Rapid progress of technologies and internet has made the world “borderless”. However, international issues became more complicated though it seems to be a contradiction to borderless. For scholars or analysts of economics, it is very difficult to forecast the economy or the international situation of the year 2016. Present anxieties for the world economy are decline in oil prices, slow down of the Chinese economy, opaque future of the economy in EU and difficulties in the growth of US enterprises.Furthermore, the Bank of Japan announced “Negative Interest Rate” first in the end of January.  After the announcement, the Nikkei Stock Average fluctuated violently and has kept on declining. According to the Nikkei (newspaper) which I gave a once-over,  an analyst of the stock market says “in order to turn the Nikkei Stock Average to an upward trend, it is necessary to have a new theme like acceleration of progress of the economy of India”.I pay attention to India, not ASEAN. India is now attracting world attention not only in its economy but also in various phenomena. As I live in Japan, I cannot get information about India as expected, although the Japanese people like Indian-curry.  India, a faraway country, is now becoming familiar to Japanese.Masayoshi Son, president of Soft Bank, chose an Indian, not a Japanese, as his successor.This news, together with the huge amount of his officer’s compensation, made the headline all over the world. At the same time, we came to know that Mr. Son invested huge amounts of money on enterprises in India.  Since Indian Prime Minister Naredra Modi’s visit to Japan in 2014, the Japanese people have now become interested about India. Does the economic growth of India have a power to push up the Nikkei Stock Average? The more we know about the country and people of India, the more we realize that Japan and India stand in the exact opposite positions: Japan is ahead as an aging society, but low in birth-rate.On the other hand, the population under 25 years old in India is about 50% and its population density is high. They do not control their population like China. Population in India is increasing. We are overwhelmed by such energetic image. We notice now that India is producing many excellent business executives to the world. We can see a lot of Indian CEO names in the world’s big enterprises. The Nikkei Business (magazine), issue of September 28, 2015 featured under the title “Indian CEO control the world” and analyzed three points as the reasons for “why Indian CEO?” ―Large number of men of talent who have IT skills, for example, which can be used in the world. ―Way of thinking or management styles which are set forth for assumption of diversity ―Patience, creativities and response capabilities all of which have been developed by its severe circumstances.It comes as no surprise that these three points affect the Japanese economy. These three points may be insufficient in the Japanese people. For this reason, Mr. Son did not choose a Japanese CEO as his successor. I am not saying India is stronger than Japan. There are a lot of troubles in India like the deep-rooted caste systems, confrontation among religions as India has various religions or a male-dominant society.  I think they can live in the global world only after they crawl their way up from such a complicated society. Both in China, my home country and in Japan, where I am living now, people are still interested in India these days. (Full-time Lecturer of Maebashi Kyoai Gakuen University)  Translate by Kazuo KawamuraEnglish checked by Mac Maquito SGRA Kawaraban 484 in Japanese(original ) 

I realize that it has been already ten years since I came to Japan in March, 2007 to pursue a master’s degree course at the graduate school of Waseda University.In the summer of 2005, I came to Japan first as a trainee under an internship program and spent the summer holidays of the 3rd-year in the University in Tokyo. It was my first time of living abroad and I felt freshness and excitement during those two months. I used Japanese language which I have learned since I was freshman in the university and it was the time when I became conscious of the pleasure of speaking Japanese with a lot of people, home-stay family, staff members of the training institute, and friends with whom I got acquainted in Japan. When I thought of my job after graduation, I realized, from my stay in Japan, that it would be good if many foreign students who have learned the Japanese language can enjoy speaking and understanding Japanese like me. Furthermore, I hope to work in a job which supports foreign students who have learned the Japanese language. And, finally I decided in my study to major in Japanese language education in the graduate school of a Japanese university. After proceeding to the graduate school, I have been intent on my research. In April, 2015, I worked as an assistant of Japanese language education research in the university which had a class in Japanese language mainly for foreign students.I studied for 8 years since 2005 as foreign student, and now I am working as  an assistant for educational activities supporting foreign students who study Japanese language.  Actually I do not have any class for Japanese language, but I can help foreign students from a closer standpoint so that they can take better opportunities for learning Japanese language.  As I chose a way which I learn Japanese language enjoying communication by Japanese language, I can say that this job is just my heart’s desire. I never dreamt of getting such job in Japan when I first came to Japan. One year has already passed since I got the job as an assistant. Sometimes I remember my first individual consultation meeting for a Japanese language curriculum, which was very impressive. When I arrived at the meeting place on that day I found that just before the meeting, everything was prepared and made ready. Teachers who actually had classes and volunteers who could communicate in English, Chinese and Korean were already seated.  