A lot has happened this week, and it was hard to follow everything! There are important topics that I have skipped, but here is what I found interested this week:

Palme d’Or for Hirokazu Kore-Eda!

Hirokazu Kore-Eda won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his film 万引き家族 or, in English, Shoplifters! 😃

• 是枝裕和・これえだ ひろかず: Hirokazu Kore-Eda
• ンヌ国際映画祭・カンヌこくさいえいがさい: Cannes Film Festival
• パルムドール: Palme d’Or

According to this article, it has been 21 years since a Japanese director won the highest prize of Cannes. The last time was in 1997 for the film うなぎ by Shohei Imamura.

• 今村 昌平・いまむら しょうへい: Shohei Imamura

During the award ceremony, Kore-Eda said: “さすがに足が震えています。この場にいられることが本当に幸せです”.

• 授賞式・じゅしょうしき: award ceremony

I am not surprised that Kore-Eda should win the Palme d’Or because he has received critical acclaim at Cannes before and his films are always so enthusiastically welcomed in France. With Shoplifters, Kore-Eda has seen seven of his films selected in Cannes. Like father, like son won the Jury prize in 2013 and in 2004 young actor Yuya Yagira who played the leading role in Nobody knows had won Cannes’ Best Actor Award.

• 誰も知らない: “Nobody knows”
• そして父になる: “Like father, like son”
• 審査員賞・しんさいんしょう: Jury Prize. The word “審査員・しんさいん” means “a jury”, “a panel of judges”, “a board of examiners” and so on.
• 主演・しゅえん: the leading part or role.
• 柳楽優弥・やぎら ゆうや: Yuya Yagira
• 男優賞・だんゆうしょう: Best Actor Award

About Shoplifters, Kore-Eda said: “今の日本社会で隅に追いやられたり、見過ごされたりしている家族をどうしたら可視化できるかを考えて撮影した”.

Here is the trailer:

“新しい獣医大学の考えはいいね”

These are the words that Abe said during an interview with the head of Kake Gakuen in 2015, according to a new document of Ehime prefecture. (source: 獣医学部「首相『いいね』」 １５年に理事長に).

The Kake Gakuen scandal is not willing to let go… A new document has been provided by Ehime prefecture on Monday (21th). According to this document, Abe met the head of Kake Gakuen and was told about the new veterinary department that was planned to open:

“愛媛県は２１日、安倍晋三首相が２０１５年２月に学園理事長と面会し、獣医学部新設の構想について説明を受けたなどと記載された県作成の文書を参院に提出した“

Let’s have a look at this sentence.

In blue, the main argument:

• 愛媛県・えひめけん: Ehime Prefecture (this is the prefecture concerned by the Kake Gakuen business).
• 作成・さくせい: create (a document), prepare, draw up, write out. The document in question was created by the prefecture: 県作成
• 参院 or 参議院・さんぎいん: House of Councillors
• 提出・ていしゅつ: submission

⇒ On the 21st, Ehime prefecture provided an intern document to the House of Councillors.

In purple, we have some more information about the document.

• 理事長・りじちょう: the chief director
• 面会・めんかい: a meeting
• 獣医学部・じゅういがくぶ: a department of veterinary science
• 新設・しんせつ: founding, establishment
• 構想・こうそう: scheme, plan, concept, idea
• 記載・きさい: record, statement, mention

⇒ In this document is stated that Abe met the director of Kake Gakuen in February 2015 and that he received explanations about the plan to found the new veterinary department.

More damning is what Abe is supposed to have said:

“文書には、面会は１５分程度行われたとし、説明に対して首相が「新しい獣医大学の考えはいいね」と応じたなどと記されていた.”

In the document is written that

• the interview was 15 minutes long
• in response to the explanations he received, Abe said: 新しい獣医大学の考えはいいね, which proves that he knew and approved the project.

Furthermore, the document contains a “summary memo” 概要メモ・がいよう in which is written that Yanase said “獣医学部新設の話は総理案件になっている”.

