"if a woman shall put away her husband" - Democratic and Representative System

Mt. Fuji Yesterday, 100 Km Far

Democratic and Representative System

Results of comparison among Japan, the US, the UK,
Germany, and France in terms of the regular numbers of the parliament and a salary and costs for each member of each house are as follows:


                                        JAPAN           USA            UK       Germany     France
--------------------------------------------------- ------------------
Lower House  Seats             480　  　　    435            650           620          577
--------------------------------------------------- ------------------
Upper House Seats               242             100           826             69           348
--------------------------------------------------- ------------------
Population                  170,000         570,000       40,000     110,000        60,000
per Member
--------------------------------------------------- ------------------
Annual Salary      $211,000      $136,000     $80,000 (L)    $95,000 (L)   $88,000
-------------------------------------------------- -------------------
Budget per Member
Lower House              $582,000   max $1.5 M   $264,000  $341,000   $280,000
Upper House              $592,000   max $3.9 M          *           $6,000      $260,000
-------------------------------------------------- -------------------


So, in France every 40,000 citizens can elect their representative in the national assembly.  But in the US 570,000 citizens can only send one representative of them to Congress.

Members of the British Lower House receive the lowest consideration for their service to the nation.  Each of American congressman receives very high salary and expenses.

But Japanese National Diet members get the highest salary, though US congressmen enjoy the largest total expenses.

From the beginning how society and communities were established in each country was so different.

For the US and Americans, society is what should be built newly or incessantly by incumbent citizens, and communities should be based on individuals.   Therefore pressure on each member of Congress is heavy.


For Europeans, society is what should be always monitored, maintained, and adjusted, and communities should be formed against other classes or outsiders.  Therefore pressure on each member of the parliament is of various types.

But Japanese were born in a complete society, and communities are what has been already fixed or cannot be changed.  Therefore pressure on each member of the National Diet is neither heavy nor complicated.

One interest thing about Japan is that when the last samurai regime decided to put an end to the 250-year-long policy of closing the country, they sent an envoy to the US in 1860.  But elite samurais could not well understand the American democracy.   They visited Congress in Washington DC but samurais could not understand why Americans were discussing matters in an assembly to decide any policy.  Such practices of democracy were beyond their imagination.

Japan was then governed by elite samurais from the leading Tokugawa clan and other samurai clans or feudal lords.  The samurai class possessed all the cultural products and skills, though farmers and townsmen could were allowed to develop culture so long as they did not become enemies of samurais.  So, the most learnt men in Japan in the samurai era could be found among samurais or noblemen in Kyoto.  Accordingly, whatever elite samurai decided and formulated was thought to be better than any ideas and plans farmers and townsmen came to think about.  So, no national assembly was needed; no elections were needed; and no democracy was needed in the era of rule by the sword.

So, even today there is a kind of a presumption in Japan that whoever is elected as a parliament member he or she must have some merit in terms of their ability.  A national Diet member must be wiser than most of voters, they think.

However, in Europe and the US, politics is not a matter of the God.   Human beings cannot play the part for the God.  Nothing is mysterious in any parliament member.  He or she is just one of citizens but each with a louder voice, an outstanding outlook, and a smart mind.  It is business for profane persons.  They know they cannot find a genius or a saint among their representatives in the parliament.   The only exception might be the case of Hitler.

But in Japan National Diet members are those who are closer to the Emperor than any other Japanese citizens.   No ordinary persons are usually invited to a banquet or a ceremony in the Imperial Palace, but Japanese parliament members have many occasions to visit the Imperial Palace and face the Emperor and the Empress or other imperial family members.  The prime minister of Japan occasionally visits the Imperial Palace to explain his policies to the Emperor.  (When PM of Japan travels abroad and comes back to Japan, he always visits the Palace to write down a simple memo of his return to the Emperor.)  So, in this context, the Prime Minister of Japan is someone that is the closest to the Emperor in the nation.

