(Around Tokyo, Japan)Japanese Elites and Blogs
(Japonais élites et de leur utilisation de l'Internet)
High ranking bureaucrats of the Japanese Government usually continue to have materially happy lives if they resign as elites endowed with state power by law.
They can get higher positions in various public organizations or private companies in their second life until complete retirement from the society.
However, it is one-way career. Unlike the many U.S., governmental positions secured for private citizens to be nominated by the President, there are fewer rooms for ordinary citizens to be nominated for executive posts in the Japanese Government. It is almost MUST to pass a civil-servant examination before or immediately after graduation of a university if you want to start a career in the Government as an executive trainee.
And, most of ex-executives or ex-high-ranking officials of the Japanese Government have traditionally never expressed their personal views on public matters to the general public.
But, today, partially due to a great split among Japanese people on key issues such as economic globalization, the US War on Terror, and an ever growing economic tie with China under control of potentially-anti-Japanese Chinese Communist Party, the traditional Japanese social system is undergoing a great change, giving more liberty and chances for personal activities to those who would otherwise just keep silence after retirement as elites of the Government even if they had grave complaints about the Government policy.
Indeed, if an ex-elite of the Chinese Government writes his complaint about the Government policy, he will be surely arrested secretly and severely punished secretly by the Chinese Government and the Chinese Communist Party.
Truly, there are not many examples among ex-US high-ranking officials who would publicly criticize the US Government, exposing concrete data and materials to the public, even if they have grave complaints about the Government policy. (There are some ex-CIA officials discussing the 9/11 Terror related problems in their publication, though.)
So, it is interesting to read blogs ex-elite officials of the Japanese Government write for whatever purpose on the Internet.
It is a great practice of democracy you cannot find in China at all; and it is a great personal challenge you cannot find in the U.S. whose society is as a whole so much divided between European Americans and African Americans (et al.) or the rich and the non-rich.
SECTION I: A FEMALE EX-HIGH-RANKING OFFICIAL & LAWMAKER
It is very rare even in Japan that a politician opens a blog and accepts free comments from the public.
In most cases, eccentric citizens or members of opposite organizations (mostly disguised or pretending to be an ordinary citizen) would attack a politician as soon as they find any mistakes or careless remarks in an article he or she has written in his/her personal blog.
In such a case, hundreds of attacking comments are directed to such a blog from darkness of the Internet per day, per hour, or so.
Most of politicians who have experienced such attacks would stop using their blogs or at least stop accepting comments from viewers.
So, it is very interesting that Ms. Satsuki Katayama, a lawmaker and ex-executive of the Ministry of Finance, has been coping with such comment-attacks to her blog.
It is also interesting that she is the only female member of the Diet (Japanese Parliament) who has ever been under direct attack at her personal blog while accepting such comments from the general public.
Apart from her political position, in terms of humanity and ability, it is noteworthy to see her personally managing, protecting, and leveraging her blog under indecent comment-attacks which are focused on some delicate expressions she used in her blog and intended to deny her whole personality and make her fail in the next election.
You can see her profile in the following:
For 2000,
http://www.imn.org/2000/a252/index.shtml?p=agenda.html
For 2001 (she might have a Bolivian connection...),
http://www.iadb.org/sds/IFM/publication/gen_495_2437_e.htm
For 2004,
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aIaVkl3A7DU8&refer=top_world_news
For 2005,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article564366.ece
For 2006,
http://www.quangngai.gov.vn/quangngai/english/news/2006/11069/
SECTION II: AN EX-HIGH-RANKING OFFICIAL & EX-LAWMAKER
Mr. Hiroshi Kumagaya was an ex-elite-bureaucrat in the central Government of Japan.
He changed his career to be elected as a national lawmaker between 1977 and 2003, while nominated for a cabinet minister sometimes.
Since his failure in election in 2003 against the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, he has not been engaged in the mainstream of national politics, though he has been writing a personal blog for many years.
