"And all they in the synagogue" - Japan in 2000s

Tokyo Downtown...

Japan in 2000s

2001
(January - Gujarat Earthquake in west India, killing 20,000.)

February - A training fishing boat called Ehime-Maru of a Japanese fishery high-school of Ehime Prefecture is hit by a US submarine off Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killing nine including four students. It can be ominously linked to the memory of the Pearl Harbor Attack of 1941 and regarded as an evil prophecy of the 9/11 Terror as indicated by Herman Melville's Moby Dick.

April - Lawmaker Junichiro Kozumi is elected as prime minister of Japan.

June - Eight children of an elite primary school affiliated with Osaka Kyoiku University, Osaka Prefecture, are killed by 37-year-old former janitor who is a user of psychiatric services.

July - On an overpass in Aakashi City, Hyogo Prefecture, a large crowd of people are packed and forced down while going to a site of firewaorks, resulting in 11 deaths and 247 injured.

September - A multi-tenant entertainment building in Shinjyuku Ward, Tokyo, gets fire which kills  44 people.

(September 11 - The 9/11 Terror Attack in the US.)

（October - The Taliban regime of Afghanistan collapses through the US military invasion as retaliation of the 9/11 Terror as the Talibans have tied up with Osama bin Laden and AlQaeda.）

December - Japan Coast Guard ships exchange fire with a North Korean spy boat which finally blows itself off and sinks off Kyusyu or in the East Chin Sea.

2002
May - Japan and South Korea co-hosts the FIFA World Cup soccer games.

September - PM Koizumi visits Pyongyang, North Korea, to talk with Kim Jong-Il.

October - Five Japanese citizens who were abducted by North Korea decades ago are released to return to Japan.

2003
(March - The US started to invade Iraq overwhelming Iraqi troops.)

April - Tokyo Stock Exchange marks the lowest Nikkei index at 7,603 since the busrt of the bubble in early 1990s.

December - Two Japanese diplomats are killed by terrorists in the suburb of Baghdad, Iraq.

（December - Saddam Hussein is captured near Tikrit, Iraq.）

(December - Bam Earthquake in Iran, killing 26,000.)

2004
May - PM Koizumi visits North Korea again to talk with  Kim Jong-Il for release of other Japanese having been abducted by North Korea.

October - A big earthquake occurs in Niigata Prefecture, facing the Sea of Japan, killing 68 people.  No damage to a nuclear power plant in the area.

(December - The Great Sumatra Earthquake/Tsunami)

2005
（April - Pope John Paul II dies.）

April - A big train accident occurs in Hyogo Prefecture taking lives of 106 passengers and a train driver.

（July - The London Terror Bombings.）

August - PM Koizumi dissolves the Lower House as his proposal to privatize the Japanese postal system and banks are rejected in the Upper House.  A very rare political action.

(August - Hurricane Katrina attacks New Orleans.)

September 11 - A general election is held, resulting in an overwhelming victory of PM Koizumi and the ruling LDP.

（October - Kashmir earthquake, Pakistan, killing 79,000.）

November - Anti-Earthquake Structural Calculation Forgery Problem is made public.  A certain architect living in Tokyo is eventually arrested for his wrong design on purpose to cut costs.  Many buildings are put into design review, giving a great shock to the public.

2006
January - A young president of an IT company, Livedoor, of Tokyo is arrested for illegal financial reporting while he has been so successful riding on the Japanese IT boom to be a symbol of the era; he is also trying to buy up stocks of a Tokyto TV station with help from Lehman Brothers.

July - North Korea launches a long range missile as a test.

September - PM Koizumi spontaneously steps down; Shinzo Abe succeeds Koizumi to continue the LDP regime.

October - North Korea conducts its first nuclear bomb test.

2007
May - Incumbent Minister of Agriculture of the Abe Cabinet commits a suicide.

July - PM Abe and the ruling party LDP lose the Upper House election as poor pension record management has been exposed.  Millions of people are affected by defaults and errors by the government pension agency.

