Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Crows Vs. Falcons
In Tokyo, feral crows have become a serious problem. They clog traffic with dropped nuts. They poop on practically everything. They steal food from street vendors. They literally snatch candy from small children, then fly away. The city of Tokyo decided that they might fight back.
While most people would have gone on a crow hunt with firearms, or laid elaborate baited traps, Japan's famous for its odd solutions. In this case, they found a teenage falconry expert and had her pet falcon go hunting.
This has been more effective than expected. The falcon killed a bunch of crows, and the vast majority ran away in terror, deciding that if the humans can call up predators like that, they're probably not worth dealing with. Problem, crows?
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Watering Afghanistan
Japan and Algeria have a joint project going to make solar power plants that also refine solar cells from the desert sand. This would enable plants to effectively reproduce themselves -- haul the solar cells a few miles away, set them in a concrete lattice, and this is power plant #2. They hope to cover the Sahara desert in these power plants, which would provide half the energy needs of humankind. Here's the video:
This inspired another Japanese scientist to cut a deal in Afghanistan to bring water for humanitarian purposes, as well as sociological studies of the plausibility of this kind of thing. There's a video of that too except it's in Japanese and I can't find an English language version of it. Sorry. I'll report on the English language report that brought this to my attention.
It seems that his original plan was to make concrete rivers that slowly leech water into the surrounding environment, which encourages plant growth and fertility, which reinforces the river in a continuous positive feedback cycle. Japan has many concrete rivers due to paving over natural rivers (and then, to the bafflement of the rest of the world, claiming that the river is still in its natural state). So this technique would be quite familiar to him. Only...turns out concrete is kind of hard to buy and pour in Afghanistan. Too much disruption. So he changed the plan to use chicken wire and rocks. Afghans are often quite familiar with chicken wire for use in caging in domestic animals, and there's no shortage of rocks. Already a number of rivers have been built this way. First, make a box with chicken wire. Then fill that box with rocks. this is now the bank of the river. Make a bank all the way up a mountain, where one finds likely sources of water, and let the water flow. A small amount of the river's water leeches into the ground water, irrigating miles around it.
The scientist, Dr.Tetsu Nakamura, also likes this plan because it can now continue without him. Already Afghans have been trained in the basic techniques, and are now improving conditions in their own country on their own effort. If this succeeds, they will not need foreign aid, relief work, or any of the other usual solutions to poverty and want. And that's the way the charitable want it.
It was speculated that all this kicked off from a pun. Japan's native name for itself ("Nihon") translates to something like "Origin of the Sun," which leads Japanese people to think of the sun quite a lot, and makes them very enthusiastic about solar power. If this is true, then perhaps I should ask Chinese people for advice on geothermal energy, because their country's name translates literally as "Center nation."
(America is named after an explorer, and my country's full name is the United States of America because we're not very creative at coming up with national names.)
This inspired another Japanese scientist to cut a deal in Afghanistan to bring water for humanitarian purposes, as well as sociological studies of the plausibility of this kind of thing. There's a video of that too except it's in Japanese and I can't find an English language version of it. Sorry. I'll report on the English language report that brought this to my attention.
It seems that his original plan was to make concrete rivers that slowly leech water into the surrounding environment, which encourages plant growth and fertility, which reinforces the river in a continuous positive feedback cycle. Japan has many concrete rivers due to paving over natural rivers (and then, to the bafflement of the rest of the world, claiming that the river is still in its natural state). So this technique would be quite familiar to him. Only...turns out concrete is kind of hard to buy and pour in Afghanistan. Too much disruption. So he changed the plan to use chicken wire and rocks. Afghans are often quite familiar with chicken wire for use in caging in domestic animals, and there's no shortage of rocks. Already a number of rivers have been built this way. First, make a box with chicken wire. Then fill that box with rocks. this is now the bank of the river. Make a bank all the way up a mountain, where one finds likely sources of water, and let the water flow. A small amount of the river's water leeches into the ground water, irrigating miles around it.
