More of the Same

This article is from the Japan Times (English Edition). I wonder if it was published in the Japanese edition as well...?

Alleged al-Qaeda link seeks vindication
Bangladeshi wants apology, claims he was falsely accused by police

A Bangladeshi businessman who was incorrectly alleged by police and the media last year as being linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network is seeking vindication.
Islam Mohamed Himu, a Bangladeshi resident of Japan, details how his life changed after being arrested by police and alleged to have links to al-Qaeda.

Investigators held Islam Mohamed Himu for 43 days but ultimately found he had no links to al-Qaeda.

Himu said that even since being freed, he has struggled to get his life and business back on track. He has filed a complaint of human rights violations with the Japan Federation of Bar Associations.

"I want to ask senior officials of the government or police: what was my fault?" Himu said in an interview.

"The Japanese police and media have destroyed my life," said the 34-year-old, who runs a telecommunications company in Tokyo.

"I want them to apologize and restore my life," he said, urging the government to help him obtain visas to make business trips to several countries that have barred his entry following the allegations.

Himu came to Japan in 1995 with his Japanese wife, whom he had met in Canada. After establishing a firm in Tokyo that mainly sells prepaid international phone cards, he obtained permanent residency in 2000.

Police arrested him last May 26 and issued a fresh warrant June 16. They alleged he had falsified a corporate registration and illegally hired two employees, including his brother.

While in custody, investigators mostly asked if he had any links to al-Qaeda, noting that a Frenchman suspected of being in al-Qaeda bought prepaid phone cards from him several times, according to Himu.

He said he tried to prove he had no connection with terrorists, telling police the Frenchman was one of several hundred customers and he had no idea the man used an alias.

However, police dismissed his claim, he said, and leaked to major media organizations, including Kyodo, their suspicions that he was involved with al-Qaeda, and all of them reported the allegations.

Himu said he believes police arrested him as a scapegoat even though they knew he had no link with al-Qaeda.

He was nabbed shortly after the media reported that the Frenchman had stayed in Japan in 2002 and 2003.

Prosecutors did not indict him on the first charge, while a court fined him 300,000 yen on the second charge. He was released on July 7.

Himu said the prosecutors' failure to indict proves he was not an al-Qaeda member, but it did not necessarily constitute a public apology.

All his employees left following the release of the sketchy police information, and he now has 120 million yen in debts due to the disruption of his business, he claimed.
The Japan Times: April 2, 2005

More of the Same

Dokdo or Takeshima Islands?

Yet another argument has slowed the pace of burgeoning business ties between the nations of South Korea and Japan. A set of rocky islands between the two countries (geographically closer to Korea) have been claimed by both countries.

Right now there's a lot of saber-rattling going on, and very little is being articulated about each side's historical stake in the matter. The situation as it sits now is that the islands are occupied and watched over by Korean citizens. Shimane prefecture has upped the ante by declaring a 'Takeshima Day' starting next year. Protests in Korea have been particularly emotional: several people have cut off fingers, and at least one person has lit himself on fire, in public condemnation of the acts taken up by the government in Japan. The Korean protesters liken 'Takeshima Day' to yet another invasion of their country. The citizens of Japan don't seem to be protesting very much, and the Japanese media seems a little less prone to publishing facts about their claim to the group of islands.

One important point is that the islands are surrounded by some rich fishing waters. Furthermore, the seabed beneath that area is said to be rich in natural gases. As you can see, these things usually come down to money.

At this point in the game, the South Korean government is holding a commanding lead. Aside from forcibly removing the armed guards from the islands, and sinking the patrol ships that circle the area 24 hours a day, there is little that Japan can do to gain control of the situation. As usual, we would all benefit from a whole lot more talking.

Dokdo or Takeshima Islands?

Hay Fever

I'm a little bit under the weather right now myself, but I'm not suffering from what so many others have fallen prey to. Hay Fever is the big nasty around here. Pollen from Japanese Cedar tress ('sugi') bathe the Tokyo metropolitan area each spring. The result is about one in five people wearing a surgical mask every time they leave the house, and lots of puffy, watering, bloodshot eyes.