September - PM Abe spontaneously resigns due to a health problem; Yasuo Fukuda succeeds Abe to continue the LDP regime.

2008
(May - Sichuan Earthquake, killing 70,000.)

(May - Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, killing 140,000)

June - A 25-year old part-time worker armed with knives drives a truck violently and attacks passers-by in Akihabara, the most prosperous electronics quarter in Tokyo, killing 7 and harming 10.

September - PM Fukuda spontaneously steps down to make Taro Aso new prime minister as Aso looks more popular than Fukuda as the LDP is preparing for a next general election.

(September - The Global Financial Crisis starts in Wall Street.)

(November - Barack Obama is elected as the first African American President.)

November - An ex-administrative vice minister of the Japanese Government is killed in his home and another is injured by a 46-year old man who does not seem to have any political background.

2009
May - Ichiro Ozawa, the powerful head of the opposition DPJ, resigns from the post of the party due to a political fund scandal called the Nishimatsu case.  Yukio Hatoyama replaces Ozawa.

August 30 - The socialistic and pro-Chinese DPJ wins a general election to replace the conservative and pro-American LDP-led regime.  The first full-scale regime change in Japan since 1950's as the capitalist LDP has been in power for decades except in early 1990s.

September - Hatoyama of the DPJ becomes prime minister of Japan.  Ichiro Ozawa becomes the Secretary-General of the DPJ to have a strong influence on PM Hatoyama.

2010
(January - The Great Haiti Earthquake occurs.)

（April - BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill starts with an explosion in the Gulf of Mexico ）

June - PM Hatoyama resigns due to a failure in handling a US Marine base in Okinawa Prefecture and a political fund scandal.  Naoto Kan tales over.  Ozawa also leaves the leadership of the party due to another political fund suspicion.

July - An Upper House election is held, resulting in defeat of PM Kan and the ruling DPJ as PM Kan launches a consumption tax rate rise plan.

(August - The Copiapó mining accident occurs in Chile, trapping 33 miners who are all rescued eventually in October.)
September - In a DPJ's head election, Kan competing with Ozawa is elected again as the head of the party to keep office of the prime minister of Japan.  Kan and Ozawa start to feud with each other seriously while Ozawa is indicted finally by a Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution.

September - A Chinese fishing boat attacks a Japanese Coast Guard ship off the Senkaku Islands.  A Chinese captain is arrested but released two weeks later.  Most of the Japanese people doubt this decision by the Kan Cabinet.

November - A secret video clip showing the truth of the Senkaku incident is released by a member of the Japan Coast Guard, indicating a lie the Chinese Government has disseminated in the world that the Japan Coast Guard has first attacked the Chinese fishing boat.  The member of the Japan Coast Guard is regraded as a hero by most of the Japanese, though the Kan Cabinet tries to punish him in vain.

2011
(January - Great flood disasters in various regions of the world.)

(January - The Jasmine Revolution starts in Tunisia, triggering a series of Arab revolutions.)

February - A big earthquake occurs in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 185 people, including 28 Japanese.

March - PM Kan is accused of having received money from a South Korean living in Japan and providing political funds to Japanese activists linked to North Korea.  PM Kan is almost being forced to resign.

March 11 - An M9.0 earthquake occurs in the North Pacific Ocean 150 km off Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, triggering 15-meter high tsunamis which take on 20,000 people.  The tsunamis also trigger the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident.

March 12 - The zone within 20km of the Fukushima Daiichi plant is designated as the compulsory evacuation area.

(May - About 20 US special troops kill Osama bin Laden hiding in Abbottabad, Pakistan.)

June - The Japanese female soccer team becomes the FIFA world champion.

August - Yoshihiko Noda is elected as the head of the ruling DPJ, eventually taking over PM Kan in September, as Kan's approval rating has drooped at 20% mostly due to his poor handling of the 3/11 Disaster.