The scientist, Dr.Tetsu Nakamura, also likes this plan because it can now continue without him. Already Afghans have been trained in the basic techniques, and are now improving conditions in their own country on their own effort. If this succeeds, they will not need foreign aid, relief work, or any of the other usual solutions to poverty and want. And that's the way the charitable want it.
It was speculated that all this kicked off from a pun. Japan's native name for itself ("Nihon") translates to something like "Origin of the Sun," which leads Japanese people to think of the sun quite a lot, and makes them very enthusiastic about solar power. If this is true, then perhaps I should ask Chinese people for advice on geothermal energy, because their country's name translates literally as "Center nation."
(America is named after an explorer, and my country's full name is the United States of America because we're not very creative at coming up with national names.)
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Hikkikomori City
"Hikkikomori" is a culturally-specific psychological syndrome, affecting only people of Japanese cultural upbringing. People with this condition are withdrawn and fearful of interacting with other people, and tend to live in their parents basement well into old age. They tend not to work, shrink from education, and spend all of their time on hobbies, much to the great irritation of everyone around them. The closest way to describe them in western psychology terms would be a mix of Agoraphobia (they do not wish to leave their homes at times), avoidant personality disorder (they really don't want to interact with anyone besides their families), Autism (they tend to have very narrow, obsessive hobbies, and again the not fitting in with society thing), and extreme shyness (they find even talking to a shop clerk to buy something unbearable). Japanese psychologists claim there are up to 1 million such people in Japan. Their parents all wish they'd just move out and get a goddamn job already.
I'm imagining a city, built beneath a mountain, and having space for up to 1 million people. A train, subway style, connects this city to the rest of Japan. The city is made of little rooms cut from the stone, and has electricity, water, and Internet. There are many gloomy apartments, perfect for Hikikomori hobbies. And living here has...conditions.
For one, people living here will be charged rent. You can earn it with psychological studies on re-socializing the Hikikomori, or, we'd have a number of jobs that don't require dealing with the general public. (Socializing tends to be easier for 'Hikki" people if the other person is also one. For one, there's a greater chance of empathy in the encounter.) Many jobs would revolve around things the person could do in a small room by them-self, like programming, art, industrial design, or assembly of small objects (which would arrive and be sent back by pneumatic tube). The most extroverted position available would be store clerk, who would sell things to people feeling particularly brave that day. (I predict most goods would be sold by vending machine.) Most contact would be by internet and telephone, which these kinds of people tend to be more comfortable with than face-to-face contact.
The train would regularly go back to surface Japan, so that people could visit their famlies, and hopefully, report an improved quality of life. Japan would probably want to regularly send in psychologists, both to study the disorder and to provide therapy to make people able to function outside this little city beneath the mountain.
If this existed, it would also test a theory popular with Japanese psychologists, that "Hikkis" are the way they are because they have different ideas about independence, interdependence, and the self, which subjects them to intense bullying in Japanese society, which makes them socially withdraw. If this theory is true, then "Hikki City" would thrive. If they are, like western psychologists suspect, just really obsessive agoraphobics with varying degrees of autism, then I think "Hikki city" residents would tend to not pay their rent until forced to move back to their family's home in shame.
I'm imagining a city, built beneath a mountain, and having space for up to 1 million people. A train, subway style, connects this city to the rest of Japan. The city is made of little rooms cut from the stone, and has electricity, water, and Internet. There are many gloomy apartments, perfect for Hikikomori hobbies. And living here has...conditions.
For one, people living here will be charged rent. You can earn it with psychological studies on re-socializing the Hikikomori, or, we'd have a number of jobs that don't require dealing with the general public. (Socializing tends to be easier for 'Hikki" people if the other person is also one. For one, there's a greater chance of empathy in the encounter.) Many jobs would revolve around things the person could do in a small room by them-self, like programming, art, industrial design, or assembly of small objects (which would arrive and be sent back by pneumatic tube). The most extroverted position available would be store clerk, who would sell things to people feeling particularly brave that day. (I predict most goods would be sold by vending machine.) Most contact would be by internet and telephone, which these kinds of people tend to be more comfortable with than face-to-face contact.
