Recently, I find the word “Children’s Poverty” on the headlines of newspapers or other medium very often. I didn’t understand first which country have such poverty, and it was incredible to know that it was in Japan. All the children in Japan have game machines and smartphones from schoolchildren time. I can’t believe also that their appearances are poor.   According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Japanese leading economic newspaper), “Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions” (国民生活基礎調査) by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare shows that Japanese poverty rate rose to 16.3 percent, record high, in 2012. It is 0.6 points lower than the previous survey. I understood the figures shows clearly. *poverty rate : a ratio of children under 18 years old who are living in the families   which is under half of average income As children do not work and have no income, above figures were calculated on the basis of incomes of their parents. As the reason for rising poverty rate, the survey points out that the number of farther-less families are increasing. As mothers are working as temporary employees (from agencies) or under irregular employment, we can say that it is natural that their incomes are low. If we judge the poverty of children by the family income, difference between families which have fathers who are lifetime employment or two-income families and farther-less families are big. Frankly speaking, I have been thinking that Japanese children are blessed as I told above and parents spend money with no stint to cramming schools and lessons. Apart from rising poverty rate, I began to be anxious about such income disparities. Disparities between the children who are blessed with good opportunities and who are not blessed may affect bad influence to the future of Japan.   Even if the income of their parents would have disparities, it will be all right as long as children can get equal opportunities for education without any disparities. It is natural for children to go to cramming schools in Japan. Is it difficult for the poor income families to let their children get good habits to learn because of their poor income?Why do Japanese children go to cramming school? First of all, it may be for their preparation for examinations. Next is a decline of educational power by school. According to the survey of OECD, incredible to say, expenditure for education by the government is the 31st out of 32 countries. If education in Japan is not enough, children will continue to go to cramming schools for the time being. And if children in Japan are played by disparity of income of their parents, how will Japan be?   Prof. Jeffery Sachs, the chief of the Earth Institute of the Columbia University, has been regarding this (children’s poverty is greatly affected by poor surroundings of their parents ) as questionable from many aspects since before. He insists that we should get out of the chain which poverty in America infects through generations. According to his monograph, they are in the cycle that children whose parents are unemployed, sickened or incarcerated, regardless of being divorced or not, are living in poor regions and go to schools of low educational standards. And such children who are brought up under such circumstances have no choice but to grow up to poor man, in other words man of poor skill and cannot get respectable jobs. Such negative chain should be cut. He warns also that increasing of such poor children may affect economic growth of America.He emphasizes further that it happened in an “affluent society, America”.I do not think such negative chain is not possible in Japan.   How to check poverty of children and how to cut such negative chain before it comes too late? Prof. J. Sachs shows how to solve. He advises, according to his monograph published last year titled “children and country suffered from poverty”, that public money should be invested to give equal opportunity for education thoroughly.There is “Kodomo Teate Law*” in Japan. (*It gives legal guardians of children under 15 years old.) Is it functioning well? I hope poverty rate in Japan would decline when I investigate next time.   (A full-time lecturer,Kyoai Gakuen University)   Translated by Kazuo Kawamura English checked by Mac Maquito   SGRA Kawaraban 437 in Japanese (original)  

Contributing to good global citizenship through the principle of harmony in diversity. SGRA is short for Sekiguchi Global Research Association (pronounced as SEGRA). It is a Civil Society Organization (CSO) based in Sekiguchi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan and has a mission to reach out globally. It is under the Atsumi International Foundation (AIF), which was formed on the behest of the the late Takeo Atsumi (former President of Kajima Construction) as the Atsumi International Scholarship Foundation (AISF). SGRA's mission is to contribute to good global citizenship under the principle of harmony in diversity. The core of SGRA is formed from former AISF/AIF scholarship recipients of foreign students in the final stage of Ph.D. work in a Japanese university. SGRA is also engaged in lay person-oriented research in Japan studies, environmental/energy , global citizenship, peace/security, human resource development, IT/education, and historical issues. SGRA's membership is therefore open to all men and women of goodwill irrespective of nationality, social rank, or field of intellectual pursuit. SGRA holds at least four forums per year in Japan and regularly publishes the SGRA report (generally in Japanese, although there are special issues published in other languages as well). SGRA also has regular international collaborations with like-minded institutions in the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, China, and Mongolia. SGRA's Home Page could be found here