October - The rate of the yen against the US dollar becomes 75.32 yen, the highest  after WWII, though it was 130 yen in early 2002.

October - Great flooding in Thailand stops operation of many businesses and factories run by Japanese companies.  The 3/11 Disaster, the Thai flooding, and the stronger yen which is partly ascribed to the euro crisis give grave damage to the Japanese economy.

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Luk 4:28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
Luk 4:29 And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
Luk 4:30 But he passing through the midst of them went his way,
Luk 4:31 And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days.

"Why talkest thou with her?" - Han Fei & First Emperor of China

Japanese Parliament, the Diet

The Japanese Supreme Court, Tokyo

Han Fei & First Emperor of China

Han Fei (280–233 BC), who is called Kan Pi in Japanese, wrote some book which highly moved Ying Zheng, king of Qin, who was to be First Emperor of China in 221 BC.

And then Han Fei, a member of the royal family of Han, was sent to Qin as an envoy by the court of Han to maintain good relationship between the strong country Qin and the weak one Han.  So, King Zheng invited Han Fei, a notable political thinker of the era, to his side to learn from him.  In fact, all the utterance Han Fei issued moved the king.  But as King Zheng showed so much goodwill to Han Fei, a minister called Li Si of Qin envied Han Fei.  The minister who had once been a student in the same school where Han Fei had also learnt got afraid that he might be replaced by Han Fei.  So, minister Li Si cast aspersions on Han Fei that he was a spy with a hidden plan to damage Qin.  As there had been such a precedent case,  King Zheng believed the false charge to put Han Fei into a jail.  Then, Li Si went to the cell where Han Fei was put in.  Li Si handed a poison to Han Fei, persuading him to commit a suicide.  In order to avoid pain from cruel punishment, Han Fei took the poison and died.  When King Zheng regretted having doubted Han Fei and tried to release the great scholar from the jail, it was too late.

Han Fei wrote: "Once there was a farmer in the country Sun.  One day he saw a rabbit running and stumbling on a stump.  The rabbit broke its neck and died.  The farmer got the rabbit so easily. From the day on, the farmer sat around the stamp all day long waiting for other rabbits which never came.  So, people of Sun all laughed at the farmer."　

But why did this story move First Emperor of China when he was still King of Qin?  It taught the future First Emperor of China that it was absurd to stick to old customs and traditional manners.  

So, King Zheng loved revolutionary ideas unlike other kings of rival countries.  It led to his conquest of ancient China to establish the first full-scale empire in the Chinese Continent.

Han Fei also specified for kings eight counter-measures against eight mishaps in the court:
1. Do not accept requests from women.

2. Do not allow close aids to speak freely.

3. Punish relatives if their advice turned to be useless.

4. Check why and how entertainment is offered and do not fully entrust the matter to subjects.

5. Provide benefits, if necessary, for people from  royal assets and do not allow ministers and other subjects to personally provide benefits for people.

6. Listen equally to both the sides in discussion and do not let them conspire together.

7. Honor generals and soldiers according to their achievement but do not allow gangsters to appeal to arms in towns and do not allow ministers and other subjects to use them.

8. Do not accept irrational requests from other countries.

So, Han Fei meant that evil came from women, close aids, entertainment, provision of benefits to people, discussion, military and gangsters, and other countries.  And it is well known that First Emperor of China adopted very stern application of law and maintained very stern administration and order.  Indeed, it was against the spirit of Confucianism.  First Emperor of China hated Confucians to kill many of them and burn many books of Confucianism.  Accordingly after the death of First Emperor, the Qin dynasty collapsed (partly because Li Si betrayed the will of the emperor when he died).

It is truly interesting that Ying Zheng, king of Qin, who was not a man of virtue or genius could become First Emperor of China, though 100 years after the era of Alexander the Great. 

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/sakurai4391/35664740.html
Qin's Palace Rebuilt

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Joh 4:27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?
Joh 4:28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
Joh 4:29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?