The train would regularly go back to surface Japan, so that people could visit their famlies, and hopefully, report an improved quality of life. Japan would probably want to regularly send in psychologists, both to study the disorder and to provide therapy to make people able to function outside this little city beneath the mountain.
If this existed, it would also test a theory popular with Japanese psychologists, that "Hikkis" are the way they are because they have different ideas about independence, interdependence, and the self, which subjects them to intense bullying in Japanese society, which makes them socially withdraw. If this theory is true, then "Hikki City" would thrive. If they are, like western psychologists suspect, just really obsessive agoraphobics with varying degrees of autism, then I think "Hikki city" residents would tend to not pay their rent until forced to move back to their family's home in shame.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Lightning Mushrooms
Japanese farmers have long believed that lightning strikes are great for mushroom farming. They said it made the mushrooms multiply. The world scoffed dismissively and went back to what they were doing.
And yet, a recent study shows that this is actually correct. A very short burst of extremely high voltage electricity improved yields by 80%.
This is of interest to mushroom farmers, who can inexpensively boost yields (since the burst need not be high amperage), and mushroom eaters, who can expect cheaper and more abundant mushrooms in the future. More mushrooms on my pizza, please.
And yet, a recent study shows that this is actually correct. A very short burst of extremely high voltage electricity improved yields by 80%.
This is of interest to mushroom farmers, who can inexpensively boost yields (since the burst need not be high amperage), and mushroom eaters, who can expect cheaper and more abundant mushrooms in the future. More mushrooms on my pizza, please.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Autotranslator
Japanese blogger Chikirin writes that he would like to see automatic translations of everything on the internet to allow multinational communication, in an article that he kindly translated into English. He believes that this would facilitate world understanding and peace.
I'm more skeptical. I question the logistics of it. Sure, there's babelfish and google translator, but they're often tripped up by slang, idioms, and puns. Running this very page through services like that shows that they trip up on words like "Just" and "Kinda" (slang misspelling for "kind of", meaning "slightly.") Also, they can't do anything for graphics, because computers generally have comparatively poor visual recognition. (OCR can often fail because the page was tilted a mere 2 degrees.) You'd be shocked at how many pages use "navigation buttons" that consist of an image of a word, because the page designer liked it that way.
Secondly because communication doesn't necessarily make peace. How much worse would trolling become when nationalism is added to the mix? I still have memories of when the Beijing Olympics inspired nationalistic Chinese young people to go post puff-pieces about their favorite country and then recoil in horror when these got less than glowing reviews. (or even got outright trolled instead.) How many discussions would bog down to "China sucks" "No, japan sucks" "No, USA sucks" "No, Poland sucks" and so on until the heat death of the universe?
thirdly, Chikirin says that "only the important information is translated, what about the trivial?" The trivial information is typically not translated exactly because it is trivial. Good translation takes effort, and it's not really worth anyone's time to translate quite a bit of the internet. Human time is limited, and machine translations are at best stilted, and like I pointed out above, often just plain wrong.
Worse if you want to translate all the video, too, because Speech recognition has a hidden problem: The computer's never quite sure of what it is that you're saying, but is making the best probable guesses. Thus compounding any possible misunderstandings.
I'm more skeptical. I question the logistics of it. Sure, there's babelfish and google translator, but they're often tripped up by slang, idioms, and puns. Running this very page through services like that shows that they trip up on words like "Just" and "Kinda" (slang misspelling for "kind of", meaning "slightly.") Also, they can't do anything for graphics, because computers generally have comparatively poor visual recognition. (OCR can often fail because the page was tilted a mere 2 degrees.) You'd be shocked at how many pages use "navigation buttons" that consist of an image of a word, because the page designer liked it that way.