The king or queen of England is also the head of religion in England.  But he or she is a mere human being.  Everybody calls him or her Henry, Elizabeth, etc.  But the Japanese emperor cannot be merely one of human beings in Japan.  He must be more spiritual than other Japanese.  In shinto theory, ancestors of the Emperor include gods.  Though no Japanese think that DNAs of the emperor include something special, they want the emperor to be spiritually different from others.  The emperor as the highest priest of shintoism must be pure and clean as much as possible when he performs his religious duty before spirits and gods, including ancestors of the imperial family.

So no matter who are elected as representatives of Japanese, beside them there is one permanent representative, the emperor, in Japan.  And the emperor should not be an ordinary man.

This characteristic of the Japanese national and political system was once abused by generals of the Imperial Army and Navy.  They started the war against China and then the war against the US between 1937 and 1945 in the name of the emperor.

However, after WWII, Japan has vastly adopted the American democracy, while specifying the Emperor as the symbol of unity of the Japanese people but not the ruler in the Constitution.  Mass opinions have come to be respected than opinions of the political elites.  So, Japan can be now regraded as having a democratic representative system almost with the same functions as those in Europe and the US.  

That is also why China cannot represent Asian peoples.

http://www.matsudojinja.com/shintoutojinjanituite.html
 Emperor of Japan

http://www.matsudojinja.com/shintoutojinjanituite.html
Empress of Japan



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Mar 10:11 And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her.
Mar 10:12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.

"the good shepherd giveth his life" - India in the 1st Century AD

A Shinto Shrine in Tokyo

India in the 1st Century AD 

A Japanese professor visited a museum in Calcutta, India.

He checked a collection of coins of India.  They displayed coins used along successive eras of history.  Then the Japanese researcher found something strange.

Most of coins used in India till the second or third century AD were made of gold.  But on the surfaces of these gold coins engraved were gods or kings who looked like Romans or Greeks.  So he searched for gold coins with images of Indian gods on.  In fact, such coins appeared only in the fourth century when India was in the Gupta era.

He was naturally convinced that merchants in ancient India used coins designed and produced in ancient Rome.  Those Indian merchants traded with their counterparts in Mediterranean Sea regions.  And they loved to use gold coins circulated in the cultural sphere subject to the Greek/Roman civilization.

Specifically in the middle of the first century AD, the Kushan Empire was established in India by Iranian people.  They monopolized trade between Parthia and Central India.  In this era, it is thought that Indians received not only interest the trade produced but also cultural and religious influences from the Hellenistic world.  One example were statutes of Buddha built in Gandhara.

But the Japanese professor thought that the influence from Mediterranean Sea regions must not have been only related to figurative arts.  Indian philosophy and religion must have been also subject to the cultural influx from ancient Greece or Rome.

In deed, about the first century AD Mahayana (greater vehicle) Buddhism appeared in India.  This school of Buddhism prevailed in the central Asia and China and as far as to Korea and Japan.  But the exact origin of this type of Buddhism is a mystery.  No scholars can identify the source of this school.

So, the Japanese professor concluded that some philosophy in Mediterranean Sea regions must have induced this religion in India around the 1st century AD.

Accordingly, I think some Christian legend that Thomas the Apostle traveled to India to preach the gospel must be true.  Maybe it was somebody else, but some disciples of Christ Jesus must have had a chance to promulgate their faith in ancient India.  And as an impact of such a mission was so great, Buddhists in India must have developed a new version of Buddhism, taking into some lessons those early Christian missionaries taught.

If this theory was true, even the Japanese Buddhism can be regarded as having been influenced from the beginning by the early Christianity conveyed through ancient India and China.

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BB%8F%E6%95%99%E3%81%A8%E3%82%AD%E3%83%AA%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E6%95%99
Statute of Buddha Made in Gandhara in the Era of Early Christianity



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Joh 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

"while they made ready, he fell into a trance" - American Corporations

Tokyo Suburbs

American Corporations

Aggregate market price ranking of US companies in these 30 years is as below.

