Category Archives: Just a thought

As I wrote in a previous post, Japan was defeated in WWII in 1945, and in 1956 Japanese government stated “it is no longer a post-war period”. And then Japan experienced rapid economic growth. But at that time, some Japanese soldiers ware still “fighting” in Southeast Asian countries. As some internet news announced, a former Japanese soldier, Mr. Hiroo Onoda, died at the age of 91. He had hidden in a jungle in the Philippines for about 30 years after the war ended, and came back to Japan in 1974. As I wrote in an old post, Japanese soldiers were taught that surrendering was a shame and worse than death, and this is why he had not surrendered for three decades.

One of some impressive facts, according to the internet article, is that he did not think the 30 years was a waste of time. That experience formed his life after surrendering.

How about me? What have formed myself today? I often wonder which has been longer, happy periods or tragic periods. After adolescent, tragic periods have been way longer, I think. But I do not dislike myself. As I wrote in that previous post, what did not kill me made me a little stronger. Of course those periods ware, at least physically, not as harsh as hiding myself in a jungle for decades. But it makes me myself anyway. Why do I talk about it now?? Because I am experiencing another harsh period in the current “temporary” day-time job. Anyways, let’s see how the looser will fail.

May Mr. Hiroo Onoda rest in peace.

Probably everyone can name a few or more memorable TV commercials. One of them for me, and probably for many other Japanese in my age as well, is American Express that I saw when I was a kid. In that TV commercial, a famous American pro golf player, who played internationally, said “出掛ける時は忘れずに (when you go out, don’t forget)”. At that time, international airfare was very expensive and many people did not know what going abroad was like. Many people including myself thought American Express was the most commonly used credit card overseas. Another one is Jim Beam. In that ad, a narrator went “アメリカを生きたバーボン、ジム・ビーム (A bourbon that lived America, Jim Beam)”. “アメリカを生きた (lived America)” does not literally make sense, but it sounded cool. I, like many others, thought Jim Beam represents America.

According to some sources today, Suntory, a Japanese beverage company that is known for its appearance in Lost in Translation, purchased Beam N that makes Jim Beam Bourbon. I just wondered if any source mentions something sentimental, something like “Japanese company bought America’s pride”, and browsed for other related articles. I could not find anything I expected, but instead of that, I found that one of those articles mentions that Beam N produces Canadian Club.

Is Canadian Club produced by an American company? And the American company will be owned by a Japanese company? OK, this is a business world. We should not expect brands to have identity. Business rules.

In an old post, I wrote “charity is not only for other people”. Please read the old post for the story of Tohoku (North-East Japan) and the town of Hakone. To make a long story short, the town of Hakone decided to help Tohoku because they know that they will need help from other regions in the future. If you need help (or even if you don’t need help), it’s better to help other people.

According to this Japanese internet article, Japan’s Self-Defense Forces sent a team of medical professionals to the Philippines. Many of the members are from Tohoku, the region that the earthquake and tsunami hit on May 11, 2011. The chief of the medical team said that they want to help the survivors from the viewpoint of sufferers using their experience. They know what it is like to be helped by other people after a horrible natural disaster. They help people because they have been helped by other people. I am proud of their 東北魂 (North-East Japan spirit).

As I wrote in another previous post, many people help each other when they suffer natural disaster. As I wrote “many people”, not “everyone” acts like that during and after natural disaster. But I still want to believe helping each other is the nature of human beings.

According to today’s news, one of the benefits of being bilingual has been scientifically examined as described in this internet news: Brain scans show being bilingual can delay Alzheimer’s. This is not surprising for me because I know, of course, that being bilingual requires high level brain activities. It is good to know it has been scientifically studied.

This story reminds me of a president of a micro company in Japan that I worked for. He was around 60 then, assumed he was smart, assumed he was bilingual, and he suffered dementia. You may think I am exaggerating something, but it’s true. He suffered dementia and still served as a president. It was a micro company. Anyways. As the internet news says, being bilingual cannot prevent dementia. It delays the process. One could conclude that his brain was severely damaged but the symptom was not as severe as monolinguals whose brain is equally damaged. But for me it’s more natural to conclude that he was not truly bilingual. Actually his “English” sounded like Japanese and he did not recognize it. Without recognizing it, there is no way to correct it.

When FIFA word cup was held in Japan in 2002, a German player caught people’s attention due to his wild behavior. Despite of his acts on the field, according to some sources, he is a smart guy. He knew he would not make a living as an athlete for many years, and while he was one of the world best soccer players, he studied economics to prepare for his life after retirement as an athlete. I was impressed. Unlike his case, few people can prepare for their life after retirement as a brain worker (I’m not talking about something like pension plan). What we can try is to work longer as a brain worker. The president described above knew that he could not judge things properly, but did not admit that. Instead, he tried hard to find and point out people’s mistakes to show that he is smarter than other people, which never worked out. This is not what people should do.