Secondly because communication doesn't necessarily make peace. How much worse would trolling become when nationalism is added to the mix? I still have memories of when the Beijing Olympics inspired nationalistic Chinese young people to go post puff-pieces about their favorite country and then recoil in horror when these got less than glowing reviews. (or even got outright trolled instead.) How many discussions would bog down to "China sucks" "No, japan sucks" "No, USA sucks" "No, Poland sucks" and so on until the heat death of the universe?
thirdly, Chikirin says that "only the important information is translated, what about the trivial?" The trivial information is typically not translated exactly because it is trivial. Good translation takes effort, and it's not really worth anyone's time to translate quite a bit of the internet. Human time is limited, and machine translations are at best stilted, and like I pointed out above, often just plain wrong.
Worse if you want to translate all the video, too, because Speech recognition has a hidden problem: The computer's never quite sure of what it is that you're saying, but is making the best probable guesses. Thus compounding any possible misunderstandings.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Active Air Freshener
A Japanese Inventor has a car-bourne device to take the bad odors from an old car out of the compartment, using only water and electricity, both readily replaceable on the road, and neither one expensive.
"So the air is stale, big deal, cars don't smell that bad." I can hear you say. "And besides, car fresheners have existed for over 50 years now."
Smoking is way more common in Japan than in the United States. Half of Japanese adults smoke. Smoke quite a lot at that too. Many of their cars probably smell like an ancient ashtray. On top of that, the workday is really really long in much of Asia, leaving very little time to, you know, clean or freshen it. That special sauce that dripped into the carpet during the lunch rush? It's going to sit around and go bad, and mix with the cigarette funk. The article also mentions pollen.
Most impressively, the device works with 120ml (1/2 cup) of water and 12 volts, endlessly. The water's good for a day, and 12 volt accessories have been around since my father had his first car, they'll hardly be missed by the engine. (Compare this to traditional air fresheners, which work by being a scent infused chunk of fabric that will quickly run dry of perfume and need to be thrown away.)
As far as I'm able to trace with my limited translational tools, the sponsoring company, "Seiwa," is a maker of car accessories. This new product of theirs seems like a logical line extension.
I'm very impressed with Japan's use of environmental technology, and as far as I can tell, so is Japan. Part of the reason that I'm impressed is because they really don't have to. It would not harm their populace in the slightest if they polluted as much as Russia, or even the United States (Japan has about half the population of the United States, crammed into a series of islands about the size of California.) Japan is also deeply industrialized, which in most countries means a lot of pollution.
"So the air is stale, big deal, cars don't smell that bad." I can hear you say. "And besides, car fresheners have existed for over 50 years now."
Smoking is way more common in Japan than in the United States. Half of Japanese adults smoke. Smoke quite a lot at that too. Many of their cars probably smell like an ancient ashtray. On top of that, the workday is really really long in much of Asia, leaving very little time to, you know, clean or freshen it. That special sauce that dripped into the carpet during the lunch rush? It's going to sit around and go bad, and mix with the cigarette funk. The article also mentions pollen.
Most impressively, the device works with 120ml (1/2 cup) of water and 12 volts, endlessly. The water's good for a day, and 12 volt accessories have been around since my father had his first car, they'll hardly be missed by the engine. (Compare this to traditional air fresheners, which work by being a scent infused chunk of fabric that will quickly run dry of perfume and need to be thrown away.)
As far as I'm able to trace with my limited translational tools, the sponsoring company, "Seiwa," is a maker of car accessories. This new product of theirs seems like a logical line extension.