The government did a decent job of replacing all the trees that were felled in the name of industry. They found a tree that grows quite quickly, and is quite friendly to the construction sector. Unfortunately, that very same tree plunges the masses into fits of sneezing and whining. The government has now come up with a replacement for the Hay Fever tree from hell, but we won't be able to enjoy lower pollen-counts for a couple of decades.

Meanwhile, Matsumoto Kiyoshi (one of the larger drug store chains in the Kanto area) continues to chime in the new year with ominous sales on masks, medicine and goggles.

I have a cold, by the way, and my bottle of imitation NyQuil seems to be doing the trick.

Hay Fever

WUI

I just completed my second full year at Waseda University International. I plan to sign on for a third year in the near future. We had our end-of-the-academic-year party last night, and all of the full-time staff headed to Yokohama for some sightseeing and a nice, 11-course, Chinese, all-you-can-eat/drink bonanza in Chinatown.

The final stop on the tour was Landmark Tower in downtown Yokohama. We took the express elevators to the 69th floor (it's the tallest building in Japan), but the view was literally nonexistent. The fog and mist effectively erased the famous nighttime views! We all circled our way around to the bar, and had a beer on the management as a consolation prize.

Despite the rain and mud, it seemed like everyone had a lot of fun. I didn't have my camera with me, so I don't have any photos to post, but I noticed a lot of smiles from the teachers who tend to keep to themselves. There were a lot of people there--close to 70 I believe. Another 40-some-odd instructors are signing on this April, so I'm sure that we're in for some madness this year!

WUI

Babysitting 5

Ruka has been joining us quite regularly as of late. She usually shows up during the final 30 - 45 minutes of the lesson. Miyu likes having her around, but she acts like a typical older sibling most of the time. She doesn't like to share, and she loves to annoy Ruka at every chance she gets. I guess it's only natural. I'm sure that I was the same way (sorry, Scott and Kate!)

Miyu still doesn't see any need to use English when we're spending time together. She knows that I speak some Japanese. Her parents always speak to me in Japanese, so it rarely works when I pretend like I can't understand what she's saying. I wonder if it's ever going to get any better. Is she ever going to make an effort to produce some English? We need to create some kind of an environment where it's understood that it's an English-0nly area. I would love it if we could take a trip to America once a year. It seems like that would be a good opportunity to make her aware of how useful the language CAN be. It's definitely of little use at home. Having the lesson up here in our apartment would also be good.

I think that Yasu and Michiko (Ruka's parents) are smart to drop her off about halfway through the lesson. Two hours a day definitely didn't do much to get Miyu talking.

Babysitting 5

Scary Ignorance

This article is from PIPA's website (www.pipa.org). This is the article that the next post in this blog is supposed to link to (but doesn't).

Bush Supporters Still Believe Iraq Had WMD or Major Program,Supported al Qaeda

Agree with Kerry Supporters Bush Administration Still Saying This is the Case

Agree US Should Not Have Gone to War if No WMD or Support for al Qaeda

Bush Supporters Misperceive World Public as Not Opposed to Iraq War, Favoring Bush Reelection