1982

1 IBM

2 ATT

3 Exxon

4 GE

5 GM

6 Eastman Kodak

7 Schlumberger

8 Standard Oil of Indiana

9 Shell Oil

10 Standard Oil Company of California


1992

1 Exxon

2 Walmart

3 GE

4 Phillip Morris

5 ATT

6 Coca Cola

7 Merck

8 Royal Dutch

9 P and G

10 Bristol-Myers


2002

1 Microsoft

2 GE

3 Exxon

4 Walmart

5 Pfizer

6 Citigroup

7 J and J

8 AIG

9 IBM

10 Merck

2012

1 Apple

2 Exxon

3 Microsoft

4 GE

5 IBM

6 Chevron

7 J and J

8 ATT

9 P and G

10 Pfizer

The underlying philosophy of prosperity of these businesses is that "market controls society and economy."  And "in market there are businesses."  But what "governs businesses is capital."  Accordingly laws and political systems must be in favor of capitalists.  Put simply, the Government must serve big enterprises and wealthy people.

Of course  only 1% of Americans would respect this philosophy.  But can they effectively argue down those rich and very rich people who lavishly live on capitalism?

On the Rise of American Anti-Capitalism

Posted by Carson on Jun 8, 2013 

A recent popular article by Don Fitz from Washington University embodies this approach to capitalism.  In the post, titled “Inside the Psychology of the 1%,” Fitz says some of the following about capitalism:

.....

About 40% of Americans say they do not have a positive view of capitalism, according to Gallup, up from about 20% in 2002. Anti-capitalist sentiment has clearly been growing, fueled largely by resentment over gross inequality. Growing inequality should indeed concern us  deeply in today’s America, but there are no answers to be found in these straw-man arguments against the free market. 

It is also true that materialism is commonplace in the United States, but it is by no means unique to western or capitalist countries. In fact, one study found that Turkey was more materialistic than the United States, with three other European countries trailing closely behind. Another study found communist-leaning China to be significantly more materialistic than the United States. Obsession with accumulating objects is largely a human failing – one likely rooted in pre-historic conditions where basic survival resources were scarce and required constant collection. 

Whether by dishonesty or foolishness, anti-capitalist activists have located a a problem – materialism – and blamed it on capitalism without further research or evidence. They have already decided that capitalism is what’s wrong with our society and ignored anything that might tell them otherwise, confirming their own biases without considering the issue fairly. Much like materialism, this confirmation bias is a widespread human condition that is often detrimental to our happiness. 

We can accomplish much together in the fight against materialism and consumptionism, but only if we can advance past the false dichotomies and broad-stroke arguments put forth by leading anti-capitalists and their ultra-conservative counterparts.
http://www.rationalromantics.org/american-anti-capitalism-rising/

However one thing sure is that capitalism and the market economy are subject to technology which produces wealth, no matter wealth is from agriculture, modern manufacturing plants, or the software domain.  From Apple to Pfizer, thriving companies possess and rely on great bases of technology and science.  From Apple to Pfizer, thriving companies need, employ, and keep talented engineers and scientists but not actresses, actors, singers, painters, sportsmen, etc.

So, principles and philosophies which are essential factors for development of science and technology can check capitalism.  For example, if everybody concerned agrees that the quest of scientific truth requires faith in the God who hates rich men, no capitalism can stand long.

In this line, we should think that capitalism is wrong simply because scientists are not good Christians.  Indeed, if all the talented scientists and engineers start to protest again irresponsible corporate executives, mean investors, or foolish owners of businesses, capitalism should change.

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Act 10:9 On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour:
Act 10:10 And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance,
Act 10:11 And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending upon him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth:
Act 10:12 Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
Act 10:13 And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.

"nor brass in your purses"- The UN and Japan

Tokyo in 2013

The UN and Japan

Japan is actually the second largest, richest, and advanced country in the world in terms of economy and technology , following the US.

(China is not at the same level of advanced G8 countries in terms of culture, democracy, and justice. So, it cannot be counted in.)

Accordingly,  Japan provides the largest amount of money for operation of the United Nations only next to the US.