Foreign students began to arrive on the starting time outside the place.  But, it seemed some of them were too nervous to enter the place and were just watching and hesitating to enter into the hall.I called out to students who were hanging about outside the hall and guided them inside.  Some of them gave me worried glances.  The glance of a student, who could not speak Japanese seemed to me like a voice which he cried for “help!”  I tried to listen to his concern or problem as carefully as I could, so that his worry could be eased. When I assisted in such guidance sessions, I noticed one thing. All students were supposed to come here for consultation about their curriculum of the Japanese language study, but actually some students did not understand what they should be consulting with us.  When I guided Chinese students to the teachers or volunteers, I was told: “I will come again after I decide what I should ask”.  Frankly speaking, I was surprised a little at the comment, though I clearly understand their nervousness, based from my own experience as a foreign student. The individual consultation meeting was established to assist foreign students to solve any problem which they may have. But we came to realize that it was not easy for foreign students to come to such meeting. We understood that they hesitate to come because they cannot understand Japanese language well. But, it seems that the language problem is not the only concern. They are not familiar with getting consultation or assistance from people with whom they are not acquainted in a big hall and they have never experienced consulting with others. I was impressed with their seriousness that they were thinking carefully about their question before they left their chair for our consulting table. And, at the same time, I had a feeling which I, as a foreign student, did not experience before.  When I came to Japan, I had no trouble in speaking Japanese because I had learned Japanese language in university.  I had a feeling now, also, especially during this one year when I was working as an assistant, that there are many foreign students who cannot speak Japanese well. Moreover, I realized that now is the time for diversification. When they left home country, these students had varied purposes, backgrounds and experiences,  and their level of knowledge of the Japanese language were also different. When we assist various foreign students who are learning Japanese language, I think   there may be a lot of things which I could not imagine if I follow my experience. Of course, we can solve some of their concerns based on my experience. However, we cannot solve their worries or trouble like an equation because their backgrounds or purposes are different. We have to listen to what they are saying first how much they have learned by then, what are they aiming at and what kind of worry or hesitation they have now.  In March, we will receive new students and our activities for such foreign students will be developed again. Though I have little experience, I like to do my best keeping my posture of scrupulously listening to what each foreign student is saying. (Japanese Language Research Assistance at Graduate School, Waseda University)  Translated by Kazuo KawamuraEnglish checked by Mac Maquito SGRA Kawaraban 483 in Japanese(Original)

It is not as easy as the present for enterprises which have luxury brands to forecast consumers’ behaviors. Everybody has a smartphone and access to internet every day. In such circumstances, it seems to be easy for such enterprises to analyze customers’ tastes 　from purchase records or search history. But, actually this analysis is not so easy to do.. I have a feeling that world-wide long-established brand companies, whose brands are easily recognized merely by their logos, are being tossed around by capricious consumers’ behavior.  When we look at both sides, luxury brands companies and consumers, we note that there has been a relation that the companies which produce high-grade brand articles which have strong or outspoken impact and consumers’ demand for them. The rich customers could get them easily. People who cannot afford to buy hankered for the articles and yearned for the rich. Images of high-grade brands were getting higher valuation. Recently, however, when I see SNS (Social Networking Service) or “YouTube”, it seems to me that people do not admire the brand as before.Where have their interests gone ? I found an interesting research in Harvard Business Review (the November 2015 issue of Japanese version). The title was “High-grade brand article which copes with “inconspicuous consumption”. Consumers, as shown by a recent trend, do not like such articles to be conspicuous as before. Such trend started from Europe and America and became stronger. In China too, sales of clothes and bags which have famous logos dropped recently. The research about consumers’ behavior points out that there is a trend which avoids luxury brand article in the world. And, according to this analysis, there are three factors which support such trend. The first factor is high-grade brand articles became popular to middle class people and their logos are no longer mark or proof of being rich. This is because high-grade imitation goods by “fast-fashion” and diffusion-line (popular products of high-grade brand articles) of brands. (For example, diffusion line of “Armani” is “Armani-Exchange”.) The second is blatant status-symbols do not fascinate the upper class consumers any more. The third is the niche brand articles went in for the boom owing to promotion in the social media. For example, in the case of handbags, Bottega Veneta which has less brand logo is becoming more popular than the Gucci brand. In the case of coffee, Blue Bottle Coffee is preferred rather than Starbucks This research analyze mainly how upper class people trend away from brand logos.  And those three factors mentioned above are related also to middle class consumers who are the most important customers. First of all, the rise of “fast-fashion” is unavoidable. And, everybody can enjoy their dressing up now.  