Even after the final report of Charles Duelfer to Congress saying that Iraq did not have a significant WMD program, 72% of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq had actual WMD (47%) or a major program for developing them (25%). Fifty-six percent assume that most experts believe Iraq had actual WMD and 57% also assume, incorrectly, that Duelfer concluded Iraq had at least a major WMD program. Kerry supporters hold opposite beliefs on all these points.
Similarly, 75% of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda, and 63% believe that clear evidence of this support has been found. Sixty percent of Bush supporters assume that this is also the conclusion of most experts, and 55% assume, incorrectly, that this was the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission. Here again, large majorities of Kerry supporters have exactly opposite perceptions.
These are some of the findings of a new study of the differing perceptions of Bush and Kerry supporters, conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes and Knowledge Networks, based on polls conducted in September and October.
Steven Kull, director of PIPA, comments, "One of the reasons that Bush supporters have these beliefs is that they perceive the Bush administration confirming them. Interestingly, this is one point on which Bush and Kerry supporters agree." Eighty-two percent of Bush supporters perceive the Bush administration as saying that Iraq had WMD (63%) or that Iraq had a major WMD program (19%). Likewise, 75% say that the Bush administration is saying Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda. Equally large majorities of Kerry supporters hear the Bush administration expressing these views--73% say the Bush administration is saying Iraq had WMD (11% a major program) and 74% that Iraq was substantially supporting al Qaeda.
Steven Kull adds, "Another reason that Bush supporters may hold to these beliefs is that they have not accepted the idea that it does not matter whether Iraq had WMD or supported al Qaeda. Here too they are in agreement with Kerry supporters." Asked whether the US should have gone to war with Iraq if US intelligence had concluded that Iraq was not making WMD or providing support to al Qaeda, 58% of Bush supporters said the US should not have, and 61% assume that in this case the President would not have. Kull continues, "To support the president and to accept that he took the US to war based on mistaken assumptions likely creates substantial cognitive dissonance, and leads Bush supporters to suppress awareness of unsettling information about prewar Iraq."
<<>>
This tendency of Bush supporters to ignore dissonant information extends to other realms as well. Despite an abundance of evidence--including polls conducted by Gallup International in 38 countries, and more recently by a consortium of leading newspapers in 10 major countries--only 31% of Bush supporters recognize that the majority of people in the world oppose the US having gone to war with Iraq. Forty-two percent assume that views are evenly divided, and 26% assume that the majority approves. Among Kerry supporters, 74% assume that the majority of the world is opposed.
Similarly, 57% of Bush supporters assume that the majority of people in the world would favor Bush's reelection; 33% assumed that views are evenly divided and only 9% assumed that Kerry would be preferred. A recent poll by GlobeScan and PIPA of 35 of the major countries around the world found that in 30, a majority or plurality favored Kerry, while in just 3 Bush was favored. On average, Kerry was preferred more than two to one.
Bush supporters also have numerous misperceptions about Bush's international policy positions. Majorities incorrectly assume that Bush supports multilateral approaches to various international issues--the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (69%), the treaty banning land mines (72%)--and for addressing the problem of global warming: 51% incorrectly assume he favors US participation in the Kyoto treaty. After he denounced the International Criminal Court in the debates, the perception that he favored it dropped from 66%, but still 53% continue to believe that he favors it. An overwhelming 74% incorrectly assumes that he favors including labor and environmental standards in trade agreements. In all these cases, majorities of Bush supporters favor the positions they impute to Bush. Kerry supporters are much more accurate in their perceptions of his positions on these issues.
"The roots of the Bush supporters' resistance to information," according to Steven Kull, "very likely lie in the traumatic experience of 9/11 and equally in the near pitch-perfect leadership that President Bush showed in its immediate wake. This appears to have created a powerful bond between Bush and his supporters--and an idealized image of the President that makes it difficult for his supporters to imagine that he could have made incorrect judgments before the war, that world public opinion could be critical of his policies or that the President could hold foreign policy positions that are at odds with his supporters."
The polls were conducted October 12-18 and September 3-7 and 8-12 with samples of 968, 798 and 959 respondents, respectively. Margins of error were 3.2 to 4% in the first and third surveys and 3.5% on September 3-7. The poll was fielded by Knowledge Networks using its nationwide panel, which is randomly selected from the entire adult population and subsequently provided internet access. For more information about this methodology, go to www.knowledgenetworks.com/ganp.