Financial Contribution to the United Nations
===========================================
Country           Funding               %        Number of Staff in UN

1. US               $618.5 million    22.0      3012

2. JAPAN        $276.1 million    10.8        805

3. Germany      $182   million      7.1      1182

4. France        $142.5 million      5.5      1878

5. UK             $132 million         5.1      1650

6. China         $131.2 million       5.1       540
===========================================

Apparently there are not enough Japanese workers in UN offices.  Japan has not sent a number of staff proportional to its contribution to the UN.

Anyway the United Nations fought historically Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan in early 1940s.  Japan and Germany look like still being forced to provide big money for the allied countries' organization called the United Nations as a kind of punishment.

It is also deplorable that when Japan tried to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China made a dirty and mean effort to prevent Japan from being elected for the position.

Nonetheless, people in the world acknowledge that Japan is the country that has contributed to the peace of the world after WWII.  The key to this Japanese stance for global peace lies in Article 9 of its Constitution.

ARTICLE 9. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.  

(2) To accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.

In contrast, the Chinese Constitution is designed on the premise that any war is necessary and inevitable for the Chinese Government and the Chinese Communist Party.  Some Articles of the Chinese Communist Party related to war are as follows:

Article 55. It is the sacred obligation of every citizen of the People's Republic of China to defend the motherland and resist aggression. It is the honourable duty of citizens of the People's Republic of China to perform military service and join the militia in accordance with the law. 

Article 62. The National People's Congress exercises the following functions and powers:
(14) To decide on questions of war and peace; and

Article 67. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress exercises the following functions and powers:
(18) To decide, when the National People's Congress is not in session, on the proclamation of a state of war in the event of an armed attack on the country or in fulfillment of international treaty obligations concerning common defence against aggression;

Article 93. The Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of China directs the armed forces of the country. The Central Military Commission is composed of the following: The Chairman; The Vice-Chairmen; and Members. The Chairman of the Central Military Commission has overall responsibility for the commission. The term of office of the Central Military Commission is the same as that of the National People's Congress.

From the beginning, China could not defeat the Empire of Japan in its 10-year-long war against the Empire through WWII.  The US provided a huge amount of military aid and armament for China before WWII.  Without this material and physical support from the US, Chinese elites and politicians should have left China, leaving citizens behind.  Possible Chinese government in exile should have been set in India, Australia, or Moscow.  .

To hide this past shame, China today acts as if it had been a major and influential member of the allied powers.  For this reason, China always makes a mad effort to prevent Japan from assuming a permanent seat of the UN Security Council.

China hints at opposition to Japan on UN seat
(AP/China Daily)
Updated: 2005-12-01 19:13 

China hinted on Thursday it would oppose Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, days before a visit by Secretary-General Kofi Annan that will address plans to reform the body. 

China hinted on Thursday it would oppose Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, days before a visit by Secretary-General Kofi Annan that will address plans to reform the body.

Japan's lobbying for a permanent seat on the council was one of the factors behind a wave of anti-Japanese protests in China earlier this year that were the latest manifestation of old resentments between the Asian giants over Japan's wartime aggression.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-12/01/content_499583.htm

However Japanese idea to expand the permanent members the UN Security Council has been supported most of G20 countries except China.

JAPAN'S BID FOR SECURITY COUNCIL REFORM & ITS ROLE IN THE UNITED NATIONS 

June 23, 2009
Speaker:
His Excellency Yukio Takasu, Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary, Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations
Presider: Michael Green, Senior Adviser & Japan Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies; Associate Professor, Georgetown University

His Excellency Yukio Takasu, Japan's Ambassador to the UN, spoke at Japan Society about the principles and process of Security Council reform. 

In January of this year, Japan began serving a two-year term as a nonpermanent member of the Security Council, Ambassador Takasu noted. This is Japan's tenth such term; aside from the five permanent members, the U.S., China, Russia, the UK and France, Japan has served more years on the Security Council than any other country.  

In campaigning for a permanent Security Council seat, Japan aims to make the Council "representative, effective and legitimate," he said. Simply put, "the current structure does not reflect the reality of the world we live in."
...

Forty-five years ago, the number of nonpermanent members was raised to 10, but there've been no expansions of the Council since then. Meanwhile, the overall membership of the UN has nearly quadrupled, to 192. There are today 54 member countries from Asia, but only two nonpermanent Security Council seats for Asian countries. 

