Saturday, February 15, 2014

"spoken by the prophet Joel" - Still Corporate Japan?





Tokyo Suburb Railroad Line after Snowing 


Still Corporate Japan?

Recently The Nihon Keizai Shimbun conducted an image (favorite rating) survey on businesses in Japan.

The Top 10 are as follows:

1  Toyota Motor
2  Google
3  Honda
4  Uniqlo
5  Suntry
6  Japan Coca Cola
7  Kirin Beverage Corporation
8  Apple Japan
9  Nissan Motor
10 Sony 

Among top 10, auto manufacturers take three positions.  Another three are of alcoholic/soft drink makers.  And the IT industry has also three entries.  The rest is an apparel maker.

So, Japanese today have a life style of working in a car related business, using the Internet, drinking something cool, and wearing fashionable clothes.

However, a business magazine, The Toyo Keizai, reported ranking of Japanese companies in terms of their ability as a corporate.

1  INPEX (oil developer)
2  FANUC (robotics)
3  Yahoo
4  Denso (car components)
5  GREE (Internet)
6  NTT DoCoMo (telecommunications)
7  Canon
8  Komatsu (Heavy Machinery)
9  DeNA (Internet game)
10 Takeda Pharmaceutical

These companies enjoy high profits and financial strength.  Japan is based on industry but its society is highly connected to Internet services.  

Further as of fiscal 2012, the total amount of internal reserve of Japanese businesses capitalized at 1 billion yen ($10 million) or more is 272 trillion yen ($2.7 trillion in today's rate).

Though Japan has been in 15-year long deflation (no prices/salaries up) this amount has been increasing.  For example, it was about $1.6 trillion in fiscal 2002 and $1.42 trillion in 1997.

This deflation can be translated into depression, but Japanese businesses have been accumulating profits.  Or it shows that the Japanese society opted to put higher priority and preference on corporations while sacrificing workers and citizens.

What is worse, more and more Japanese makers have come to operate their production in foreign countries but not in Japan.  For example, several years ago Japanese auto makers totally produced 8 million cars abroad but today 16 million in plants built in foreign countries.

So still as was seen in the 20th century, Japan is corporation centric while forcing citizens and workers to live with less respect.

However, Japan is not a poor country.  According to another survey, an average amount of financial assets per household in Japan is about 11 million yen ($110,000).  In addition, a ratio of households without any financial assets is 31%.

It is hard to judge whether or not Japan as a whole is going to prosper materially more.  But one thing true is that Japanese have to find value of life outside a domain under influence of modern industry.  It is because we cannot trust those companies at all in leading people to meaningful and  spiritual value of living.



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Act 2:14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:
Act 2:15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
Act 2:16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
Act 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

Friday, February 14, 2014

"he had made a scourge of small cords" - Neanderthal without Threads




This Evening Snowing around Tokyo


Neanderthal without Threads

Syria is situated in the north of Israel which has become the historical and spiritual center of the world as with the geographical center between Africa, Asia, and Europe.

If ancient Hebrews and Israelis had been more greater, Syrian might have been taken by ancient Israel as its territory.  But, God restricted the scope of the ancient kingdom of Hebrews so that it did not cover Syria.  As a consequence, ancient Israel did not suffer so much invasion and occupation by other tribes, other kingdoms, and other empires.

But in more older days, for example, for Neanderthal, there must not have been distinction between Syria and Israel as they preceded humans in advancing out of Africa.  
The oldest remains found in Syria date from the Palaeolithic era (c.800,000 BC). On 23 August 1993 a joint Japan-Syria excavation team discovered fossilized Paleolithic human remains at the Dederiyeh Cave some 400 km north of Damascus. The bones found in this massive cave were those of a Neanderthal child, estimated to have been about two years old, who lived in the Middle Palaeolithic era (ca. 200,000 to 40,000 years ago). Although many Neanderthal bones had been discovered already, this was practically the first time that an almost complete child's skeleton had been found in its original burial state.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Syria
Indeed, it is thought that humans and Neanderthal interbred in the Middle East though such cases seems to have been very much limited.
An estimated 1 to 4 percent of the DNA in Europeans and Asians (French, Chinese and Papua probands) is non-modern, and shared with ancient Neanderthal DNA rather than with Sub-Saharan Africans (Yoruba and San probands).[19] Nonetheless, more recent genetic studies seem to suggest that modern humans may have mated with "at least two groups" of ancient humans: Neanderthals and Denisovans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal
Anyway, Neanderthal disappeared long before humans started their civilization.
Climate change

About 55,000 years ago, the weather began to fluctuate wildly from extreme cold conditions to mild cold and back in a matter of a few decades. Neanderthal bodies were well suited for survival in a cold climate—their barrel chests and stocky limbs stored body heat better than the Cro-Magnons. However, the rapid fluctuations of weather caused ecological changes to which the Neanderthals could not adapt; familiar plants and animals would be replaced by completely different ones within a lifetime. Neanderthals' ambush techniques would have failed as grasslands replaced trees. A large number of Neanderthals would have died during these fluctuations, which peaked about 30,000 years ago.[104]