    I participated in “the Fukushima Study Tour” two nights stay, and I could understand thoughts of villagers and real situation of Iitate from exchange and co-working with villagers and volunteers in Iitate. I could hear also about ecology, economy and population of Iitate from academic viewpoint.   I have been keeping a feeling ‘déjà vu’ which I myself could not catch after I have talked with displaced persons at Matukawa temporary houses which I visited first this time. Such ‘déjà vu’ became stronger after having exchange between such people who were struggling for finding out any light of hope, who are making pathetical effort to find out any rebirth of living circumstances in the situation that they cannot find out, and habitants there, volunteers, learned men and the young who are aiming at improvement of an image of Fukushima through works of art.   Such feeling ‘déjà vu’ was similar with the one which I have seen the people in Georgia in early 1990’s who were in similar situation and feelings with Iitate. In Georgia at that time, there were a lot of such people that displaced persons who have been forced out from their homes, habitants who have been fighting desperately for recovering their home land and artists who have been active for letting the people forget such tragedies even for a moment. It was not from nuclear accident which has resulted from natural phenomenon but from war which human being has started.   Alike a part of the land in Georgia which are occupied by foreign armies, Fukushima Prefecture are partly covered by invisible enemy “ radioactive substance”.   During our conversation with Iitate villagers, we heard very often the words “war for returning to home village”, “war against radioactivity” and “war in our heart”. I have got a strong impression that Fukushima is “in the midst of the war”. But it is different from the war in Georgia in the point that, in Fukushima where they are fighting with the “invisible war” negotiation or diplomacy which ease a relation between “the war” and “invisible enemy” are useless. The only solution for this is perfect removal of “invisible war”, in other words, Iitate cannot revive without removal of radioactivity.   The war in their heart is the most difficult war among every kinds of war. I have heard very often that if they lose the war in their heart, they would lose the war against radioactivity too. On the other hand, it is said that they do not know how they should fight against radioactivity. A reason why Iitate villagers have been fighting in their heart may become vicious circle if they cannot find any solution for removal of radioactivity and it is only a matter of time that they would lose the war in their heart.   The problem which became clear to be difficult in this tour is a poor linkage between government and habitants in the disaster-stricken area. A scale of decontamination work done by the Government seems impressive at first sight for the people who do not know the details. However, as I got detailed explanation about the situation of Iitate, I realized that it is ineffective.   Of course, some people say that it may be impossible to make an objective judgment for the work without listening to the government opinion. I am not a specialist but I think it natural that they thought doubtful about effectiveness of decontamination when I saw many black plastic bags which are full of soil, contaminated by radioactivity and stripped off from the surface of the ground, and are piled up everywhere in the village.Moreover, it will be natural also that villagers feel doubtfulness about the purpose of the works by the government if they look such bags are put in front of houses and fields. There is no such official plan that Iitate villagers watch out the work and can participate in the process of establishing working policies and decision of the plan itself.I think it will be one of the reasons for the above.I think it very unreasonable and unnatural that there is no set-up in the reality which villagers cannot remove radioactivity which poured on their land and they cannot check the work by themselves.   There is one non-governmental body called “Resurrection of Fukushima(Fukushima Saisei no Kai)”. It was established for the purpose of filling a gap between the government and people and is composed of habitants in the disaster stricken area, volunteers and scientists of various fields. Members of this body, after understanding well about difference between safe and secure, promote such project that gathering and analysis of the pollution data, decontamination work of farm land and forest, resurrection of agriculture. We cannot say all projects are going well, but it is sure that such works are contributing to villagers who are fighting against the war of despair.   There are still many doubts in this theme which we have discussed during this tour: decontamination works by the government, relation between the government and people, consciousness about contamination problem, necessity of nuclear power plant and construction and operation of nuclear power plant. After returning from this tour, I strongly realized and deepened my conviction that we should not despair even in a hopeless situation.   (2014　Scholarship student, Georgia)   Translated by Kazuo Kawamura English checked by  Max Maquito   SGRA Kawaraban  ??? in Japanse (original)