Fortunately I like learning. It seems that there are lots of opportunities to abuse my brain to delay dementia. I know my English is still to be improved. So is design skill. Let’s keep learning to increase more job opportunities and also to work longer as a brain worker.

In an old post, I wrote about efficiency. A person with terrible personality persistently told me to use electric coffee “grinder”, which is actually a coffee chopper, instead of my manual coffee grinder because electric one is “efficient”. She mixed up efficient and quick (and dirty), and ignored quality. You might think “is electric coffee grinder dirty?” Yes, it is. The quality of “grinding” is low and it generates nasty noise. On the other hand, using a manual coffee grinder itself is fun. She does not understand people have different preference and different standard, and always tries to force other people to do things in her way.

There is difference between efficient and quick. There is also difference between efficient and effective. According to Longman, effective meas “producing the result that was wanted or intended” [1], and efficient means “a person, machine, or organization that is efficient works well and effectively without wasting time, money, or energy” [1]. If people mix them up, it could result in something awkward.

According to an internet article, Rights groups challenge U.S. on drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, many innocent people in those countries have been killed by the U.S. government using remotely piloted aircraft, or drones. I originally found an article about this in Japanese, and I was very shocked. The Japanese internet article says that the U.S. presidential press secretary said “the U.S. anti-terrorism operations are accurate, legal, and efficient” (translated by me). Is killing terrorists involving innocent people’s death efficient??? I looked for an article that describes this issue in English, and found the CNN article. According to CNN, the U.S. government “said drones would be deployed only when there is an imminent threat, no hope of capturing the targeted terrorist, ‘near certainty’ that civilians wouldn’t be harmed and ‘no other governments capable of effectively addressing the threat.'” [2] This still does not justify their killing innocent people (first of all, even killing terrorists is still debatable), but at least they did not mention efficiency in killing people.

Why did this mistranslation happen? I sent a message to the Japanese newspaper publisher a few days ago and still waiting for their reply (and do not expect their reply). For now, let’s put their mistranslation aside and talk about something general. The person with terrible personality mentioned above is obviously extreme, but many other people may not clearly distinguish between efficient and quick, or efficient and effective in some degree. It may happen because they do not clarify “intended result”; in the former case, whether the intended result is whatever coffee or enjoyable coffee; in the latter case, whether the result is killing terrorism anyway or establishing the peace. We may need to take a moment to sit back and think what we really need.

[1] Longman Group Ltd, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Harlow, England: Pearson Education Limited, 1995.
[2] CNN, “CNN.com,” 22 10 2013. [Online]. Available: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/22/world/asia/us-drone-strikes-reports/index.html?iref=allsearch. [Accessed 23 10 2013].

Among many of my Canadian friends, even those from the engineering program, I am known as a designer. In fact, however, I do not have work experience as a designer, and I cannot call myself a professional designer. Having said that, I call myself designer since I have design skills, designer’s way of thinking, and designer’s spirit.

I am not particularly interested in genetic issues, but some internet articles about genetic engineering caught my attention thanks to its title: designer baby. According to some of those internet articles, a U.S. company has developed a technology to predict features of a person, such as eye colour and muscle performance, based on the parent’s genetic information before making a baby. Now the company is under fire due to this controversial technology. If this technology is applied, people can choose an ideal partner among candidates to get a preferable baby, and this is called “designer baby”.

I don’t want people to use the term “designer” in this context. Anyways. And I’m skeptical about this technology: I know many brothers and sisters who have very different features. For example, my elder brother is shorter than I am and he has shorter legs than mine. Anyways.

This issue reminds me of a Japanese internet article about a young Japanese actor. According to the article, a young actor joined an event to introduce a film in which he played one of the leading roles, and confessed that he is a son of a famous actor. He joined the event with the director of the film and another leading actress. The director used to be an actor, and the actress is a daughter of the director. The young actor said “I admire my father as an actor, and I am proud of being his son. I believe in my father’s DNA.” The actress then said “I admire my father too.” And then the director said “DNA is not a big deal. It’s not about who are your parents. It’s how you spend time with your parents.”

In fact, many celebrity’s children are known for their immature behavior. They have been overly spoiled, and this may be why the young actor had not stated that he is a son of a celebrity. It’s not about DNA, but how people live.

Now, I tell myself: it’s not about occupation, but how I live as a designer. Of course I have not given up becoming a professional designer. But whatever my occupation is, I retain my designer’s spirit.