Did China Eat America's Jobs?

今日の講義で「Did China Eat America's Jobs?」というFreakonomics podcastを勉強します。

レポート作成準備

今日の授業で、レポート作成の準備を行ってもらい、その成果を下記のフォームに入力してもらいます。

https://goo.gl/forms/ZTr1xPHfA5CeuxI43

Getting started

I have two things I would like you to do today with your smartphones:

1. Take a quiz about the syllabus
2. Fill out a student information sheet

Searching for books in English in the KGU library

I received a good question during the first session of our class that I wasn't able to answer properly.  Though I'm somewhat late, I hope you will find the following answer to be satisfactory.

1. Searching
1. Click the following link to find a detail search menu in English:
   http://www1.lib.kumagaku.ac.jp/mylimedio/search/search-input.do?mode=comp&nqid=10&lang=en
2. If you wish to limit your search to books published in English, type "eng" into the box marked "Language"
   
3. Then, type a few search terms in the "Keyword" box.  I'll use "gender Japan" for this search.
   
4. Books owned by this university can be stored in the "Library" or one of three research institutes.  It may be possible for you to borrow books from a research institute but it will normally be easier for you to access books that are kept in the "Library."  If you want to limit your search to books you can access quickly,  select "Library" in the "Select annex" section.
   
5. To sea the most recent books first, choose "In order of publication year."
   
6. Hit "Search."
   
2. Interpreting the results
1. Although we specified "English," some Japanese books that have an alternative English  title or perhaps an English chapter may be included in the list.
   
   
2. The beginning of the third line in each item specifies the location.
1. "Library 1F"
   Theses books are in the open stacks on the first floor of the library.  Use the call number (910/SH84 in this case) to find the book.
2. "Library B2"
   This indicates that the book is stored in stacks on a lower level.  Undergraduate students cannot enter these stacks but one of the librarians will retrieve the book for you if you ask.
3. "教員研究室"
   Books marked "教員研究室" are kept in a professor's office (kenkyushitsu in Japanese).  If you want to read one of these books, ask a librarian.  It may take a day or two but, under normal circumstances, you should be able to gain access to the book.

The textbook issue

Last week I showed a brief news video about the government's plans to adjust the textbook approval issue.  The spokesman in the video mentioned the need to strength laws mandating that local districts follow the textbook decisions of the supervising board of education.  I wasn't able to explain the background of the case in Okinawa that was referred to so I did a little research on the internet.  Here are some relevant articles that I found in English:

• Taketomi Town’s prerogative (Japan Times, 27 Oct 2013)
• Freedom to choose textbooks vs law on supplying free textbooks to public schools (copy of 23 Feb 2013 Yomiuri Shimbun article)

Note that the two articles take very different approaches to the issue.  The Yomiuri Shimbun is fairly conservative whereas the Japan Times is much more progressive/liberal.

The controversy has its roots in some procedural issues (the way the head of the school board got the decision he wanted) and conflicts between local and national laws.  It is also about the effort to push textbooks with a more conservative bent on Taketomi Town. It should not be surprising that this issue came up in Okinawa, where resistance to conservative or reactionary politics is deeper than in other parts of Japan.  The conservative text book that Taketomi Town is resisting was authored by the 新しい歴史教科書を作る会 (Literally "The Committee to Write New History Textbooks" but official known in English as "The Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform and abbreviated in Japanese as "作る会").  See the Wikipedia article "Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform" for examples of how several sensitive historical issues are treated.

Finally, I also mentioned Ienaga Saburo last week.  This article reviews three suits Ienaga brought against the Japanese government.  In the first two suits, the regional court recognized some abuse of discretion of the part of the government but the higher courts overturned those decisions.  In the third suit, abuse of discretion in regard to certain historical issues was upheld through the Supreme Court. Ienaga surely had some impact on the textbook approval process (demonstrating that there were limits to the legitimate power of the Ministry of Education officials) but he had to work incredibly hard to make these points.  By the way, the Wikipedia article points out that Noam Chomsky and others have nominated Ienaga for the Nobel Peace prize.

The Ana Bortz Discrimination Case

In class today I will talk about the Ana Bortz Discrimination Case.  If you are interested, please read the following articles:

• Ana Bortz’s Law Suit and Minority Rights in Japan (Keiko Yamanaka, JPRI Working Paper No. 88, September 2002)
• Japan's fear of Brazilians (BBC News, 29 June, 2002)

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