"So is the kingdom of God" - Complete Knowledge

Tokyo JR Railroad Lines

Complete Knowledge

If you see light, you do still have to see the shadow to complete knowledge of the light.

If you enjoy a rich life and learn anything, you still have to know what you can learn while you are living a poor life.

All the knowledge a rich scholar has learnt is not yet complete, since what a poor man can learn is not included there.

So, the top and best scholar who wants to acquire complete knowledge would rather abandon his rich life to be poor; then he will be able to learn what a poor and low-order person understands.

So, it is not simple.  A winner in a sport game is unconditionally praised to be perfect in the arena.  But the truth is that he is not still complete and perfect, since he does not know what a loser understands.  To be a foolish winner or  to be a wise player is the matter of question.  To be a wise player, you have to be a winner and at the same time to be a loser on purpose.

But most of rich scholars and winners do not try to get complete knowledge and perfect understanding of any subject or game.  So, they will become useless someday, since they are simply imperfect and half-way.

If you think what a man who is poorer than you understand is meaningless compared with what you understand, you are still very foolish.  The measure you apply is very primitive.  The value system you understand is so immature.  It is so, since a man can only become rich by chance not by completeness of his intellect.  And even a rich scholar whose intellect is a product of a rich environment cannot comprehend all the aspects of what he has learnt, since it lacks what can be only understood in a poor environment.

So, those who are close to complete knowledge and perfect victory should look poor and humble like Christ Jesus.

The glory that Christ's teaching has prevailed in the world has been made perfect by His having experienced the worst defeat on the cross; indeed He knew both the sides of winning and losing fully.  Yet, that defeat has been conquered and canceled by his one-level-higher victory of becoming perfect with perfect knowledge.

(That is why you have to listen to a poor man more than to Harvard professors to comprehend deeper truth of the world.  That is also why you have to learn a life of a loser in any sport than of a winner in order to understand what the game is in the world.)

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Mar 4:26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;
Mar 4:27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.

"For he that hath, to him shall be given" - A Verdict of Guilty on Ozawa?

 Ueno Museum, Tokyo

A Verdict of Guilty on Ozawa?

Mr. Ichiro Ozawa was first elected as Japanese lawmaker in 1969 when he was 27 years old.

Since then,  without interruption, he has been a member of the Lower House of the Diet, the Japanese parliament.  He played some decisive role in politics in early 1990s when he was a member of the pro-American conservative party LDP and later when he became the de-facto leader of ruling parties that were united to establish a new anti-LDP regime.

(The capitalistic LDP has been in power since 1950's till the drastic regime change in the summer of 2009 or except the era of PM Mr. Hosokawa and his successor of PM Mr. Hata in early 1990s and the present era after the general election held at the end of August 2009.)

After the collapse of the anti-LDP regime led by prime minister Mr. Hosokawa and Mr. Hata, Mr. Ozawa survived difficult situations by building new parties and then disbanding them for years till he joined the pro-Chinese socialistic DPJ in 2003.  Mr. Ozawa became the top of the DPJ in 2006.  As Mr. Ozawa had big money, he could always lead and control scores of politicians.  They made a strong faction within the DPJ.

(The liberal DPJ was founded mainly by lawmaker Mr. Hatoyama and Mr. Kan as a rival against the LDP around 2000.)

But in May 2009 Mr. Ozawa stepped down from the party head due to a suspicion about illegal handling of political money.  Actually his secretary was arrested.  So, lawmaker Mr. Hatoyama succeeded Mr. Ozawa as the head of the DPJ.  Then the DPJ won a general election at the end of August in 2009, defeating the LDP.  Pro-Korean Mr. Hatoyama, a Mr. Ozawa's ally, became prime minister of Japan; Pro-Chinese Mr. Ozawa was appointed by new PM Mr. Hatoyama to the Secretary-General of the ruling party DPJ to support the Hatoyama Cabinet consisting of relatively younger politicians.  However, when PM Mr. Hatoyama was forced to resign because of his poor handling of the US Marine base in Futenma, Okinawa, and a political-fund scandal, Mr. Ozawa also stepped down from the leadership of the party as public prosecutors were still in pursuit of Mr. Ozawa's case on suspicious political funds.