The article notes that Abe said last year that he heard of the whole affair for the first time in January 2017 and concludes: “文書の記述が事実であれば、首相答弁は誤りだったことになる”. If the contents of the documents are authentic, the response that Abe made at the time is a “mistake”. Is 誤り・あやまり a euphemism for ウソ?

 On Tuesday (22nd), Abe denied that such a meeting took place. He said:

“ご指摘の日に加計孝太郎理事長と会ったことはございません。念のために昨日、官邸の記録を調べたところでございますが、確認できませんでした” (source)

• 加計孝太郎・かけこうたろう: Kotaro Kake, head of Kake Gakuen.
• 官邸・かんてい: the Official Residence of the Prime Minister

(Personally, I find it strange to say “I didn’t meet the chief of Kake Gakuen on the day in question, but just to be sure, I have checked our own documents”.)

Later, I read another article which says that the documents of the official residence are destroyed when their purpose is over. As a result, records of the day in question are no longer available:

“入邸記録については「使用目的終了後、遅滞なく廃棄する取り扱いとされている」と述べ、同日の記録は残っていないとした.”

• 遅滞なく・ちたいなく: forthwith, without delay, promptly, immediately.
• 廃棄・はいき: dispose of, throw away

As you can imagine, I think that the media, the opposition and the public opinion are sceptics when they are told that a document has been destroyed and does no longer exist. (Cf. the Moritomo Gakuen scandal or the GSDF daily log scandal).

As this editorial says, the question is now to know who is lying:

そうすると真実は三つに一つとなる。学園側が県に虚偽の報告をしたか、県が作り話をでっち上げたか、首相がウソをついているかだ。

Demo against the 高プロ

A part of the labour reform is called 高度プロフェッショナル制度 or 高プロ for short. If you have read my previous Friday posts, you know that the 高プロ is something that I don’t quite understand. It concerns some employee with a high salary and to me, it only states that their overtime hours will not be paid. There are counterparts, but they seem derisive (at least to me).

Source: 「高プロ」削除求め 過労死遺族が座り込み

On Tuesday (22th), an organisation called “全国過労死を考える家族の会” demonstrated (a sitting demo) in front of the Residence of the Prime Minister (官邸・かんてい) to ask for the removal of the 高プロ from the labour reform. This association is composed of family members of people who died from 過労死・かろうし. The article uses the word 遺族・いぞく which means “the family of a deceased person”.

The mother of an NHK journalist who died from 過労死 at the age of 31 says “命を奪うような法案を通すべきではない。人が死んでからでは遅い”.

A woman, whose husband committed suicide due to overwork says “夫は本当によく働いた。なぜ命を絶ったのか今もよく分からない。当事者の声を聞かずに高プロを通すのは許されない”.

• 当事者・とうじしゃ: person concerned, the interested party

There is another article on the topic: 高プロ「働かせ放題」懸念 離脱、選べるのか／現場、反発と歓迎. I will certainly read it, but I will not study it here (it is long!). What I found interesting is the expression “働かせ放題” to describe the 高プロ.

To work a little on my listening skills, I have also watched this “live” by Mainichi. The first half is about the labour reform and the second half is about Cannes and the Shoplifters. I don’t understand everything of course, but I do follow a little. I think I will work with the video to make a listening exercise and understand more about the labour reform. I don’t know how long the video remains available: Mainichi Live(32)「働き方改革法案」「是枝監督パルムドール」.

Moritomo Gakuen documents

Documents relative to the sale of public land to Moritomo Gakuen arrived at the Diet on Wednesday (23th). These documents had been falsified, as proven some time ago, and the Minister of Finance had already submitted the falsified version. However, the opposition had insisted that the authentic documents should also be submitted.

財務省は３月に改ざんを認めた際に改ざん内容を公表したが、野党の求めに応じて改ざん前の全文書を公開した (source)

The article is long, but I don’t see that it brings any new information. Everything it says had already been revealed some months ago. Other articles on this topic insist on the fact that officials from the Finance Ministry said that these documents did no longer exist. Which proves to have been a lie.

Conclusion

The more I practice this exercise (reading the news and write a post about it), the more I realise that the real stumbling block is nothing but laziness. Saying “this article is too difficult” is often a way to say “I am too lazy to read this”. All I can say is that I have seen a lot of “difficult articles” this week…

Have a nice weekend!