I'm very impressed with Japan's use of environmental technology, and as far as I can tell, so is Japan. Part of the reason that I'm impressed is because they really don't have to. It would not harm their populace in the slightest if they polluted as much as Russia, or even the United States (Japan has about half the population of the United States, crammed into a series of islands about the size of California.) Japan is also deeply industrialized, which in most countries means a lot of pollution.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Chindogu: The mad engineering of Japan
I could write this entire blog on Japan alone. They have a long history of unusual invention, unusual perspective, and general oddness in the eyes of the rest of the world. This was made further manifest in 1995, when an inventor, Mr. Kawakami, came up with the idea of mocking the pop-culture tendency to make gadgets to solve problems with gadgets that were so utterly bizarre or impractical that no one in their right mind would use them. He calls this "Chindogu."
"Chindogu" literally translates "unusual tool," but they're more than just unusual. They're playfully un-useless. That is to say, they're technically useful, but so odd or embarrassing that they cannot be used. The inventor speculates that a proper chindogu is not patented, and is not satire, but it's hard to imagine many of them being anything else.
Commonly listed Chindogus are Chopsticks with attached fan for excessively hot noodles, some kind of toilet paper hat so that you're never far from a usable tissue (which might be practical for someone with a severe cold or hayfever), a feather-duster whose handle contains a cocktail shaker (since one should be rewarded for cleaning diligently, right?), and a drysuit for the aquaphobic (which I'm fairly sure is missing the point of aquaphobia). And yes, some wag has indeed put together a solar-powered flashlight, which appears in many jokes about stupidity.
Truly, Mr. Kawakami is a master of mad engineering, even if his ultimate goal is to mock it. He also succeeds as a conventional engineer. An interview with him plugs a DVD that he made to strengthen weakened eye muscles, since eye-strain is at an all time high with the constant reading and working at computer screens and other close-range precision irritations.
"Chindogu" literally translates "unusual tool," but they're more than just unusual. They're playfully un-useless. That is to say, they're technically useful, but so odd or embarrassing that they cannot be used. The inventor speculates that a proper chindogu is not patented, and is not satire, but it's hard to imagine many of them being anything else.
Commonly listed Chindogus are Chopsticks with attached fan for excessively hot noodles, some kind of toilet paper hat so that you're never far from a usable tissue (which might be practical for someone with a severe cold or hayfever), a feather-duster whose handle contains a cocktail shaker (since one should be rewarded for cleaning diligently, right?), and a drysuit for the aquaphobic (which I'm fairly sure is missing the point of aquaphobia). And yes, some wag has indeed put together a solar-powered flashlight, which appears in many jokes about stupidity.
Truly, Mr. Kawakami is a master of mad engineering, even if his ultimate goal is to mock it. He also succeeds as a conventional engineer. An interview with him plugs a DVD that he made to strengthen weakened eye muscles, since eye-strain is at an all time high with the constant reading and working at computer screens and other close-range precision irritations.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
What Japan Thinks -- Can I achieve people's goals?
The blog "What Japan Thinks," which carries translated opinion polls from Japan on a number of interesting topics. Recently, they ran a poll about what 20 things people would like to see achieved in the future. Many of these goals are technologically achievable. I will print the list with my predictions as to the possibility of achieving each item.
> Global warming averted
I covered this. Can be done.
> A world without war
War has been reduced recently, but I do not think it can be completely eliminated. Some people do seem to prefer violence to solve their problems with other groups.
> Medical advances (cancer-defeating medicines, etc)
Medicine will advance in the future, although I do not have enough experience in the field to determine in what way it will change. Researchers are trying hard right now for specific advances, such as anticancer medicines, but progress in unpredictable.
> Decent pensions for old folk
This is a matter of determining how it will be paid for. Should it be paid for by the government (taxes would rise), by the retiring people themselves (money taken from paychecks), or inflation (bad idea)?
> Elimination of bullying and discrimination
Possible. Psychological and sociological studies would be required.
> Barrier-free environment for disabled and old folk
I do not understand what this entry refers to. Physical access is certainly possible, and in the United States, where I live, it is mandatory. Institutions MUST provide accessibility options, or be fined.