Besides, owing to popularization of internet and smartphone, everybody can access any information which they like to get and they can use their information by themselves. It is now in fashion in the world that people introduce their clothes by themselves using “Selfie” (picture taken of yourself mainly for SNS) or “Instagram”. If they do such introduction every day, they prefer to have many variations of dress and accessories which they purchase at “fast fashion” as much as possible, rather than having only one high-class brand handbag.  Actually, popular “fashionista” in “Instagram” is the one who wears a dress stylishly not the one who has a lot of high-class brand articles. According to the research, niche-brand boom made by social media, the third factor mentioned above, is explained as exchange of “subtle signal” among people regardless of socio-economics classes. In other words, there is no wall on the internet among social classes. Everybody can communicate freely from site to site. By doing so, like-minded people of tastes or purposes get together naturally. A fashion is created by attracting people’s attention. As an example, when Chinese tourists came to Japan in the past, they usually bought SKII (high-class cosmetics) . But, nowadays, they buy facial packs at drug stores in town. Why? It is because those facial packs have been used and guaranteed as good by the people who have visited Japan and have written “good” in their blogs. Consumers enjoy shopping using information from like-minded (visiting Japan and enjoy shopping) people rather than enterprises that invest big money for advertisement.   Not all the Chinese tourists stopped buying luxury brand articles. If you go to Ginza, you can see many Chinese tourists in luxury brand shops. We can say that consumers have many options now. They go to luxury brand shops, drug stores and Don Quixote. Now, it is not a status symbol for the people who have luxury brand articles. I think an experience becomes a status by popularization of SNS rather than possessing luxury brand articles. It is easy for people who can share “experience” on SNS saying “good!”rather than showing off luxury brand articles which they have bought. The existence of social media has changed consumers’ behavior and tastes. Did marketing people of luxury brand enterprises presume such changes?  As the conclusion of the Harvard Business Review, a trend of high-quality image which does not show their brand logomark becomes very personal not social. In other words, a bag whose design is refined and has brand-logo mark inside symbolizes higher status than a bag which has conspicuous logo mark outside. Yes, the key-word is “personal”! On the internet now, there is a page like “Facebook” or “Instagram” which consumers can open by themselves. This “personal whereabouts” page spreads out to friends or to hobby pages. There is another site “Pinterest”, not SNS, which can preserve favorite pictures and specializes for enjoying “possessing” those pictures personally,. We can book-mark on our personal board our favorite pictures from the internet. We can classify such pictures by categories like clothes, interior etc. and it is possible for somebody else to access those “Pinterest”.  It is a good chance to show our sense. By collecting our favorite pictures, we can build up world view by our own and can get our feelings that we possess. For example, when we bookmark a picture of watch which we could not possess before we can enjoy a feeling that the watch comes near now. It is a show of “personal” hobby of middle-class enjoying our “whereabouts” on internet without possessing. Rich consumers are enjoying casual (or nonchalant) luxury now. Other consumers are also enjoying their own luxury not sticking to possessing. It is not easy to forecast such bipolarization hereafter. It is said that there are enterprises which correspond properly to such customers’ changes restraining from exposing their logo marks. Marketing of enterprises which have luxury brand articles will be forced to face hardships hereafter. (Full-time Lecturer of Maebashi Kyoai Gakuen University)  Translated by Kazuo KawamuraEnglish checked by Mac Maquito SGRA Kawaraban 482 in Japanese (original)

It is said that history is written by the victorious in a war or conflict. But this assertion is limited to within a country or to an occurrence in nationalism. If history will be written in a country for their own convenience, neighboring countries may understand it in a different way, and people after ages cannot take either version on trust. Under a democratic system, there are many understandings of history and regimes or governments will change also often. So, beliefs and understandings do not turn out as those in power wished.   I studied in Japan from the first to the third grade in elementary school. I read a biography of Hideyoshi Toyotomi (1536-1598), one of the great Japanese unifiers, and I thought he was a great person as was written in his biography. However, when I returned to Taiwan, I found that Hideyoshi is written up in a history textbook as a bad fellow. I grew up in a family which believed in the time under Japanese reign. My parents told me that public security in Taiwan had been good under Japanese reign and everything became worse under the Nationalist Party. In school, we had to study our history from Chinese viewpoint and impression about Japan was not so good. I came to know that there were many people who had been oppressed and discriminated against even during the period of Japanese reign. People felt in different ways even if their experience occurred in the same place and in the same period. I thought it arrogant to understand history from the experiences of only a part of the people.   