This week, I had the feeling that everything I tried to read was too difficult… It happens I guess… 😐

Some survey

Last week, I wrote about Yanase’s answers to the Diet concerning the Kake Gakuen scandal. He kept saying that he did not report his activities to Abe and that the Prime Minister did not know that arrangements were being made to favour his friend ‘s institution.

On Monday, Abe echoed Yanase’s assertion by saying “報告は受けていない” (source). In other words, he confirmed that Yanase did not report (報告・ほうこく) to him concerning the meeting he had with Kake’s people.

Abe added: “国家の重大事でない限り、（秘書官から）途中段階で説明を受けることはほとんどない” (source). As long as it is not an important case, it is rare that he receives explanations from his secretary while the work is still in progress.

To go on with the repercussions of Yanase’s hearing at the Diet, let’s take a look at the results of a survey of public opinion 世論調査 (よろんちょうさ).

Mainichi made public the result of a survey that took place over two days (on the 12th and 13th of May). First of all, Yanase said during his hearing that Abe was not involved in the Kake Gakuen scandal. The poll-takers were asked whether they believe it or not. The results are, I modestly think, not surprising: “「納得できない」が７５．５％に達した。納得できるは１４．７％だった” (source).

• 納得する・なっとくする: be convinced, be persuaded, satisfy oneself…

People are not supporting Abe’s major reform: the labour reform. 68,4% of the people surveyed think that there is no need for the Diet to approve the bill.

安倍政権が今国会の最重要法案と位置付ける働き方改革関連法案に関し、今国会で成立させるべきかを尋ねたところ「必要はない」が６８．４％で、「成立させるべき」が２０．３％だった.

To be honest, I don’t quite understand this sentence. 今国会・こんこっかい means the “current Diet session”, but I have difficulty seeing what it refers to exactly. After some research on the Internet, I reached the conclusion that a “Diet session” begins every year in January and last for 5 months. We are actually in the 196th Diet session, it opened on January 22th and will be closed on June 20th.

What do people mean when they say that there is “no need” for the current Diet session to approve the labour reform bill? I don’t know. The only thing that I can do is guess, and I would guess that people don’t want to rush things because they hope for political change. In any case, it is probable that Abe will not win a third mandate as head of the LPD (elections are in September). I don’t know to which extent it will affect the labour reform, though.

Sometimes, understanding the Japanese is not enough to understand the meaning or the implications of what is written. But I also find it very difficult to get into another’s country political system. I find it both utterly interesting (because it helps to understand how a country’s politics work) and utterly uninteresting (because it is somehow boresome to go through all this).

To go on with numbers, we also learnt through the survey that 49,1% of the poll-takers would like to see Finance Minister Taro ASO step down: ４９．１％が「麻生氏は辞任すべきだ」と回答した (source).

World Cup month-1!

I am not at all familiar with Japanese football but I know at least one name: 香川真司・かがわしんじ.

Kagawa returned to Japan on Monday (he plays in Dortmund) and will soon start his training for the World Cup. At his arrival at the airport, he reassured journalists about the injury he had in February this year. Because of this injury, Kagawa didn’t play for three months and was back on the field only on Saturday for a Bundesliga’s match (source).

This is what Kagawa said about his injury: “皆さんが思っている以上にケガの方は問題ない”. (source). To be honest, I don’t understand the 以上 in his sentence. It is frustrating to sometimes come against puzzling things, even after all this time spent reading in Japanese! I would understand 以上 if he had said that his injury was more serious than what people think. But he says the opposite, that his injury is not a problem. 以上 also has the meaning of “since”, “now that” (for example: since I did this, I must also do that) but I don’t see how it could make sense here. What would make sense would be that his injury is not as severe as what people think. But then why use 以上? 🤨

メディアで働く女性ネットワーク

Following the statement of Finance Minister Aso saying “セクハラ罪という罪はない” in reference to the Fukuda case, a network of women working in media requests apologies in a written document (source). The document is published on their facebook and I thought it would be a good exercise to study it but it is longer than I thought… 😯 I read it though, and it is both interesting and relatively easy to understand in Japanese. The Women in Media Network (WiMN) ask for three things:

