My opinion of this week(545):
The new Fukuda Cabinet has got a very high popular vote like 56% in recent several news paper research. It is surely a kind of complementary popular vote to be observed in any new born cabinets. But it seems that this is the result of a good fight by Tarou Asou who run against Yasuo Fukuda in LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) presidential election last week.
Tarou Asou got a strong support from local party members and non-partisan independent voters during election campaign. If Tarou Asou did not run for the election, the election itself might have been very indifferent and unconcerned one. The birth of new cabinet head by Yasuo Fukuda could not draw so much interest from general public. It is a kind of very cynical phenomenon as far as my view is concerned, although it is just my personal view by itself.
Leaders of LDP and Fukuda cabinet members welcomed this high popular vote against their cabinet, but I wonder how long this high popular vote will last from now on. It depends on how new Fukuda cabinet achieve their jobs which they promise to do for Japanese people. The diet debate has not been made for almost two months since LDP's historical defeat in House of Council election on July 29. People are looking forward to hearing a heated debate between ruling LDP and opposing DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan). Whether Fukuda Cabinet can maintain this high popular vote or not, depends on the result of the diet discussion which starts next week.
Prime Minister Fukuda called his cabinet "ragged edge cabinet" which stands at a edge of a cliff. Most of leaders of LDP repeatedly express a sense of crisis of their party in the present political situation. They all talk about the necessity to work with opposing front in many occasions. But it seems that they still underestimate the fact that they have lost a majority vote at the House of Councils.
One of the most important bill in diet session which starts from now is "Anti Terrorism Law" which expires on early November. Fukuda Cabinet and ruling fronts will continue to make oil supply to multi national navies at Indian Ocean because they say it is very necessary contribution of Japan expected by international communities. Opposition front including DPJ are against the bill for the oil supply does not really help to reduce terrorism at Afghanistan. There must be some other ways to attain the purpose.
Fukuda Cabinet and ruling fronts seem to give up to extend the law because time is up due to their slow action and they plan to submit a new law which make it possible to resume oil supply to multi national navies as soon as possible. They intend to pass this new law regardless the fact that the bill would be refused at the House of Councils. The ruling front bring the bill back to the House of Representative and let the bill pass the bill by two third of affirmative vote by LDP and Komeitou Party. It is very possible physically. But the big question remains whether or not it is really possible politically.
It involves very basic question on exercise of the right of collective self-defense which is prohibited by the present article of constitution. The ruling fronts say it is not the exercise of the right of collective self-defense. But opposition fronts will strongly insist it is exactly to the infringement of the principle of the constitution.
Any of such arguments at the diet were made at the diet without showing some very basic facts related with oil supply. Under the new circumstance at upper house, opposition front will ask Fukuda Cabinet to supply various facts involved with oil supply operation because they have now the right to ask to present all sort of information about national political issues.
Many of new facts which have never been disclosed before in front Japanese people will be presented at diet discussion. Majority of affirmative views on the bill may change if some of those new facts are disclosed at the diet. There are a great doubt about the fact that oil supplied at Indian Ocean to US navy might have been used for Iraq war.
Provided that such fact were disclosed, there were great change on the present political situation including popular vote against ruling and opposition front.
Another strong strategic measures for opposition front is the submission of various bills at the House of Councils. DPJ has been criticized in many occasions in the past. Whenever they are against bills submitted by ruling front, they are said that they just oppose to anything without having any counter measures at all. Contrary to this situation, DPJ and opposition front can present any bills and be able to pass them at the House of Councils under the present circumstance.
In coming diet session, DPJ is scheduled to present some very important bills such as unification of pension system bill, bill to prohibit diversion of pension fees for other propose and so on. Pension issues are still remains number one concerns for people of Japan and this will draw a big interest once the debate start at coming diet session.
As I stated above already, ruling front still seem to underestimate the situation that this kind of new political process will start in coming diet session. I do hope that such process will become the first step to establish two-party system in Japan which is definitely necessary to develop democracy in this country.
2007/9/29
Tadashi HAYASE
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Start a full-fledged argument on Afghan and Iraq war at diet
My opinion of this week(544):
The U. N. Security Council has approved a resolution to extend the activities of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. The resolution also express gratitude for the first time for the maritime interdiction activities of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), to which Japan has dispatched Maritime Self-Defense Force vessels to help refueling in the Indian Ocean although no specific name of Japan was mentioned in the resolution.
The resolution was approved Wednesday with 14 votes in favor. Russia abstained from voting for several reasons. There exists a heated debate over how to interpret the wording of the appreciative comments in the preface to the resolution since the Antiterrorism Law, which underpins the dispatch of MSDF vessels used in OEF, is due to expire on Nov. 1. DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) is against the extension of the Antiterrorism Law for such MSDF operation has never been approved by any of UN resolution. Afghan war itself was a kind of war started by US only according to the interpretation of DPJ.