Studies on Neanderthal body structures have shown that they needed more energy to survive than any other species of hominid. Their energy needs were up to 100–350 calories more per day comparing to projected anatomically modern human males weighing 68.5 kg (151.0 lbs) and females 59.2 kg (130.5 lbs).[105] When food became scarce, this difference may have played a major role in the Neanderthals' extinction.
.....
A Campanian ignimbrite volcanic super-eruption around 40,000 years ago, followed by a second one a few thousand years later, has been hypothesised as having contributed to the demise of the Neanderthal, based on evidence from Mezmaiskaya cave in the Caucasus Mountains of southern Russia. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal
So, Neanderthal got extinct due to a drastic climate change in addition to huge volcano eruptions.

But how could humans come through this sever conditions.

Compared with temperature observed 15,000 years ago, today's temperature is +/- 2 degrees.
But 40,000 years ago it was minus 20 degrees, and temperature 38,000 years ago to 30,000 years ago was minus 23 degrees in the comparison.  According to a theory, only 10,000 humans lived on the earth 35,000 years ago.

However, humans could survive because they invented threads. They started to make clothes using threads to cope with cold climate.  But, probably Neanderthal could not use threads.  They could not protect their bodies from coldness to get extinct eventually.

Now human beings face another climate challenge whether it is global warming or cooling.  Without another great invention, like threads 30,000 years ago, humans might start to be destined to extermination like Neanderthal  30,000 years ago.

Stop the war in Syria and start to get ready for a coming critical natural disaster, putting heads of all the humans together.





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Joh 2:13 And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Joh 2:14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:
Joh 2:15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables;
Joh 2:16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

"and flee into Egypt"


Tokyo Suburbs after Snow Falling








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Mat 2:13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
Mat 2:14 When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt:

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

"immediately he arose, took up the bed" - In the Milky Way


Tokyo Suburbs

In the Milky Way

If the location of our solar system was closer or farther to the center of the Milky Way that it is actually, there is a strong possibility that the earth could not generate living things, including the human species.
Galactic habitable zone

In astrobiology and planetary astrophysics, the galactic habitable zone is the region of a galaxy in which life is most likely to develop. More specifically, the concept of a galactic habitable zone incorporates various factors, such as metallicity and the rate of major catastrophes such as supernovae, in order to calculate which regions of the galaxy are more likely to form terrestrial planets, initially develop simple life, and provide a suitable environment for this life to evolve and advance.[1] For the Milky Way this region is commonly believed to be an annulus with an outer radius of about 10 kiloparsecs and an inner radius close to the Galactic Center, both of which lack hard boundaries.[1][2]

In order to identify a location in the galaxy as being a part of the galactic habitable zone, a variety of factors must be accounted for. These include the distribution of stars and spiral arms, the presence or absence of an active galactic nucleus, the frequency of nearby supernovae that can threaten the existence of life, the metallicity of that location, and other factors.[9] Without fulfilling these factors, a region of the galaxy cannot create or sustain life with efficiency.

In addition to specific amounts of the various stable elements that comprise a terrestrial planet's mass, an abundance of radionuclides such as 40K, 235U, 238U, and 232Th is required in order to heat the planet's interior and power life-sustaining processes such as plate tectonics, volcanism, and a geomagnetic dynamo.[9] 
The galactic habitable zone is often viewed as an annulus 4–10 kpc from the galactic center, though in reality it is quite different.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_habitable_zone

However the earth must be also positioned at an adequate distance from the sun within the solar system to generate life forms.

But after primitive living things, namely bacteria, appeared on the earth, there came a critical situation about three billion years ago.  It was because some types of bacteria started photosynthesis to produce oxygen.  But most of bacteria were anaerobic.  And a behavior of these anaerobic bacteria decided the course of evolution of creatures on the earth.

There were many ways for anaerobic bacteria to avoid bad effect of oxygen those new types of bacteria caused.  But the anaerobic bacteria took a course of co-existing with oxygen-producing bacteria.  First anaerobic bacteria ate aerobic bacteria. But as time went by, an anaerobic bacterium started to let an aerobic one live inside it.  The former received energy from the latter while the latter was protected and fed by the former.  This symbiotic status led to evolution from bacteria to eukaryotic species.  This eukaryote grew to multicellular organisms.
Eukaryotic cells 
Temporal range: 1.6–2.1 billion years ago (possibly as early as 2.7 billion years ago) – Present 
A eukaryote is any organism whose cells contain anucleus and other structures (organelles) enclosed within membranes. 
Most eukaryotic cells also contain other membrane-bound organelles such as mitochondria or the Golgi apparatus. 
Many unicellular organisms are eukaryotes, such as protozoa. All multicellular organisms are eukaryotes, including animals, plants and fungi.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eukaryote
So, our body is a result of a symbiotic relationship between an anaerobic and an aerobic bacteria which resulted, two billion years ago, from a decision anaerobic bacteria made in order to survive in an earth environment with increasing density of oxygen due to wider spread of aerobic bacteria.