Scary Ignorance

Political Animal by Kevin Drum

Washington Monthly
October 21, 2004
GEORGE BUSH AND HIS SUPPORTERS....The good folks at
PIPA have yet another interesting report out. The primary gist of the report is that when
it comes to foreign policy, Bush supporters have a much worse grasp of factual
matters than Kerry supporters. It's worth reading, and yes, it's sort of scary,
but I have a sneaking hunch that exactly the opposite might be true on some
domestic issues. So I'm going to leave that alone for now.
Instead, take a look at this table that deals not with factual matters, but with whether Bush
and Kerry supporters even understand their own candidate's positions:

Issue:
1. Labor and environmental standards in trade agreements. (Oct.)
Bush: opposes Bush supporters who correctly perceive Bush: 13%
Kerry: supports Kerry supporters who correctly perceive Kerry: 81%
2. Participation in Land Mines Treaty.
Bush: opposes Bush supporters who correctly perceive Bush: 20%
Kerry: supports Kerry supporters who correctly perceive Kerry: 79%
3. Participation in treaty that bans the testing of nuclear weapons.
Bush: opposes Bush supporters who correctly perceive Bush: 24%
Kerry: supports Kerry supporters who correctly perceive Kerry: 74%
4. Participation in the International Criminal Court. (Oct.)
Bush: opposes Bush supporters who correctly perceive Bush: 38%
Kerry: supports (*) Kerry supporters who correctly perceive Kerry: 65%
5. Participation in the Kyoto agreement on global warming.
Bush: opposes Bush supporters who correctly perceive Bush: 39%
Kerry: supports (*) Kerry supporters who correctly perceive Kerry: 74%
6. Building a missile defense system. (Oct.)
Bush: build now Bush supporters who correctly perceive Bush: 47%
Kerry: research only Kerry supporters who correctly perceive Kerry: 68%
7. Defense spending.
Bush: Expand Bush supporters who correctly perceive Bush: 57%
Kerry: keep same Kerry supporters who correctly perceive Kerry: 43%
8. Who should take the lead in Iraq on writing a new Constitution and
building a democratic government.
Bush: the US Bush supporters who correctly perceive Bush: 70%
Kerry: the UN Kerry supporters who correctly perceive Kerry: 80%
(*) supports in principle but wants to negotiate terms for US involvement.

That's pretty remarkable. There are only two issues on
which even a majority of Bush supporters know Bush's actual position. As the
PIPA report puts it, "Apparently in the absence of evidence to the
contrary, Bush supporters assume Bush feels as they do."
That seems to be at least partially true, and it's been the essence of George Bush since 2000. He won the primary and the
election that year by being the friendly face of movement conservatism, a guy
who seemed much more moderate than he really was. And now, even four years
later, he still looks to his supporters much more moderate than he really is. If
the electorate understood just how conservative Bush really is, he wouldn't have
a snowball's chance of winning the election this year.
What's more, this goes beyond George Bush: it's actually one of conservatism's greatest
weaknesses. On a wide range of issues — the environment, Social Security,
Medicare, abortion, and so forth — conservatives are unable to get support for
their actual positions, so they're forced to couch their conservative policies
in surprisingly liberal terms. We're environmentalists! We want to save Social
Security! We're tolerant of gays!
In the long term, though, this is disastrous, since eventually they'll either have to surrender and adopt genuine liberal policies or else come clean about their conservatism and get swamped at
the polls.
But that's for the future. In the meantime, the compassionate
conservative schtick is working pretty well. I wonder how much longer they can
pull it off?

Political Animal by Kevin Drum

Life After Baseball

Yakult secured second place behind the Dragons. That means that the Giants slipped to third, and that is the only reason why I'm happy with second.

The Dragons went on to lose the final two games of the Japan Series at home. The Seibu Lions walked all over them in the final game--very similar to the ease with which the Sox dismantled the St. Louis offense in game 4 the other day. There are now sales as far as the eye can see at Seiyu (same parent company as the Lions), so I'm happy with the result. The win brings badly needed attention and revenue to the Pacific league.

There's only one more game this year. I paid five thousand yen for a nose-bleed seat at Tokyo Dome when the American All-Stars make it over here next weekend. My prediction is that the Japanese team will wipe the floor with the Americans. I imagine that Ichiro, Matsui and a couple of the guys who played in the World Series will have good showings, but aside from that there won't be a whole lot to write home about.

Life After Baseball