> Higher moral conduct by politicians and public servants
Possible. The relevant laws might need to be changed. Remove, prosecute, or retire dishonest, crooked, or corrupt public figures.
> Society that doesn't resist child-birth
I think this entry is referring to Japan's incredibly low birth rate. The CIA factbook claims that Japan has 7.87 births per 1000 population, and a death rate of 9.26 per 1000 population, translating into a growth rate of -0.139. If this trend continues, there will be no Japanese people by the year 3000. For reference, the US has a birthrate of 14.18 and a death rate of 8.27. Japan is averaging slightly less than 1 baby per couple.
I attribute Japan's low birth rate to exhaustion, based off of what I have heard. In a stereotypical couple, husband works 18 hour days, wife has similarly ridiculous workload. They meet up only for evening meal and sleep, and are too tired to have sex, much less actually make a baby. Other, less formal, articles report wives complaining that if they did have a baby, their husband would do nothing to contribute to its welfare. My recommendation is to reduce the workload of both sexes, perhaps through robotics.
> Society without a rich-poor divide
This is unlikely to be solved. Even communism has not removed hierarchies of wealth.
> A law-abiding, crime-free, safe and secure world
This is continuously improving, but will never be 100% solved without some kind of preemptive test for sociopathy.
> Earthquake prediction
Supercomputers and geology combine reasonably well, and I believe this will be available within 50 years.
> Better moral standards and factual information from television and newspapers
Improvable, by social and legal methods that I do not understand.
> A society where Japanese hold the "wa" dear in their hearts
"Wa" translates to something on the order of "social harmony," and is one of Japan's bigger social values. Looking in from the outside, it would seem that this is accomplished already. (Watch me receive several tons of hate-mail telling me how stupid I am for believing this.)
> Ubiquitous Internet
Definitely.
> Resolution of Japan's territorial problems
Japan has a few overlapping land claims with some of its neighbors. The "Southern Kuril Islands" are run by Russia, but claimed by Japan as well. Japan and South Korea claim the Liancourt Rocks. Japan, China, and Taiwan all claim "Senkaku-Shoto," (which are apparently some small islands near Taiwan, called "Diaoyutai" by the Chinese sources. I was unable to find a neutral name.) and incessant quarreling with Korea and China occurs in the East China Sea.
Somebody has to give up their claim, and all parties are stubborn for nationalist reasons. Namely, giving in would make their own nation "look bad."
> Voting for Prime Minister
A constitutional amendment should handle this.
> Privatization of public facilities including NHK
Privatization is a hairy problem, in that you must sell off public works, and everyone and their brother inevitably finds something crooked about the way it was sold, especially those that lost the auction.
An economist would probably have some useful advice.
> Ubiquitous electronic cash
While credit cards are quite common in the United States, a very large portion of Japanese commerce involves street vendors, who are literally incapable of accepting anything other than cash.
Whatever the solution is, it must be mobile, cheap, and both vendor and customer easily trained for it.
> Maintenance of current levels of freedom of speech
I need a sociologist to explain what is meant here. Maintain by preventing decay of existing levels, or prevention of increase? I favor more, free speech is one of my culture's biggest values.
> Japan becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council
This is going to be quite an uphill diplomatic battle. The opposition of China and Korea, which are still angry over things that happened during World War II, are going to oppose this. China is a permanent member, and is likely the biggest source of vetoes involved. Achieving this goal will likely involve appeasing China in some form or other.
> Global warming averted
I covered this. Can be done.
> A world without war
War has been reduced recently, but I do not think it can be completely eliminated. Some people do seem to prefer violence to solve their problems with other groups.
> Medical advances (cancer-defeating medicines, etc)
Medicine will advance in the future, although I do not have enough experience in the field to determine in what way it will change. Researchers are trying hard right now for specific advances, such as anticancer medicines, but progress in unpredictable.