1. “財務相の調査は適切かどうか、内閣府による調査をお願いします”
   • They ask for a proper investigation. Fukuda’s conduct was recognised as sexual harassment and he had to resign with a slight reduction of his pension but no proper investigation had taken place.
2. “麻生太郎財務相に、差別発言を止めるよう働きかけをお願いします”
   • In reference to Aso making statements to minimalise sexual harassment, the WiMN ask for measures to prevent such discriminatory statements in the future. They add that this kind of thing is a 二次被害 for the victim.
     • 差別発言・さべつはつげん
     • 働きかけ・はたらきかけ
3. “セクシュアル・ハラスメントをなくすため法整備をお願いします”
   • The WiMN ask for a law to prevent sexual harassment, citing other countries where it is punished according to law 刑事罰・けいじばつ like France or Taiwan.

(source)

Falsified documents in loan screening

While going through articles, I could see that something was going on involving a bank, a real estate agency and documents because I saw several articles on the subject and photos of people bowing in apology. But I could not make head nor tail of it because it was difficult to read in Japanese and even when I headed to sites in English, I found it hard to understand too (I am maybe reaching the limits of my brain 😦)

I was about to give up when I decided to make my way through it.

What I understood is this (but I may be mistaken):

The vocabulary and citation come from the Mainichi editorial: シェアハウス巡る不正融資 スルガ銀行の責任は重い.

There is a bank called スルガ銀行 who has granted loans to individuals willing to invest in real estate.

• 融資する・ゆうしする: accommodate somebody with a loan

The problem is that there is a high pressure of rising profits put on the employees of Suruga bank. As a result, the employees tried to facilitate loan contracts by either falsifying documents or accepting documents that they knew were falsified (I am not sure on this point).

• 増収増益・ぞうしゅうぞうえき: rising income and rising profits
• 改ざんする・かいざんする: falsify, tamper with

To be more concrete, the loan takers have to provide documents to justify their income and overall financial situation. The bank has to check this information (it is called “screening”) and decide whether the applicant is qualified for the loan or not. It is during this screening phase that the bank was “careless” with documents in order to finalise more loan contracts. As a result, the bank granted a loan to individuals who might have not qualified for it.

“年収や預金残高、土地の売買価格を水増しする改ざん”

• 預金残高・よきんざんだか: a bank account balance
• 売買・ばいばい: purchase and sale, transaction
• 水増し・みずまし: to pad out, to water (?), to increase

“審査がずさんだった”

• 審査・しんさ: screening (examination, inspection)
• ずさんな: careless, inaccurate, faulty

With their loan, these individuals bought real estate through an agency called “Smart Days” スマートデイズ社. The property bought are share-houses rented to women. Smart Days agency rents the houses and gives the owners their share of the rent.

Problem is, the rental rate decreased to such a point that Smart Days could no longer give the owners their share and eventually went bankrupt.

• 倒産・とうさん: bankruptcy

So now, these individuals who took a loan at Suruga Bank can no longer pay back a loan that was above their financial potential anyway.

What I still don’t understand is:

• who exactly falsified the documents?
• to which extend the real estate agency is involved?
• is this the doing of some employees put under pressure or is it a more organised system that involves both the bank and the real estate agency?

I must admit that I am not that interested in the subject… this means that I will let these questions unanswered because I don’t feel like reading more articles about it. But it was a personal challenge to understand at least the key features of the problem.

Hideki Saijo

To conclude this post, a song by Hideki Saijo 西城 秀樹（さいじょう・ひでき) who died on Thursday at the age of 63. Idol of the 70’s he never stopped singing and gave memorable songs like “傷だらけのローラ” and covered foreign songs like YMCA (ヤングマン ) or Careless Whispers (抱きしめてジルバ).

Here are some articles that caught my eye in the news this week!