The views of several major Japanese papers on how this UN resolution will affect on political stance of DPJ differed very much each others. While Nikkei and Yomiuri said the resolution would be a big blow for DPJ in coming diet debate, Asahi and Mainichi said the resolution would not provide any big support for ruling front to extend the Law. The resolution caused some kind of adverse sentiment among members of U.N. Security Council for Japan made some lobbying activities against US to pass the resolution.
Yukio Hatoyama, Secretary General of DPJ, confirmed that the party would not change the opposition against the Law denouncing such lobbying activities at UN demanding appreciation for MSDF activities is rather shameful. The party will provide the firm reason why they are against the Law in coming Diet discussion.
The diet runs idle right now. Prime Minister Abe expressed his resignation from the position suddenly last Wednesday and election campaign to select new President of LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) is underway. The new Prime Minister will be elected on September 25 after new president of LDP elected on September 23. The diet session will start finally after such long absence.
All most two months have passed since the land slide victory of DPJ at House of Councils election on July 29. The extension of Antiterrorism Law has been a major issue during this period between ruling and opposition fronts. There were a number of approach against DPJ which oppose the Law from diplomatic sources such as US ambassador to Japan and German Prime Minister who visited Japan incidentally during this time. President Bush expressed concern on it directly against Prime Minister Abe at Sydney ASEAN meeting. And there came another pressure from UN as stated above. All approaches were from outside as a matter of fact before people hear any debate at diet. It is very strange indeed, isn't it?
The government and ruling front should start diet session immediately after new cabinet is born on September 25. It is expected that people can hear a number of new facts and information first time on MSDF activities at Indian Ocean since this law was initiated. The issue is not just whether continuation of oil supply to US and other nations is OK or not.
The issue will be concerned with more fundamental issues how Japan would cooperate with US, other allies and UN on various activities at Afghan and Iraq. The issue is basically related with right of collective defense.It is the very issue of Article 9 of Constitution. This is very basic issue of this country. All of acts which concerned with Afghan and Iraq war are now reinvestigated from this point of view.
We people of Japan are looking forward to hearing all of those very important and interesting resting debate at two entirely different stages of diet soon.
2007/9/22
Tadashi HAYASE
The U. N. Security Council has approved a resolution to extend the activities of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. The resolution also express gratitude for the first time for the maritime interdiction activities of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), to which Japan has dispatched Maritime Self-Defense Force vessels to help refueling in the Indian Ocean although no specific name of Japan was mentioned in the resolution.
The resolution was approved Wednesday with 14 votes in favor. Russia abstained from voting for several reasons. There exists a heated debate over how to interpret the wording of the appreciative comments in the preface to the resolution since the Antiterrorism Law, which underpins the dispatch of MSDF vessels used in OEF, is due to expire on Nov. 1. DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) is against the extension of the Antiterrorism Law for such MSDF operation has never been approved by any of UN resolution. Afghan war itself was a kind of war started by US only according to the interpretation of DPJ.
The views of several major Japanese papers on how this UN resolution will affect on political stance of DPJ differed very much each others. While Nikkei and Yomiuri said the resolution would be a big blow for DPJ in coming diet debate, Asahi and Mainichi said the resolution would not provide any big support for ruling front to extend the Law. The resolution caused some kind of adverse sentiment among members of U.N. Security Council for Japan made some lobbying activities against US to pass the resolution.
Yukio Hatoyama, Secretary General of DPJ, confirmed that the party would not change the opposition against the Law denouncing such lobbying activities at UN demanding appreciation for MSDF activities is rather shameful. The party will provide the firm reason why they are against the Law in coming Diet discussion.
The diet runs idle right now. Prime Minister Abe expressed his resignation from the position suddenly last Wednesday and election campaign to select new President of LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) is underway. The new Prime Minister will be elected on September 25 after new president of LDP elected on September 23. The diet session will start finally after such long absence.
All most two months have passed since the land slide victory of DPJ at House of Councils election on July 29. The extension of Antiterrorism Law has been a major issue during this period between ruling and opposition fronts. There were a number of approach against DPJ which oppose the Law from diplomatic sources such as US ambassador to Japan and German Prime Minister who visited Japan incidentally during this time. President Bush expressed concern on it directly against Prime Minister Abe at Sydney ASEAN meeting. And there came another pressure from UN as stated above. All approaches were from outside as a matter of fact before people hear any debate at diet. It is very strange indeed, isn't it?
The government and ruling front should start diet session immediately after new cabinet is born on September 25. It is expected that people can hear a number of new facts and information first time on MSDF activities at Indian Ocean since this law was initiated. The issue is not just whether continuation of oil supply to US and other nations is OK or not.
The issue will be concerned with more fundamental issues how Japan would cooperate with US, other allies and UN on various activities at Afghan and Iraq. The issue is basically related with right of collective defense.It is the very issue of Article 9 of Constitution. This is very basic issue of this country. All of acts which concerned with Afghan and Iraq war are now reinvestigated from this point of view.
We people of Japan are looking forward to hearing all of those very important and interesting resting debate at two entirely different stages of diet soon.
