(Hi Hi, Tokyo)
I Watched News Today, O Lord
The English Parliament lost its way.
I bought a book today, O Lord.
The Japanese media fought its way (as it so read).
SECTION I: The First Ex-Samurai Christian
In 1866, the Tokugawa samurai government sent 14 young samurais to England, including a 12-year old samurai boy.
The band of youths led and supervised by 35-year old Masanao Nakamura, an elite Confucius scholar in one of elite samurai colleges, was however soon forced to return to Japan as the Tokugawa regime fell in a civil war with Imperial samurai forces in 1868.
(The following Web site shows Nakamura, making a pose at the most upper left corner, and other 13 samurai students in London between 1866 and 1868:
http://www.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/tenjikai/tenjikai95-2/bak5.html )
After the Meiji Restoration, two of the 14 samurais who had learnt in London in 1860's became the chancellor of the Imperial University of Tokyo, virtually the successor to the samurai elite colleges including the one called "Shoheiko" where samurai Nakamura had worked before the 1866 voyage to London.
Masanao Nakamura, however, became more prominent figure in the Meiji society of Japan to be later called one of the six greatest educators in the Meiji period.
On board a ship back to Japan from London in 1868, Nakamura read "Self-Help," by Samuel Smiles, one of his British friends presented to him.
The book told Confucist samurai Nakamura why the U.K. could become a great empire. It opened his eyes. He decided to translate the book into Japanese in 1870 so as to open the eyes of the Japanese people; eventually his translation became a best-seller with one million copies sold.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakamura_Masanao
Most interestingly, Confucist samurai Nakamura was converted to Christianity, while he worked as a professor, even served the Finance Department, and joined an intellectual society established in Tokyo by prominent pundits. Then, he translated "On Liberty," by John Stuart Mill, into Japanese, which eventually turned to be the start of diffusion of the idea in Japan:"the greatest happiness for the greatest number."
Indeed, the samurai code had nothing to do with the idea "the greatest happiness for the greatest number," though samurais were intellectually trained following Confucianism before 1868.
So, as today's Japanese elite bureaucrats are a kind of successors to samurai elites in the Tokugawa regime, 1603 - 1868, they can understand the ideal of British Christianity: the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
(Unlike Japanese mainstream bureaucrats of the central government, namely mostly descendants of ruling-class samurais, British bureaucrats are servants of Queen of England theoretically, so that their functions are essentially different from those of Japanese elite bureaucrats now fighting against the Hatoyama Cabinet that denies traditional implicit superiority of elite official circles in Tokyo.)
Yet, the era is now in the 21st century...Learn through "EEE-Reporter," somehow authentic in this context.
SECTION II: Global Financial Situations
The financial sector's status in Europe and the U.S. between the Lehman Shock in 2008 and the Greece Shock in 2010 can be summarized as follows:
The total potential loss of U.S. financial institutes is about $1 trillion.
However, the amount already wiped out or reserved against accounts for about 60%.
The total potential loss of U.K. financial institutes is about $0.6 trillion.
However, the amount already wiped out or reserved against accounts for about 42%.
The total potential loss of euro-zone financial institutes is about $0.8 trillion.
However, the amount already wiped out or reserved against accounts for about 42%.
The total potential loss of other European financial institutes is about $0.2 trillion.
However, the amount already wiped out or reserved against accounts for about 38%.
In summary, the U.S. financial sector has $0.4 trillion yet to be disposed.
In summary, the European financial sector has $0.8 trillion yet to be disposed.
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/gfsr/2009/02/index.htm#c1figure
Put simply, America is still OK; Europe is given Out.
As for Japan, traders and brokers are now selling stocks in Tokyo Stock Exchange to get yen which is now appraised so high against euro.
Since yen is now so strong, stock prices of Japanese companies fell vastly in Tokyo yesterday and today.
So, the Japanese financial sector is expected to take this 2010 Greece Shock in stride as in the 2008 Lehman Shock.
*** *** *** ***
Since you are born, if you have never experienced discomforts or fear caused by a lack of money, you would surely grow up as a very strange person.
Japanese Prime Minister Mr. Yukio Hatoyama looks like being this type of person.
Of course, Toyota's president Mr. Akio Toyoda looks like being this type of person.
They are not ordinary Japanese men but not a dangerous kind.
Those around Mr. Hatoyama or Mr. Toyoda, who have experienced enough discomforts or fear caused by a lack of money, have true problems.
Yet, those born rich and raised to have more desire for pride, honor, wealth, and power are more dangerous, though such a person is rarely found in Japan since Japan is neither the U.S. nor Europe.
So, if I were non-Japanese, I would trust Japanese (yen) more than Americans (dollars) and Europeans (pounds, euro, etc.).
But, when will Japanese fall down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from us, for we are sinful men, O Lord!"?
Luk 5:5 And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.
Luk 5:6 And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.
Luk 5:7 And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink.
Luk 5:8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.