Tokyo Rainbow Pride 2018

Around 7000 persons participated in Tokyo Rainbow Parade 2018 on Sunday (6th): 「愛に平等を」 ７０００人行進. The Tokyo Rainbow Pride took place for the first time in 2012, so it was the seventh edition this year. At first, I didn’t understand the number given by Mainichi, it seemed underestimated. But I guess that only 7000 persons took part in the Parade itself, while the event as a whole drew much more participants. It is at least what suggests the Wikipedia page.

The slogans were:

• 「すべての愛に平等を」
• 「同性婚法制化」
• 「誰も排除しない社会を」

The parade was only a part of the whole Tokyo Rainbow Pride that included concerts, discussions and seminars.

Members of the Diet also participated, both from the party in power and from the opposition: パレードには与野党の国会議員や自治体の議員も多数参加した.

• 国会議員・こっかいぎいん: member of the Diet
• 自治体・じちたい: local government

One politician said that in 2000 when he participated for the first time to the parade, which took place, I guess, unofficially, they marched in a “撮影禁止ゾーン”:

「２０００年に初めてパレードに参加した時は撮影禁止ゾーンで歩いたのに、今日はたくさんの仲間と歩けてうれしい。お祭りの盛り上がりに、法整備も追い付かなければ」

• 法整備・ほうせいび: I think that this is just another word for “law”.
• 追い付く・おいつく: catch up with

Sexual harassment and politics

Once again, a very interesting editorial by Mainichi: 「セクハラ罪はない」発言 麻生氏の非常識いつまで.

While referring to the Fukuda case, Minister of Finance Aso said: 「セクハラ罪という罪はない」「殺人とか強制わいせつとは違う」. As the editorial says, Aso is still protecting Fukuda: 依然として福田氏を擁護する姿勢を見せた.

• 擁護・ようご: protection, defence, support

Aso’s position is hard to grasp. On the one hand, he is responsible for Fukuda’s resignation and on the other hand, he goes on supporting Fukuda by such statements:

“遅きに失したとはいえ、財務省は福田氏の行為をセクハラと認定して処分した。ところが処分の最高責任者である麻生氏が、なぜこうした発言を続けるのだろうか。”

First, the ministry acknowledged that Fukuda’s behaviour was sexual harassment and took punishment actions (Fukuda resigned and his pension was lightly cut off). Afterwards, however, the minister minimises the whole thing, saying that harassment is not a crime.

As the editorial points out, the problem here is not to define in which category “sexual harassment” should fall, regarding the law, but to chose how the society positions itself concerning it. The article draws a parallel with いじめ, saying: “セクハラは重大な人権問題だ。いじめと同様、セクハラをなくそうとするのが政治家の務めのはずだ”.

Instead of which, some politicians stand up for harasser by making insensitive statements: “常識外れの発言”.

• 常識外れ・じょうしきはずれ: a lack of common sense, insensitivity

And we cannot overlook the fact that Abe didn’t criticise Aso:

こうした持論を繰り返す麻生氏に安倍晋三首相が何ら注意をしない点も見逃せない

• 見逃す・みのがす: overlook, miss, pass over

The article suggests that Abe does not want to lose Aso’s support for the election of the LPD:

“３選を目指す秋の自民党総裁選を控え、麻生氏の支持が得られなくなる事態を避けたいと考えているのか。政局的な思惑ばかりが優先している。”

• 総裁選・そうさいせん: presidential election (here, inside the party).
• 控える・ひかえる: be imminent
• 政局・せいきょく: politics

Politics concerns seem to be the priority for Abe…

No lift in the future new castle of Nagoya?

Last year, the city of Nagoya announced a reconstruction project for the castle 名古屋城・なごやじょう. The idea is to rebuild the castle in wood and gives it the appearance it had during Edo period. There are concerns that the actual castle would not resist a strong earthquake and the mayor decided to restore historical authenticity by adopting a wood structure.

The problem is that the project did not include a lift. Of course, disabled citizen groups protested, and discussions were to take place.

This week, local officials made public the result of these discussions: 天守閣は「エレベーターなし」に 市が方針.

“名古屋城天守閣の木造復元で、名古屋市は復元後の新天守閣にエレベーターを設置しない方針を固めた”.