It was Mr. Kan who succeeded Mr. Hatoyama as the party head of the DPJ and prime minister of Japan.  PM Mr. Kan took a tough stance against Mr. Ozawa who came to be officially investigated on an illegal political fund reporting.  Though public prosecutors did not bring charges on Mr. Ozawa eventually, the Tokyo Committees for the Inquest of Prosecution voted to take Mr. Ozawa to the law.  Mr. Ozawa was finally put under indictment. And its verdict is scheduled tomorrow.

Meanwhile PM Mr. Kan was forced to resign in late August of 2011 for his failure in handling the 3/11 Disaster recovery work and the Fuushima Daiichi accident, though he was promoting increase in a consumption tax rate and the TPP trade treaty with the US and etc.

Present Prime Minister of Japan Mr. Noda is a kind of at strife with Mr. Noda, as he is close to Mr. Kan.  PM Mr. Noda is pushing a policy to raise a rate of the consumption tax, but Mr. Ozawa is against it, since the DPJ promised voters not to raise tax in the election of 2009.  To pass the bill for raising the tax rate in the Lower House , PM Mr. Noda needs support from the Ozawa faction.  So, if Mr. Ozawa should be found guilty, some of his followers might leave his faction.  Then, PM Mr. Noda will have a big chance to promote his policy in the Lower House.

But if 40-year-long veteran lawmaker Mr. Ozawa should be found not guilty concerning the Political Funds Control Law, he would more strongly grip lawmakers of the DPJ to be elected as the head of the DPJ and thus he could become prime minister  of Japan or might have one of his followers elected as prime minister.

So, it is considered that PM Mr. Noda wants the court to rule Mr. Ozawa guilty.  Then Mr. Noda can be re-elected this September when his party plans to have a convention to elect its new head.

Another factor is the LDP, the largest opposition party.  Though Mr. Ozawa had once belonged to the LDP and become one of influential politicians of the LDP 20 years ago, today most of LDP lawmakers regard Mr. Ozawa as one of their archenemies.  And, the LDP also wants to raise the consumption tax rate like PM Mr. Noda.  Though the president of the LDP Mr. Tanigaki seems to be determined not to cooperate with PM Mr. Noda in passing the raising tax bill, he has no intention to tie up with Mr. Ozawa.  Mr. Tanigaki wants to reject the Noda-version of the tax-raising bill and force Mr. Noada to dissolve the Lower House.  So, there is a possibility that PM Mr. Noda will settle the matter by promising  Mr. Tanigaki to dissolve the Lower House provided that the LDP should cooperate with Mr. PM Noda in passing the bill.  But if a general election should be held, it is expected that many members of the Ozawa faction will lose seats and even the DPJ will lose power to be defeated by Mr. Tanigaki and his LDP.  Therefore, Mr. Ozawa is afraid of a possible tie-up between PM Mr. Noda and Mr. Tanigaki of the LDP.  On the other hand, Mr. Tanigaki even said to PM Mr. Noda, "You must get full support from your party, including Mr. Ozawa, if you want to pass the bill."  So, Mr. Ozawa's case in the Tokyo District Court has an influence on the fate of the Noda Cabinet and the DPJ regime, since PM Mr. Noda might lose alternatives but dissolve the Lower House to ask direct support from voters.

Put extremely, a verdict tomorrow on Mr. Ozawa, a controversial but influential member of the DPJ, might lead to a regime change in Japan and installment of a new prime minister of Japan before the DPJ party-head election scheduled in this September.


(Yet, as PM Mr. Noda plans to visit Washington DC next week and hold a meeting with US President Mr. Obama, it is suspected that PM Mr. Noda has already got inside information that the court will convict Mr. Ozawa of the crime.  It is because if the US thinks that PM Mr. Noda will soon lose his status, President Mr. Obama would not meet PM Mr. Noda at this point of time.)

