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Well, the Japanese election is behind us, and it
was a landslide for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and
Prime Minister Koizumi, who successfully chased the anti-reform
Diet members from his party and got a mandate for change from
the voters. It was a very interesting election in that it was a
lot more "American" than those of the past -- the
heads of each Japanese party campaigned directly to the people,
presenting their ideas on the main issue at hand, the
privatization of the Japanese post office along the lines of
Japan's privatizing of the old national railroad system during
the 1980s (which became the current six Japan Railroad
companies). Japan is a parliamentary democracy based on the
government of the U.K., with a Prime Minister elected by the
party that holds the most seats in the Diet. Since the leaders
are not chosen directly by the people, as in countries with
presidential elections, it creates a different dynamic between
the voters and the head honcho. This time around, there was the
sense that people were voting for the leader directly, rather
than just casting votes for their local representative in the
Diet.
Now that the LDP has gotten the go-ahead,
they'll be putting their plan to reform Japan's massive postal
apparatus into action. The problem with Japan Post isn't how
they deliver the mail, of course -- they're extremely polite and
hardworking, and J-List wouldn't be able to function without the
efforts of several post offices in our area. (J-List sends so
many packages, we once received a special thank-you plaque
presented by the director of the postal service.) The biggest
problems with the post office are the convenient but unnecessary
Kampo life insurance and postal savings accounts, which operate
under different rules than private insurance companies and banks
in Japan and which effectively keep the private sector on an
inferior level compared to these government-backed enterprises.
Japan could also afford to shed a few thousand of the 24,000
post offices that dot the country -- it'd ridiculous how many I
pass when driving around my town. Maybe they can combine some of
them and put some real parking lots in?
Japanese humor can be quite interesting, and
watching anime can teach you some words and phrases that are fun
to know. At the age of 37, I'm passed the "oniisan"
phase and am well on my way to being a true "ojisan"
(two words which mean older brother and uncle, respectively, but
in more general context refer to young-ish men in their 20s and
men starting their silver years). For whatever reason,
middle-aged men in Japan make the stupidest puns, which are
called "dajare" (dah-JAH-rey), but when I make puns my
kids use the word "dadajare," combining
"dada" (Daddy) with "dajare." Here are some
stupid Japanese phrases you can use if you know any Japanese
people. One comes from a commercial for Listerine which combined
the English words "bye bye" with the word for bacteria
(baikin) to make "bye bye-kin" (bye bye KEEN) which
caught on and was said by everyone for a while. Another involves
a phrase you might have heard in anime, "sonna bakana,"
which means "what a stupid..." and is said to express
shock, but if you change it to "sonna banana"
("what a banana!") it's mildly amusing. (The word
"banana" is pronounced in Japanese with the stress on
the first syllable, e.g. BAH-na-na.)
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