But if anaerobic bacteria had found other solutions to adopt them for their survival than the  symbiotic relationship, there should have been no emergence of eukaryotic species and eukaryotic cells which constitute our body eventually.

So, from the scale of a galaxy to that of a bacterium, our existence depends on various critical conditions.

That is why human species cannot exist without interference by God.



(to be continued...)





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Mar 2:12 And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

"a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord"



Tokyo Suburbs with Snow







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Luk 2:10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
Luk 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

Monday, February 10, 2014

"strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes" - At Carver Park for Hank Aaron


Mt. Fuji Viewed in a Town with a Railroad Station, around Tokyo 



At Carver Park for Hank Aaron

Hank Aaron, the 755 home-run hitter of the Major League Baseball, is well known in Japan as Sadaharu Oh, a Japanese super baseball player, delivered more home runs than Mr. Aaron.
When the City of Mobile built Carver Park in 1945, the city’s first recreational park for African Americans, there were neighborhood baseball games after school and on weekends. Hank Aaron played against Willie McCovey and Billy Williams, who also went on to be Baseball Hall of Famers. 
In 1948, when he was 14, Hank Aaron saw his hero Jackie Robinson when the Brooklyn Dodgers stopped Mobile. It was a time of separate schools, restaurants, hotels, drinking fountains, and baseball teams for blacks and whites. 
In 1952, Ed Scott, Mobile Black Bears manager and part time scout for the Indiana Clowns, went to see an area game and noticed the hitting ability of a third baseman. After the game, Scott asked Henry Aaron to play for the semi-pro Black Bears. Aaron's mother was reluctant to let him play on a team of grown men, but relented.
http://www.examiner.com/article/mobile-alabama-hank-aaron-childhood-home-and-museum-and-the-hank
So, in late 1980s or early 1990s, a Japanese wanted to visit Carver Park.  He drove to the City of Mobile with his Japanese wife, the first female Japanese Space Shuttle astronaut then under training in NASA.

But he couldn't find the ball park.  Besides, he felt somewhat uneasy because he could spot no European Americans in the city.  However, he parked the car, left his wife securely inside, and stepped out into the street to ask somebody how to get to Carver Park.

He found a line of African Americans before a fast food shop.  At the rear of the queue were several young African Americas, probably high-school students.  So, the Japanese, actually a medical doctor working in Japan while his wife is being trained in the US, said to them, "Can you tell me how to get to Carver Park where Hank Aaron once played when he was a boy?"  Young African Americans were grinning, but finally one of them said, "Two dollars!"  The Japanese felt uneasy but gave him two dollars.  Then they instructed him how to drive to the ball park.

The Japanese medical doctor and his NASA-astronaut wife reached the place, but they were disappointed since the place was desolate.  No decoration and no notice plate indicating that this is the professional home of Hank Aaron.

And what is worse, while they were standing before an old fence of the park, a sports car coming and passing by at a high speed with a man shouting, out of a window,  something at them in an intimidating manner.  So, the couple realized that they were the only non-African Americans in the town.  They left the glorious place for Japanese baseball fans in haste.      

However, the Japanese medical doctor visited Carver Park again several years later, probably in the middle of 1990s.

He then sensed no danger in the city.  Carver Park had new fences around its field.  He thought that the US had changed, though his respect for Hank Aaron never changed.

Anyway baseball is one of channels through which Japanese and Americans could communicate with each other rather frankly.  Even President Clinton praised Hideo Nomo, a Japanese MLB pitcher who achieved a no-hit/no-run game twice.  

And maybe baseball contributes more to improvement of a racial aspect in the US rather than Olympic Games.


** **
He also has a reputation as a baseball aficionado to uphold. Bush is the first owner of a major league ball club (he had a stake in the Texas Rangers from 1989 to 1998) to become president. An avid reader of box scores, he can tick off baseball stats like a TV analyst.

And he likes to flaunt his knowledge of the game. Meeting with mayors yesterday, Bush told the mayor of Boston, "I'm sure you're thrilled with the Nomo no-hitter," referring to Red Sox pitcher's Hideo Nomo's no-hitter against the Orioles on Wednesday night.)


President Bill Clinton, who acknowledged his fear of throwing the ball in the dirt, took a safe approach to the first pitch: the lob. Chris Hoiles, the former Orioles catcher, offered Clinton that advice before his first presidential toss in 1993, and it worked. Clinton usually threw (very slow) strikes.
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2001-04-06/features/0104060178_1_pitch-elder-bush-president-bush 




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Act 2:7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
Act 2:8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
Act 2:9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
Act 2:10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
Act 2:11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

Sunday, February 09, 2014

"lo, the star"



Mt. Fuji, Snow-Covered Fields,  and the Ara-Kawa River, Japan







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Mat 2:9 When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.