Student Presentation Summaries: Fall 2016

Ochi:
     In this semester, I present about the incident, China stole American drone. The relationship between China and America directly affect Japanese economy and politics, So I am interested in this incident. In this presentation, I compared three media, Asahi, Nikkei and Yomiuri and introduced three difference of expression which each media use.
    First, I compared the difference of the word which each media use to express Chinese ship.  Second, I compared about the difference of pictures. I compared Nikkei and Yomiuri. And finally, I compared that what foreign media did they introduced in order to impress reader against china. To compare three media, I found that reader`s expression about this incident must change depending on which newspaper readers read.
    Through this presentation, I want you to tell the danger of one article reading. To avoid prejudice, we have to compare some newspaper.

Mai:
I made a presentation on comparison of newspapers. I compared 4 newspapers. 「Asahi・ Mainichi ・Yomiuri・Nikkei 」
I compared how 4 newspapers report of the collective right to self defense.
Each newspaper had different opinions about the collective right to self-defense.
To my  surprise,the results of the public opinion polls  are different from each newspaper.

Of course,each newspaper has different characteristics. Also they have freedom of speech and expression. But the newspaper has the power that can affect the public opinion.
If newspapers don't report right information , the nation is led to the wrong thought.
So newspapers must report right information and the truth.

Finally, there are some things we can do. For example,we should read some newspapers not only one.
If you read only one newspaper,you would be affected by the newspaper directly. You may have a bias. A bias  brainwashes  you and prevents you from the truth.
So we should  read and compare some newspapers to see through the truth.

Masato:

I talked about why anti foreign sentiment is negative. I read some newspaper about what is happening in Europe after Brexit and Trump’s victory.

They caused populism to be spread all around Europe and it would be difficult for EU nations to maintain good relations with each other.

The key country is France because the strong candidate,Le Pen, would take France out of EU and she also suggest many EU countries to leave the union.

As non-Japanese media covers the political issues in Europe, Japanese newspaper says populism would be spread in Asian countries.

Yukako:

My presentation was about “Obama’s visit to Hiroshima.” I compared three articles from the Japan Times, New York Times, and the Korea Times, and realized that the three articles were more toward to the “general” opinions in their country. For Japan Times, they reported positive reactions about the Obama’s historic visit to Hiroshima because they think that Obama’s visit will be a reminder of the nuclear age. Also, Obama’s visit will tighten the relationship between the U.S. and Japan. New York Times was in a neutral position but more toward to the positive. They reported about the angry Japanese survivors who seek for apology and the negative opinions from the U.S. citizens who feel that the visit will look like an apology for dropping the atomic bomb. However, they generally released articles praising that Obama has been making many historic visits to other countries, and the visit to Hiroshima will be another one. However, Korea Times has negative reactions because they were abused by the Japanese army during the WWII, and the Obama’s visit will make an image of Japan as a “victim” of the war. Korea and other Asian countries like China are afraid that Japan’s wartime crime will be forgotten by the Obama’s visit. On December 26th and 27th, Prime Minister Abe will make a historic visit to Pearl Harbor, so I am looking forward to the reaction of the world.  

Kohei:  

When Donald John Trump was determined to be the 45th president of the United States by vote, How the country’s media reported?

〜主要国のメディアはトランプが大統領に決まった時何を報じたのか〜

I compared four country media’s article reported about Trump, and found the difference of the tendency to emphasize.

1. US

We could say that U.S. media wanted to report about” Why media’s forecast was wrong.” or” We need to come to terms with the fact that Trump would be our president”.

2. Japan

“Populism” “his manifest” “Why Trump go win” is seen in common. There is no opinion, just reported how Japan government move for the result of the election, or how the rich acted.

3. China

They made an article only about “Trump won” or “We hope Trump to~”.

4. France

Just AFP, but their articles were very objective.

While searching this, I felt that it is hard to know what foreign country’s people think because of the difference of history, culture, word and so on. On the other hand, there is some same point to see the news.

Welcome! Behind the News Fall 2016 at Meiji University

Welcome! It was wonderful to meet you all on Thursday.