> Decent pensions for old folk
This is a matter of determining how it will be paid for. Should it be paid for by the government (taxes would rise), by the retiring people themselves (money taken from paychecks), or inflation (bad idea)?
> Elimination of bullying and discrimination
Possible. Psychological and sociological studies would be required.
> Barrier-free environment for disabled and old folk
I do not understand what this entry refers to. Physical access is certainly possible, and in the United States, where I live, it is mandatory. Institutions MUST provide accessibility options, or be fined.
> Higher moral conduct by politicians and public servants
Possible. The relevant laws might need to be changed. Remove, prosecute, or retire dishonest, crooked, or corrupt public figures.
> Society that doesn't resist child-birth
I think this entry is referring to Japan's incredibly low birth rate. The CIA factbook claims that Japan has 7.87 births per 1000 population, and a death rate of 9.26 per 1000 population, translating into a growth rate of -0.139. If this trend continues, there will be no Japanese people by the year 3000. For reference, the US has a birthrate of 14.18 and a death rate of 8.27. Japan is averaging slightly less than 1 baby per couple.
I attribute Japan's low birth rate to exhaustion, based off of what I have heard. In a stereotypical couple, husband works 18 hour days, wife has similarly ridiculous workload. They meet up only for evening meal and sleep, and are too tired to have sex, much less actually make a baby. Other, less formal, articles report wives complaining that if they did have a baby, their husband would do nothing to contribute to its welfare. My recommendation is to reduce the workload of both sexes, perhaps through robotics.
> Society without a rich-poor divide
This is unlikely to be solved. Even communism has not removed hierarchies of wealth.
> A law-abiding, crime-free, safe and secure world
This is continuously improving, but will never be 100% solved without some kind of preemptive test for sociopathy.
> Earthquake prediction
Supercomputers and geology combine reasonably well, and I believe this will be available within 50 years.
> Better moral standards and factual information from television and newspapers
Improvable, by social and legal methods that I do not understand.
> A society where Japanese hold the "wa" dear in their hearts
"Wa" translates to something on the order of "social harmony," and is one of Japan's bigger social values. Looking in from the outside, it would seem that this is accomplished already. (Watch me receive several tons of hate-mail telling me how stupid I am for believing this.)
> Ubiquitous Internet
Definitely.
> Resolution of Japan's territorial problems
Japan has a few overlapping land claims with some of its neighbors. The "Southern Kuril Islands" are run by Russia, but claimed by Japan as well. Japan and South Korea claim the Liancourt Rocks. Japan, China, and Taiwan all claim "Senkaku-Shoto," (which are apparently some small islands near Taiwan, called "Diaoyutai" by the Chinese sources. I was unable to find a neutral name.) and incessant quarreling with Korea and China occurs in the East China Sea.
Somebody has to give up their claim, and all parties are stubborn for nationalist reasons. Namely, giving in would make their own nation "look bad."
> Voting for Prime Minister
A constitutional amendment should handle this.
> Privatization of public facilities including NHK
Privatization is a hairy problem, in that you must sell off public works, and everyone and their brother inevitably finds something crooked about the way it was sold, especially those that lost the auction.
An economist would probably have some useful advice.
> Ubiquitous electronic cash
While credit cards are quite common in the United States, a very large portion of Japanese commerce involves street vendors, who are literally incapable of accepting anything other than cash.
Whatever the solution is, it must be mobile, cheap, and both vendor and customer easily trained for it.
> Maintenance of current levels of freedom of speech
I need a sociologist to explain what is meant here. Maintain by preventing decay of existing levels, or prevention of increase? I favor more, free speech is one of my culture's biggest values.
> Japan becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council
This is going to be quite an uphill diplomatic battle. The opposition of China and Korea, which are still angry over things that happened during World War II, are going to oppose this. China is a permanent member, and is likely the biggest source of vetoes involved. Achieving this goal will likely involve appeasing China in some form or other.
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