cast how rude they are. For example, they ignore a line of people waiting something and cut in it, or they spit wherever they want.

As Mike Dewood who wrote this response said, it depends on the place which groups are discriminated, and I agree with him because discrimination relates to history and culture of place and people. However, talking about Chinese, the negative images of Chinese are well known to many Japanese because mass media spread them openly.

I have not seen such situation that Japanese throw stones to or swear at Chinese, but I have seen an indirect discrimination that some Japanese frown and step away from Chinese when the Japanese notice they are Chinese, probably judging by their language.

To conclude, I think Chinese people are discriminated in Japan although it is indirect way.