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.

Class Presentations: Rika

Rika

According to Asahi Sinbun, it is said that 79% of Japanese people have their own opinions, agree or disagree  about TPP. However, 80% of them answered No when they were asked whether the Japanese government gives us enough information or not. Then I came up with one question that "how can they judge the social issues?" or "how can they have their opinions about those?" So I used TPP as an example, and explained how you should have your own opinions about social issues.

Every issues happening in the world have positive and negative sides. The important thing is to look at both sides especially negative sides when you think about your opinions like agree or disagree.

Now, it is said that Japan may probably join TPP. If we join TPP, they have many good points, but also bad points. I picked some negative points like food problems, self sufficiently rate, medical problems, and ISD problems.

Class presentations: Takemasa and Kohei

Takemasa:

 In the latest class, I made a presentation about middle east. I explained details about the middle east countries from three points of views － historical, racial・religious and human view.
 The democratic movement which was called ”The Arab Spring” was one of the main cause of the conflict in the middle east. As I used the French Revolution for an example, after the dictator has been overthrowed it won't connect to immediate peace. There will be another issue, for example, who will become the head of the new structure. Then I explained Syria from the second view I mentioned above. There is three major groups involved in syrian conflict  －Sunni, Shia, and Kurds. The former two are the types of denominations of Islam. Kurds are the biggest ethnic group which was devided into different areas by the Saikusupiko agreement declared during WWI. Finally, I focused on the relationship which surrounds Syria. Russia and US want to destroy ISIS, but there is a complicated relation between those countries and the government within Syria which is making the situation confusing. Russia now entered the conflict by bombing and this is making the Syrian citizens suffer. Therefore, those citizens fled and head for Europe. This connect to the issue of ”Syrian Refugees.”

Kohei:

Japanese government will change tax system in 2017. They will rise consumption tax from 8% to 10% and introduce reduced tax rate. But, we do not understand that enough. Then, let’s think about it.

First, what is consumption tax? It occupies almost 34.7% of government tax revenue, and occurs every time properties are transferred. Though the system is not so, but we can say that consumers pay the money. So, consumers have to take more burden if the policy come true.

Second, why consumption tax will rise? It is because of Japanese financial condition. Japan goes to Aging society with fewer children, so fewer young people have to support large aged people in social security system. But it’s so hard, then government decided that we take all-Japan support system in social security system.

Third, what is reduced tax rate? It is lowered rate tax. This is an example when we have reduced tax rate. When you go to a supermarket, there are 100 yen waters and 100 yen cokes. You bought both of them. But, after accounting you noticed. You paid 108 yen for water but you paid 110 yen for cokes. So you said “it’s mistake” for employee. But he answered” Coke is luxury item, so you have to pay 10 % consumption tax.”.

These things will happen when we introduce reduced tax rate.

At last, let’s see the good and bad aspects of these system. These system will provide necessary money for social security and financial reconstruction. These are good aspects. However, there are two big bad aspects. First, it increases burden for economically weak. I say here economically weak means low-income people and small companies. The second point is the complexity of system. As I showed reduced rate tax will make troublesome situation, it’s complex for not only consumers but also companies.

Conclusion. I hope the system not only good for the future but also for the current.