Asia Future Conference

1. Event: 19th Sustainable Shared Growth Seminar 2. Host: Sekiguchi Global Research Association (SGRA) 3. Co-Host: School of Urban and Regional Planning, University of the Philippines 4. Co-Organizers: College of Architecture University of the Philippines, School of Economics University of Asia and the Pacific 5. Date: February 10, 2015 6. Venue: School of Urban and Regional Planning, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City 7. Theme: The Urban-Rural Gap and Sustainable Shared Growth 8. Brief Description: The Philippines is in dire need of achieving shared growth, whereby there is a good balance between efficiency and equity. With the onset of significant changes in the climate, the environment has also become an important factor. There is, therefore, the urgent need for inter-disciplinary, inter-sectoral, and inter-national discussions and actions that would contribute to sustainable shared growth. One major facet of sustainable shared growth is the urban-rural gap, which is manifested in part by the net flow of resources to the city to the detriment of the countryside. While it is in the interest of efficiency that urban development is promoted, this should not overly sacrifice the other goals of equity and environment. This discussion need not be limited to the level of urban-rural but could also be extended to any level where there the centralization vs. decentralization issue becomes relevant to the KKK discussions. [Note: KKK stands for Kahusayan (Efficiency), Katarungan (Equity), and Kalikasan (Environment)] In this sense, urban could be taken as the core, and rural as the periphery. 9. Program: 0800-0830: Registration 0830-0900: Philippine and Japan Flag Ceremony, and Opening Talk by Dr. Max Maquito (SGRA / Temple University Japan Campus) 0900-1015: "Agricultural Development" managed by Dr. Jane Toribio, Department of Agrarian Reform 1015-1045: Coffee Break 1045-1200: "Agri-Industry Linkages" managed by Prof. Jovi Dacanay, School of Economics, University of Asia and the Pacific 1200-1300: Lunch 1300-1415: "Renewable Energy" managed by En.P. Grace Sapuay, Solid Waste Management Association of the Philippines 1415-1530: "Planning and Design Initiatives in Disaster-Stricken Areas, Part 1", by Arch. Stephanie Gilles, College of Architecture, University of the Philippines 1530-1600: Merienda 1600-1715: "Planning and Design Initiatives in Disaster-Stricken Areas, Part 2", by Arch. Mike Tomeldan, College of Architecture, University of the Philippines 1715-1730: Closing Remarks SGRA19Poster6

The Atsumi International Foundation was established in 1994 at the behest of my late father, Takeo Atsumi, the former President and Chairman of Kajima Corporation. We support financially foreign students who are writing their Ph.D. dissertations in graduate schools in Japan. We aim to make an academic network with those foreign scholars who have lived in Japan and who understand Japan. Using this network, we host forums and symposiums in Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, Manila, and Taipei.   When I look back over my 20 years of interaction with our Asian scholars, I do not think it is difficult to talk with them about our histories calmly, even if at one time our countries fought each other in the last war. But, at the same time, we should not forget about the fact that memories of the Japanese Imperial Army have been passed down from generation to generation in Asia.   Each country has its own history and its history textbooks are written based on its self-centered view point. So, when we discuss about our histories, I think the following three points are important:   1. Accept complicated situations as they are, without framing them in black and white,     and persevere to look for points which could be made the basis for mutual     concession. 2. Grasp the situation with multifaceted eyes, which can also look from the other side,     as an individual human being without carrying the honor and name of the country 3. We need not hurry, but we should not escape from confronting the issue.   Recently in Japan, there is a strong opinion that it is “self-deprecating” to reflect on or apologize for a nation’s past fault. According to Mr. Sadaaki Numata, former Ambassador of Japan to Canada and Advisor of Kajima Corporation, when he was posted at the Japanese Embassy in the UK, people had a bad impression of Japan because of the Japanese atrocities inflicted on British soldiers during the war. The adverse reports in the UK stopped after the media were informed that Japan had apologized following an issuance of the statement by Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in 1995. In order to break the political deadlock of Japan with China and South Korea, I think it is more fruitful to continue and even emphasize Japan’s postwar policies that were established over so many years with the efforts in politics, diplomacy, and civil activities.   In 2000, Kajima Corporation was ordered to reconcile by a Tokyo High Court with Chinese workers (who were forcibly moved to the Hanaoka Mine, Odate-City, Akita Prefecture during the war) by depositing 500 million Yen. This reconciliation is generally regarded as imperfect in Japan because some of the Chinese plaintiffs did not accept the offered compensation, as it was not legal reparation, and even criticized the Japanese supporters.   Prof. Lee Enmin of J.F. Oberlin University, who was an Atsumi scholar, pointed out that “the process of the Hanaoka reconciliation and the difficulty in formulating it, have not been properly understood”. Indeed it was epoch-making to have reached the reconciliation by overcoming big gaps among plaintiffs, civil rights activists, enterprises and justices, because some Japanese people still think that “forcibly relocating residents from their homes during the war was the responsibility of the government” or “it will affect other private companies who have similar problems”. The filing of lawsuits continues in South Korea and China for postwar compensations by Japanese private companies. In China, with the economic growth, it is very likely that people will have a heightened awareness of their rights and initiate new lawsuits. I think the Hanaoka reconciliation, which was tackled without escaping from the past issues, should be better appraised   I do not deny that the war responsibility has become a political issue rather than historical. But, I do not think that the passionate rationalization of the behavior of Japanese soldiers during the war is helping to enhance mutual trust among Asian neighbors. I think we should endeavor to send our message to the world that we are proud of our present course of history as a peaceful country under the “new constitution” of postwar Japan. I regret to say that the current Japan seems to be going the opposite direction.   (Managing Director, Atsumi International Foundation)   Translated by Kazuo Kawamura English Checked by Mac Maquito   Original:The Mainichi (Japanese newspaper)