Dangerous foreign foe

The cabinet of Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizuimi has announced that it will be formulating a plan to give the title of World’s Safest Country to Japan. Taking notice of the rising crime rate and opinion polls citing the worry of citizens, the cabinet approved a plan to lessen incidents of crime, an presumably their impact on public thinking.

Although the plan announced included steps to be taken in various ministries in Japan, the media, or at least the English language media, latched onto the aspect of the plan dealing with foreigners. The government now plans to reduce by at least half the number of illegal immigrants now in Japan. As is widely known here, foreigners cause problems, and so need to be removed from the country. This will doubtless leave the country much safer.

For evidence of this, one need only look to today’s headlines to see that the pesky foreign-born are blighting Japanese society. Take for example the man who recently walked into an elementary school and whacked a girl in the forehead with a stick, or the man accused of kidnapping and holding a high school student for three days before she escaped, or the drunken newspaper man who punched a fish monger waiting for the stumbling man to finish crossing the street, or five men arrested for firing bullets into banks and teachers’ unions, or the organizers of a giant orgy in China on the eve of the anniversary of Japan’s invasion, or…But perhaps these would offer more support of the government’s position if they had not been all perpetrated by Japanese. One mentioned in today’s Japan times is the Indonesian flight attendant just released after being held without communication to family or embassy on the charge of possessing a forged 500 yen coin. She was released after it was determined that she had not knowingly come into possession of fake coins.

Yet progress is being made in the fight against illegal resident villains. A major raid last month removed from the Tokyo streets a vicious gang of illegal hairdressers. Residents may now rest easier, knowing these dangerous people are safely locked up.

Yes, sir.

There is a commercial aired frequently on Japanese television which shows at first a complement being passed down the chain of command from the white haired chairman, through six layers of management, in descending age, before reaching the young worker. The second scene shows a somewhat angry rebuke following the same route, and the third permission for some essential task going the same way. The commercial depicts the higher levels stacked on the back the young employee. The final scene shows all except the highest level calling a placement service, the CEO trying hard to see what is going on below him in obvious futility. It is amazing how accurate the depiction of the command structure of a Japanese company is. Even in “non-traditional” companies, levels of pseudo-responsibility and authority crop up.

Applying these command structures in a company in which most of the employees are not Japanese looks as though it will prove tricky, to say the least. Particularly difficult will be the implementation of a new layer where none existed before. While newer employees may get a sense of authority from the middle layer, longer term employees, in this case those that have been with the company more than a couple of months, will most likely continue to go directly to the hire levels and primarily circumvent the new layer, in a diplomatic way. There is a danger in angering the new level, though no real power resides there, it is quickly becoming obvious that this layer has the ear of the upper management and could probably turn into a rather potent adversary if not handled properly. So far the modus operandi appears to pay lip service to the new layer and arrange direct contact with the upper layer soon after, resolving the issues more satisfactorily.

It will perhaps be interesting to see how long this dynamic lasts before the person in this new layer begins to take actions to protect the position, and try to assert punitive authority to essentially justify the need for the position’s existence.

Tax, but don't touch

We’ll bring prostitution into the legal economy, but keep your hands to yourselves, seems to be the message coming from Thailand’s ruling party, Thai Rak Thai (Thais love Thais).

Over the past couple of weeks Justice Minister Pongthep Thepkanchana has publicly voiced the idea of legalizing the sex industry in Thailand. The move would allow the government to begin taxing what is estimated to be 3% or Thailand’s economy and improve working conditions for the estimated 200,000 people employed in the trade. Proponents are also hopeful that the legalization of the sex industry would lead to lower incidences of police corruption.

However, even if prostitution were to be brought up from the underground economy, members of Thaksin’s party would still be barred from indulging. Under a new proposal any Thai Rak Thai members found to be cheating on their wives, either by taking a mistress or visiting a brothel, could be barred from running in subsequent elections. Perhaps needless to say, some party members find this to be a bit intrusive. Some members feel that it is no one’s business if they decide to take mistresses, even claiming it as “an individual’s right”. Party officials, on the other hand, stated that politicians must be held to a higher standard regarding their responsibilities to their families.

To read more, visit:
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/southeast/11/27/thailand.sex.ap/ (legalizing prostitution)

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=126&art_id=qw107035308570B234&set_id=1 (banning cheating politicians)