There's general agreement that the Security Council should be enlarged, and indeed a "momentum for reform," but "no convergence of views yet" on the modality of the reform package, according to Ambassador Takasu.  

Three basic proposals are being debated. Japan, supported by Brazil, Germany, India and a number of other countries, advocates enlarging the Council from 15 to 25, with 11 permanent members. Two of the new permanent seats would go to Asia, two to Africa, one to Western Europe and one to Latin America; and there would be 14 nonpermanent members, four more than the current structure.  

African countries, meanwhile, urge expansion to 26, representing 11 permanent and 15 nonpermanent members, with the two new African permanent members having veto powers.
http://www.japansociety.org/japans_bid_for_security_council_reform__its_role_in_the_united_nations

In this context now the world is divided by those who support Japan and others who are forced to support China due to Chinese economic influences, if any.





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Mat 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
Mat 10:9 Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses,
Mat 10:10 Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat.

"they are no more twain" - The Two Worlds

Shibuya District, Tokyo

The Two Worlds

There are two domains in this world: the material one and the spiritual one.

Of course Christ Jesus is concerned with the latter.

Through him [Jesus] all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:3) 

Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place." (John 18:36)

The most mysterious thing in this world is that it needs material or specifically the human body to generate a human spirit and let it grow.

Why can't we exist as pure spiritual entities which never experience biological death of ourselves?

Why did the God opt to use this material universe to give birth to human beings which are rather spiritual creatures?

Or we had better wonder why the God expects mankind to have fear of death.

The battle between angels of the God and the Devil and its servants is being fought inside a man that is mortal.  But why?  Such a battle must be fought in the pure spiritual domain, mustn't it?

Mankind have yet no answer about this basic question related to their own souls, even if they could discover how this material university was created with Higgs particles.

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Mar 10:7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;
Mar 10:8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.
Mar 10:9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

"I am the door of the sheep" - Without Advent

Tokyo Scenes

Without Advent

Christ Jesus appeared at a right time in the human history.

It was 2000 years after the birth of Abraham.  And significantly it was 2000 years before our era around 2000.

He must have come after Alexander the Great and Caesar of the Roman.  But He must have come before the founder of Islam and the fall of the Roman Empire.

But what should have happened without the emergence of Christ Jesus?

In this case there would not have been a strong core in Europe after the Roman Empire in terms of cultural and religious unification of Europeans.  Only forces of arms would be the driving force for political expansion of leading tribes in Europe.  And a ruler of Europe after the Roman Empire would have been more cruel than the Roman Empire.  Such a new dominant country should have a different religion that other European countries which would not have been Christian countries, either.  Accordingly armed conflicts among such European countries without Christianity must have been more disastrous than they were actually in these 2000 years in Europe.

Of course such possible dominant countries would have been able to develop civilization and culture which had been first launched in ancient Greece and Rome.  But it would not have prevailed in the world, since Europe without a strong core of Christianity should have been one day demolished by Huns and Mongolians.

Judaists would have, however, survived the history without Christ's Coming.  They might not have persecuted as they were actually in Europe in the real history.  But, they must have been completely neglected like other minorities who would have followed miscellaneous religions.  Judaists should have been able to survive but survive as nothing.

So, without Advent, Europe today must have been shared by descendants of Huns, Mongoloids, and even Arabs.  The European race must have bee driven to the Atlantic Ocean and to Africa or to America.  If so, today white people should have lived only part of Africa and American Continent.  And most probably there would not have been the Industrial Revolution prevailing from England.

The world of today might not have been so different from what it was actually 2000 years ago.

But should we think of the power of Christianity only in terms of success in material civilization?

If mankind had been more spiritual, the world must have been different from what the above scenario suggests and what is is actually today surrounded by material fruits of our civilization.

Can we say that we did not need and do not need Christ Jesus in any context?  

 

http://web.joumon.jp.net/blog/2009/07/000872.html
Division of the World by Religion





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Joh 10:7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
Joh 10:8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.

Joh 10:9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.