• 天守閣・てんしゅかく: a castle tower
• 復元・ふくげん: restoration (to the original state), reconstruction

This means that when choosing between access for everyone (バリアフリー) and historical authenticity, they chose the last one: “市は「史実に忠実な復元」を優先するとの結論を選んだ”.

• 史実・しじつ: historical fact, historical authenticity
• 忠実・ちゅうじつ: faithfulness

The final decision will be given at the end of May, but the city is not likely to change the project, they say:

「戦時中に空襲で燃える前の、江戸時代の姿に戻すという本来の目的に向けて進めたい」

• 空襲・くうしゅう: air raid

Disabled citizen groups and other organisations that ask for barrier-free access have the feeling that no real discussion took place and that the city had decided against lifts from the beginning:

「形式的に話を聞いただけで、もともと決まっていたと思う。もっと話を聞いてほしかった」

Kake Gakuen scandal

To summarise the issue briefly, let’s say that Abe always said that he has nothing to do with the Kake Gakuen scandal and that he didn’t give any instruction to favour his friend’s institution. However, a document was found which stated that Yanase, Abe’s executive secretary at the time, said that the Kake Gakuen problem was Abe’s business. He said that during a meeting with the main actors, including people from the Kake Gakuen.

Asked about this, Yanase said that he could not remember that such a meeting took place.

Later, however, other documents were found that strongly suggest that the meeting did take place.

Yakase was heard again on Thursday (10th) and admitted that the meeting took place. Everything is in the title: 柳瀬氏「加計学園関係者と面会した」.

• 柳瀬 唯夫・やなせ ただお: Tadao YANASE, at the time, executive secretary to the Prime Minister

It becomes more and more difficult to believe that Abe didn’t know about the Kake Gakuen problem:

“また県文書は、柳瀬氏が面会時に獣医学部新設計画を「首相案件」と語ったとしている。安倍晋三首相は計画を知った時期に関し、学園が学部新設の事業者に決定した１７年１月２０日だったと答弁。首相秘書官だった柳瀬氏が知っていて首相は知らなかった、という説明も疑問視されそうだ。” (source)

First, the documents found in the prefecture state that during the meeting in question that took place in 2015, Yanase said that the project to open a department of veterinary medicine is 「首相案件」. This in itself tends to show that Abe knew about the project, even though Yanase still denies having said such a thing.

• 獣医学部・じゅういがくぶ: department of veterinary science
• 新設・しんせつ: founding, establishment

When asked about the date when the project was brought to Abe’s knowledge, Yanase answered that it was in 2017, when all was already settled.

• 答弁・とうべん: reply, answer

At the time Yanase was Executive Secretary for the Prime Minister (首相秘書官). As the article says (underlined part), it is strange that the Prime Minister didn’t know something that his Executive Secretary knew.

• 首相秘書官・しゅしょうひしょかん: Executive Secretary to the Prime Minister
• 疑問視する・ぎもんしする: look on with suspicion

Friday’s editorial by Mainichi reiterates this doubt:

ところが柳瀬氏は「加計」に限らず業者とは積極的に会っていたと強調し、面会について首相にいっさい報告もしなかったという。にわかに信じがたい説明である。

• いっさい: not at all, not a bit, absolutely not
• にわかに信じがたい: it is hard to believe it right away

When Yanase said, during his questioning at the Diet, that he does not report everything to Abe, sarcasm flew from the opposition seats.

「面会内容をいちいち、総理に報告しない」と述べて安倍首相の不関与を強調する姿に、野党席から「秘書官失格だ」とヤジが飛んだ。(source)

• 失格・しっかく: incapacity, disqualification
• やじ or 野次: heckling, catcalling, jeering, hooting. (I didn’t know any of those words 🙄, it seems that catcall is used street harassment and hoot is for owls)

Conclusion

That’s it for this week, just 4 themes but I think that Yanase’s coming out was of significance because it can further damage Abe’s popularity and, as I understood last week, push away the referendum for changing the Constitution. I realise that my post does not really reflect what was important in the news in Japan (it would be the summit Korea-Japan-China, along with Yanase’s hearing), but what struck me or interests me.