Anyway this is the largest political issue in Japan today, though it looks like full of conspiracies.

And, whatever tomorrow's judgment might be, a losing party will surely appeal the court ruling.  There can be still a long way ahead for lawmaker Mr. Ichiro Ozawa and Japanese voters.

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Mar 4:25 For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.

"God is a Spirit" - America for What

Tokyo Ueno Park...

America for What

There must be a great reason for existence of the US.  It is not to provide American dreams for European Americans and other Americans of different origins.

For example, the reason for existence of Hebrews is to connect people to the Sumerian Civilization and to generate a religion to compete with the ancient Greek religion.  Based on these conditions, Christ finally appeared among Israelites.

But why did God prepare North America for mankind?  The most apparent answer is that God gave mankind a new world where traditional Vatican influences did not exist.  Or God prepared a new world where so-called Christians and Judaists could co-exist in harmony.  In fact, people from any country in the world feel less religious pressure when they visit or immigrate into the US.  If so, what is expected in America by God is great success in religion or spiritual life but not great success in material life.

Therefore, as long as Americans seek more material success than religious or spiritual success, the US will lose its glory.  It is so since the purpose of God's creating North America is to provide all the peoples with a new world where they can develop their spiritual life which has been difficult or impossible in their home countries in the old world.

So, it is no wonder that Americans are especially enthusiastic in church activities and studying spiritual matters while young people in Europe are getting less interested in the Vatican.

Indeed, God gave America to Americans without expecting them to build Las Vegas, Disney Lands, Yankee Stadium, and Wall Street.

In this context, it is very decisive for the fate of the US how it has faced Muslims.  How the US made war in Iraq and how it is making war in Afghanistan would really matter.  God should judge based on these wars whether Americans are performing well spiritually as expected by Him.

If Americans fail in this holy test, the era of America would end.  Or, it might be now ending, since a great majority of Americans simply want to be great rich men but not great religious or spiritual persons.

http://www.willamette.edu/news/library/2012/02/american_dream.html


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Joh 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Joh 4:25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
Joh 4:26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.

"the true worshippers" - A Sin of Being Rich

JR Railroads near Ueno District in Tokyo

A Sin of Being Rich

There is something no one can do.  But it can be at the same time what everyone must try to achieve.  So, there is something no one can do but everyone must try to achieve.

To understand there is such a thing must be a result of education.

And one of such things is a need to avoid being rich, since Christ Jesus said many things in His teaching with intention to make people abandon being rich for becoming pious.

Of course, everybody wants to be rich.  Everybody will sacrifice others if he or she can be rich to any extent.  But this natural desire is what Christ Jesus especially focused on.

In this context, teaching of Christ has nothing to do with Judaism.  The concept that being rich is a sin is not included in Judaism.  But this is a core of the teaching of Christ Jesus.

To be rich, anybody would sacrifice one person.  Then that sacrificed person would sacrifice other for him or her to be rich.  This sequence will be repeated endlessly.  Finally people would be equipped with any ability to make others unhappy.  And, all of them would follow the Devil, since the Devil would teach people the most effective way to be rich by making others unhappy. As a result, the whole society of the mankind will be governed by the Devil.

But the God stepped in.  He sent Christ Jesus to the world.  And, Christ Jesus preached that a man cannot serve both the God and the Devil which is money.  The alternative is being holy or being rich.  The final goal of a man is not becoming rich and happy but becoming poor and holy.

This is the basic teaching of Christ Jesus, though no one can perfectly follow it.  But everyone must know that the basic teaching of Christ Jesus is be holy but not rich.

Though no one can be perfectly poor and holy, everyone must make full efforts to be so, since it is an order of the God and the core of teaching of Christ Jesus.

So, those smart, successful, and rich guys in big cities, such as New York and London, are all fools while they are just faithful servants of the Devil.


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Joh 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.