2007/9/22
Tadashi HAYASE
Monday, September 3, 2007
Why I use a hand-made PC
My opinion of this week(541)
I started using NEC PC8001 in 1979. It was nothing but very primitive BASIC perating machine. It was not such a very high spec application machines as those of today. I remember to pay \180,000 to buy PC8001, main memory of which is just only 32K, at a PC shop in Akihabara. It was the beginning of my PC life. Since then, I have been engrossed in PC in many ways in business and hobbies.
There were some MS-DOS days after BASIC and Windows became a major OS (Operating System)for PC in 1995. PC had become useful tools for business and personal use in any respect first time in the history. I have used a number of PCs during these period whenever there occurred the change of OS and change of communication environment. I have spent a lot of money to buy a kind of expensive machines throughout my PC careers.
Most of PCs I bought at BASIC and MS-DOS days were products of NEC. But since
Windows had become main OS in computer world, I started using hand-made PCs rather than store-bought PCs especially in the past seven years. Two of my Xp desk top machines are hand-made.
I did not make them by myself. My son assembled them based on my specifications
for PC such as type of mother board, CPU, main memory, and other peripherals.
Since Vista was introduced in January, I plan to change the old machine for PC of Vista Home Premium. I finally agreed my son to assemble Vista desktop PC two weeks ago at his summer vacation. It is considerably a high spec machine. CPU is AMD Dual Core 2, 2G byte main memory, 120G hard disc and so on. He proposed me to introduce I/O DATA's 22 inch wide display. The total cost is \110.000. If I bought the same spec machine at store , the cost may exceeds \200,000 easily.
But the reason why I use a hand-made machine is not the cost. Although assembly
of the machine itself is not quite difficult,there involves a lot of troublesome process before final use. Installation of OS, of various peripherals, of various utility software and so on. There is no guaranties for the completed products like store goods although there are guaranties for each parts. I really faced a number of troubles as a matter of facts whenever I use hand-made machines.
Nevertheless, why do I use a hand-made machine? I would rather buy a note PC from some stores for sure. But I would dare to use a hand-made machine in the case of desk-top.
The reason is rather clear. I can learn a lot of things by doing all sorts of troublesome works concerned with new hardware and software to install OS and other utilities software. You have to go into BIOS (BASIC INPUT OUTPUT SYSTEM) world from time to time for initial set-up.
Those works help me to utilize PC fully later on. Such process help me to
understand some of the basic knowhow to solve several hardware and software of PC. That may help me to answer several basic technical questions from member of PC club.
It is really troublesome and time consuming process as a matter of fact. But it is one of a pleasant and productive learning process as well for me.
2007/9/1
Tadashi HAYASE
I started using NEC PC8001 in 1979. It was nothing but very primitive BASIC perating machine. It was not such a very high spec application machines as those of today. I remember to pay \180,000 to buy PC8001, main memory of which is just only 32K, at a PC shop in Akihabara. It was the beginning of my PC life. Since then, I have been engrossed in PC in many ways in business and hobbies.
There were some MS-DOS days after BASIC and Windows became a major OS (Operating System)for PC in 1995. PC had become useful tools for business and personal use in any respect first time in the history. I have used a number of PCs during these period whenever there occurred the change of OS and change of communication environment. I have spent a lot of money to buy a kind of expensive machines throughout my PC careers.
Most of PCs I bought at BASIC and MS-DOS days were products of NEC. But since
Windows had become main OS in computer world, I started using hand-made PCs rather than store-bought PCs especially in the past seven years. Two of my Xp desk top machines are hand-made.
I did not make them by myself. My son assembled them based on my specifications
for PC such as type of mother board, CPU, main memory, and other peripherals.
Since Vista was introduced in January, I plan to change the old machine for PC of Vista Home Premium. I finally agreed my son to assemble Vista desktop PC two weeks ago at his summer vacation. It is considerably a high spec machine. CPU is AMD Dual Core 2, 2G byte main memory, 120G hard disc and so on. He proposed me to introduce I/O DATA's 22 inch wide display. The total cost is \110.000. If I bought the same spec machine at store , the cost may exceeds \200,000 easily.
But the reason why I use a hand-made machine is not the cost. Although assembly
of the machine itself is not quite difficult,there involves a lot of troublesome process before final use. Installation of OS, of various peripherals, of various utility software and so on. There is no guaranties for the completed products like store goods although there are guaranties for each parts. I really faced a number of troubles as a matter of facts whenever I use hand-made machines.
Nevertheless, why do I use a hand-made machine? I would rather buy a note PC from some stores for sure. But I would dare to use a hand-made machine in the case of desk-top.
The reason is rather clear. I can learn a lot of things by doing all sorts of troublesome works concerned with new hardware and software to install OS and other utilities software. You have to go into BIOS (BASIC INPUT OUTPUT SYSTEM) world from time to time for initial set-up.
Those works help me to utilize PC fully later on. Such process help me to
understand some of the basic knowhow to solve several hardware and software of PC. That may help me to answer several basic technical questions from member of PC club.
It is really troublesome and time consuming process as a matter of fact. But it is one of a pleasant and productive learning process as well for me.
2007/9/1
Tadashi HAYASE
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