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Hello again from J-List. Well, Otakon is over,
the 20,000+ anime fans have gone home, and I'm headed back to
Japan today. It's been great seeing all the fans with their
cosplay, brimming with the vibrant energy of the Anime
Generation. The only thing I can compare a convention like this
to is Woodstock, back in my parents' day, but luckily for us,
great anime events like this happen every year.
While I've been away, Japan has been embroiled
in debate about the upcoming election, when voters will shake up
the allotment of seats to Japan's various political parties in
an effort to determine the future of Prime Minister Koizumi's
plan to privatize postal services. Japan's system of political
parties is quite different from the U.S., and politics in
general can be a challenge for gaijin like me to follow. First,
there's the mighty Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has
ruled almost uninterrupted since it was formed in 1955.
Opposition parties include the Democratic Party of Japan (the
strongest alternate party, which hopes for big gains this
election), the New Komeito (the unofficial political party of
the Sokka Gakkai conservative Buddhist movement, although they
won't admit to this publically), the Japan Communist Party and
so on. But since the LDP is so large and strong, often the real
battles take place between the various factions inside the
party, which are basically parties within the larger group. The
Mori faction (which Mr. Koizumi belongs to) is backing reforming
the postal services, while many members of the Hashimoto faction
(famously tied to pork-barrel construction projects, which are
legion in Japan) are opposing the privatization, even to the
point of quitting the LDP and making a new party, the Kokumin
Shinto or New People's Party. Incidentally, the word for faction
(habatsu) is often shortened to just "ha" when
denoting this or that group. So if you're a Mac user, then
you're Mac-ha (pronounced Makku-ha); if you prefer soba noodles
over udon, you are soba-ha, and so on. Just a little tidbit of
Japanese language for you ^_^
Although the people regularly mix themes from
other religions as if they were fashions (Christian weddings,
Shinto prayers for good luck on the New Year, and so on), by and
large Japan is a Buddhist nation. In many homes, you can find a
butsudan, or a Buddhist altar, basically a place where you go to
say prayers and revere family members who have passed on (since
Buddhism in Japan, at least in the Nichirenshu sect that my
wife's family practices, is all about remembering one's
ancestors). Once, my kids got into a fight over something, and
to change the subject I asked my daughter (who is quite a
spiritual girl) to show me how to pray properly at the butsudan,
something she does every morning before she goes off to school.
I thought, light some incense, how hard can that be? My daughter
surprised me by bringing out some small prayer books (she found
an easy-to-read one for me since I'm American) and reciting a
long prayer to Buddha, which she was very familiar with. I think
my eyes had turned into little black manga points as I watched
that, but it was really interesting, too.
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