I was interested to see that many of you already follow the news. Here are the main news sources you already use:

Newspapers: Asahi Shimbun, Nikkei Shimbun
TV: TBS、日テレ
Internet: Yahoo! News, BBC One Minute, Asahi, CNN Student News, TED Talks
Magazines: Newsweek

Please comment: Are there other sources you like?

Here are news stories that you find most important right now:

Issues regarding the presidential election in the United States interests three of you.

Syria, environmental issues, and nuclear issues [North Korea's nuclear testing,
Myanmar's ratification of Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT)] interested two students each.

However, one of you is also interested in the refugee problems in Europe (related to Syria) and ongoing nuclear power plant issues in Japan (related to nuclear issues).

Other important stories of interest include important domestic issues in Japan:

Territorial issues
US military bases in Okinawa
Typhoon damage this summer
The move of Tsukiji Fish Market
Women and work / politics
The opposition movement to the Security Laws in Japan

Please comment: Which of these you think is the most interesting and why.

Have a great weekend!

Student Presentations: Yuri

I made a presentation about the November 8th election in Myanmar. First, I talked about Myanmar's history, and then explain the election with greater details. 

Since a coup occured in 1962, Myanmar's politics had been controled by military power. When socialistic government ended by a demonstration for democracy in 1988, SLORC started to control political power. in 1990, free election was held and NLD won but the government didn't transfer political power to NLD. Since this election, the government and Aung San Suu Kyi were in opposition and she got under house arrest until she was released in 2010. next year, Thein Sein was elected as a new president and SPDC transferred political power. 

 On the November 8th election, NLD got over 80% of seats. This is one point of the election because Aung San Suu Kyi can be a president. Now she cant be a president because of the constitution, so she can change it and become a president.

 And the November 8th election gave effects on other neighbering countries. According to Nikkei asian review, Myanmar is one of the influence countries. the voting process was so

smooth and free that everyone couldnt expect.

Student Presentations: Piljun

I made the presentation on December 8^th about the economic situation in Syria and refugees. I chose these topics because our class discussed a lot about the political situation in Syria and refugees, however, if we know both political and economic situations, we could understand more clearly.

First, I introduced the economy of Middle East. Early December, The famous French economist, Thomas Piketty, said Middle East is ‘the most unequal on the planet.’ Because oil monarchies such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirate controlled the wealth in Middle East, and it caused widening gap in the income inequality. According to his research, these countries own over 60 percent of wealth in Middle East. Moreover, youth unemployment rates is extremely high.

Second, I showed the economy of Syria. Syria’s two main sources of income are oil industries and agriculture businesses. However, the both of industries are damaged past a decades. Oil industries held nearly 30 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Syria, but the total oil production keep declined since 1996. In 2011, it dropped in half than at peak times. In addition, Agriculture is also damaged because of the extreme drought in 2006 to 2010. According to the data, 80,000 farmers lose their job at that moments, and over a million people fled to rural areas for finding jobs. Now, Syria’s oil export decreased tremendously, hence GDP is decreasing and the unemployment rate is increasing which means the economy of Syria is doomed.

Finally, I talked about economic boons and burdens of accepting refugees. The countries have to pay lots of money for accepting these people. Many economists predicts Germany will spend 21 billion euros in this year. On the other hands, accepting refugees has the economic benefits. The European countries are aging society. These refugees would replace the old labor force in Europe. More population means more consumption and more taxes; therefore, it will be advantages in long-term.

Links

UnderstandingSyria: From Pre-Civil War to Post-Assad

This might be the most controversial theory for what’s behind the rise of ISIS

How will refugeesaffect European economies?

Student Presentations: Anna

Anna:

In my presentation I first talked about Switzerland. It has a population of about eight million people with 24% people being foreigners and 35% having a migration background. This, its position in Europe and its four official languages contributes to the diversity of the country, which also makes it attractive to refugees: Switzerland has a long history of people seeking for protection in the country.

After I presented the history of refugees in Switzerland since the Second World War I went on explaining the 1951 Refugee Convention which defines a refugee, sets out the rights of individuals who are granted asylum and the responsibilities of nations that grant asylum.

A chart displayed the asylum applications from January to October 2015 in Switzerland and showed that almost 30’000 people were seeking for asylum in this time. Most of the people are coming from Eritrea, followed by Afghanistan and Syria.