( http://www.kumagai.ne.jp/column/bn.php?category_pkey=3 )
His recent argument is on the Chinese militarism.
He expects China to continue to make every effort to be a military superpower.
So, the recent great earthquake in China gives a big shock to him, too, since it can be a sign of this Era.
Mr. Hiroshi Kumagaya also seems to be wary of European and American aggressive invasion of the Japanese money market.
A Diet member who now holds an electoral power base in the election district where Mr. Kumagaya had been once voted for is Ms. Satsuki Katayama, as described above.
SECTION III: AN EX-AMBASSADOR OF JAPAN & POPULAR BLOGGER
So far I know, there is only one ex-Japanese ambassador who is operating his own blog on the Internet for the purpose of promoting a regime change in Japan.
Bureaucrats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan are generally regarded as most conservative elites in the Japanese society. But, Mr. Naoto Amaki is a very exceptional person, though he now seems to completely retire from an official life.
Since he once served as a Japanese envoy in an Islamic state, he takes a very critical attitude to Israel in articles he often writes in his blog.
( http://www.amakiblog.com/archives/2008/05/14/#000871 )
There are some Japanese who are really interesting in Israel, whether friendly or critically.
However, one of reasons I have to pay attention to Mr. Amaki’s blog is that his blog ranks higher among hundreds of Japanese blogs related to politics.
His blog is currently ranked as No.10 with tens of thousands of visits per week.
( http://blog.with2.net/rank1510-0.html )
I don’t know what organization(s) supports him to systematically boost the rating of his blog; but this is the only case that an ex-elite bureaucrat of Japan is achieving something among ordinary citizens, though in the cyber space.
Anyway, as long as the ex-ambassador is writing his blog in Japanese instead of English, the Japanese Government would not mind much about his criticism.
*****************************************************************
Now, EEE Reporter has nothing to do with any ex-high-ranking officials of Japan.
And, one of EEE-Reporter’s recent main concerns is as follows unlike any ex-high-ranking officials in Japan:
------
When Guatemala signed the Peace Accords in 1996, ending a 36-year civil conflict that left over 200,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands more maimed and internally displaced, the label of “post-conflict country” was officially bestowed on the country….
The homicide rate in Guatemala was 35 per 100,000 people, compared to 5.7 per 100,000 in the United States…
Using this classification, the IDB estimates that violence in Latin America costs the region an estimated 14.2 percent of GDP. While data specific to Guatemala for all of the aforementioned cost categories is scarce, per the table below, the economic costs of crime (not just gang violence) in Guatemala in 1999 were estimated to be 565.4 million dollars, with violent crime exerting a more costly toll than non-violent crime12. It is estimated that firms in Guatemala suffer average losses of about $5,500 annually due to crime…
http://www.usaid.gov/locations/latin_america_caribbean/democracy/guatemala_profile.pdf
------
Only top elites of the Japanese Government seem to have any non-nonsense chances to discuss frankly about global issues with US high-ranking officials in any fields.
And this Guatemala issue is what I want them to discuss with American counterparts.
It is because it is a good example of failure of CIA in the Era before the War on Terror.
I mean that the War in Iraq seems very likely to become a 36-year conflict that will leave over 200,000 people dead.
Japanese bureaucrats and ex-bureaucrats should make an effort not to make Iraq another Guatemala.
(I heard the news that Mrs. Clinton has won overwhelmingly in West Virginia.
This Presidential race might result in a miracle eventually in November.
But, an Angel told me several months ago that it was 2012 that would count.
What do you want to contribute to the world in 2012?
Writing a blog like somebody? Oh, no! Better go to Hawaii and Indonesia for holy romance and advance to Chicago, since there are full of bloggers in Japan, Mlles.)
1Ki 6:11 And the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying,
1Ki 6:12 Concerning this house which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I perform my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father:
1Ki 6:13 And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.
1Ki 6:14 So Solomon built the house, and finished it.