Then I presented the procedure of applying for asylum in Switzerland. Most of the people seeking for asylum get rejected during this procedure. In 2013 only 30% of the refugees got admitted. But with the refugee crisis in Europe the restrictions are weakened so that more people from Syria or Eritrea can get accepted.

But there are also a lot of people who are worried with the amount of people migrating to Switzerland, which is why there is a strong support for the right winged party SVP. They worry about their jobs, their wage level or the criminal rate even though the statistics doesn’t support this assumption. For example, there can’t be found a higher criminal rate for foreigners than for Swiss people.

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to talk about this topic in class. It was very interesting!

Links:

•State Secretariat for Migration SEM, (November 2010). https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home.html

•Swiss Refugee Council, (November 2010). https://www.refugeecouncil.ch/asylum-law/asylum-procedure.html

•The UN Refugge Agency, (November 2010). http://www.unhcr.ch

•Swiss Federal Statistical Office, (November 2010). http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/en/index.html

•New Journal of Zurich, (November 2010). http://www.nzz.ch

Student Presentations: Fukumi

Fukumi

In 8/14, Mr. Abe issued a statement on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
But in past, the statements on the 50^th and 60^th anniversary were announced and both statements expressed the feeling of deep remorse (≒strong regret) and heartfelt (≒sincere) apology for inflicting immeasurable damage and suffering by colonial rule and aggression (≒invasion).

The remarkable point of 70^th statement was how much Mr. Abe would follow these past statements.
And there are four keywords, “colonial rule”, “aggression”, “deep remorse”, and “apology”, are especially paid attention.
Actually, Mr. Abe used all four keywords by indirectly quoting former cabinet’s recognition of history and made the position clearly which succeeds to the viewpoint of the former cabinet.
Based on this viewpoint, he said Japan hoist the flag of “Proactive Contribution to Peace” which is basic idea of Japanese security strategy.

Lastly, I’d like to introduce the foreign countries’ reaction.
First, China stated strict position and said that Japan should explain responsibility of war clearly and apologize victims sincerely.
Next, South Korea said there are some regrettable points but they concerned about the point which Japan made clear that the former cabinet’s position won’t change in the future.
Finally, America welcomed that Japan expressed “remorse”.

Through this issue, I felt recognition of history is very important for international relations and postwar handling is still have a great influence in the international society.

Student Presentations: Tatsuya and Haojun

Tatsuya:

i presented about okinawa millitary problem. it is usually talking as a battle between okinawa and government. okinawa prefecture thinks it is a japanese big problem
because u.s military doesnt only exist in okinawa but in the other prefecture. however, japanese government think it is a region problem. this difference makes a problem so complicate, i think.
  actually, okinawa prefecture get a lot of money from japanese government as a subsidy because they have a base. these money can use freely that they dont have tomake a schedule how to use these money and these money dont count as a general account. this is a contradiction. if okinawa want government to move away a base from okinawa, they shouldnt get subsidy. we need to think again about okinawa problem!!

Haojun:

 I gave a presentation about the China's One-Child Policy in our last class.I chose this topic because this policy influenced Chinese people so much, and it is also related to China's pupulation issue.
 We all know that China has almost 1/5th of the population in the world, it really caused a lot of problem such as food shortage, lack of medical resources, and lack of education. I still remember that it was very normal every class had more than seventy classmates until I graduated from high school in 2008. And maybe it's also hard for you to imagine how terrible that every year billions of people taking train during Spring Festival Travel Season even in such a big country,just like the picture I showed.So I don't think the policy was improper,in the situation 35 years ago. The thing I dissatisfied is the Ligation Operation and Forced Abortion. This also cause a phenomenon that an entire generation has no brothers or sisters, people are also worrying about their mental health.
 This policy cause population will reduce half by every generation.Just like Japan today, low birth rate is threatting the labor force,revenue in tax, and the Son Preference caused population structure imbalance.  Chinese Government want to solve this, but I think only release the policy isn't enough. In China having a baby and give him a stable growth environment isn't easy today. So I think the policy releasing won't be useful. But even if it works, we still have to wait for fifteen years or even more.