Science leads to the same answers for everybody. In this sense, we cannot say present history textbooks are not science. What should history textbooks be ? I had a chance to talk, over “sake,” about history textbook with learned men in Japan and scholars about the history of China and Korea. They are trying to write history textbooks which all of them can accept for establishing a society by scholars of histories in Japan, Korea and China. According to them, the most difficult point in the process of reconciling histories was the problem of communications among different countries. The meaning of a word or concept would be different depending on the quality of the translation. If they use English as a common language, they can communicate only superficially. Moreover, doyens of historians in each country cannot speak English well.   In the world of science, it would be best to explain by the use of easy languages which can be understood by everybody. So, I told them that they can communicate in simple English if they have difficulty to describe historical events. But history researchers replied to me that they have to explain the relation of cause and effect, and in a subtle nuance when they explain histories. So, it will be difficult to explain histories using easy languages.   It seems to me historians make simple occurrences or events complicated. For example, when Japanese historians explain a battle or a war, they use a word differently. For example, they use the word “Rebellion“(乱) for coups d’etat which failed and “Incident”（変）for coups d’etat which succeeded. Both are coups d’etat anyway, and they make it complicated. It is said that such complicated Japanese expressions are “refined or graceful”. It is the same with Chinese expressions “深奥”(meaningful) or “奥妙” (superb) which Chinese people in Taiwan use in the Chinese culture. So, I think historians who use such words do not understand well the cultures of other countries. Such complicated expression of histories in Japan originally came from China. In China, there are many expressions in Chinese history books about “War” or “Killing others”. In the case of “War”, they use several Chinese characters to describe it as simple occurrences, conquests or invasions, all of which are very subjective. For example, the Syrian War can be explained as “Conquest” from a viewpoint of one country and “Invasion” from others, depending on their standpoint. So, I think histories should be written using simple vocabularies as much as possible and excluding sentiment about right or wrong.   So, in the case of the Sino-Japanese War, I will write “Japan sent its troops” to China. The words “invasion” or “conquest”, are both very subjective, and are unnecessary. And if we write “sending troops”, we will be released from mental complication, that is, we have to use the word “conquest” when we send troops to another country and “invasion” when another country sends its troops to our country. If we are asked whether “sending troops” are right or wrong, I think it is unnecessary to judge in history because we have been taught by teachers since the first grade of primary school that it is wrong to strike the first blow or to bring in weapons first. There are a lot of interpretations for a historical occurrence. When there are objections among historians, they mention only the part which they agree after verifying evidence. About the part on which they cannot reach agreement, it will be enough to let the young conclude from the opinions of historians of both sides of the issue.   (Associate Professor, Interdisciplinary Faculty of Science and Engineering of Shimane University / Researcher of SGRA “Environment and Energy” Research Team)   Translated by Kazuo Kawamura English checked by Mac Maquito   SGRA Kawaraban 481 in Japanese (original)

We visited the construction site of Kajima’s project “Redevelopment of Tokyo Kachidoki 5-chome Area” on November 4, 2015. Our visit was made together with ten scholarship students and officers and staff of Atsumi International Foundation composed of Ms. Imanishi, Managing Director, Mr. Tsunoda, Secretary-general, Ms. Ishii, Ms. Ota and Ms. Honda.   We assembled at a ticket gate of the Kachidoki Station of the Oh-Edo Line and walked to the site enjoying the special atmosphere of downtown Tukishima area under a clear sky. As the site was not yet opened to the public, our curiosity was stimulated. A Kajima staff explained to us about the outline of a high-rise apartment project which is under construction and its special and technical features.   The construction of a 53 stories apartment started in 2013 and will be completed by December 2016. They complete five stories a day integrating their most advanced technologies. He explained also, as the most prominent feature of the project, that Kajima adopted the “VD Core-Flame method of construction” as Japan has frequent earthquakes which is inadequate for high-rise buildings. It is the first method of construction in the world. They install “oil-dumpers” among three buildings which are combined together and this method absorbs the shock of earthquake. Structures of combined three buildings, called “Tristar (three stars) Type” are strong but superior in design. Traditional box-type huge buildings give us an oppressive feeling.  But we think the Tristar type is more well-matched with the surroundings because of its being well-lighted and expansive approaches on the ground.   After this explanation, we went up to the upper floor via the temporary elevator, after putting on a helmet and having a transceiver.  In our elevator which is operated at high speed, all of us were excited imagining how the site will look like.   When we got out of temporary elevator, we were captivated by panoramic view of the Bay of Tokyo which was very  wide under a clear sky.  We were impressed by such grand sites as the Loop 2 which is just before the opening to vehicular traffic, the Hamarikyu Gardens, the Tokyo Tower, the roofs of the Tsukiji Outer Market and the bridges over Sumida-River.  All of us shouted “Wow! Mt. Fuji!” It was a valuable experience for us that we could see, in our presence, actual “light (in weight) tubes” and “oil dampers” which were explained to us just now as being the most advanced technologies. We were impressed also by the splendid clean and systematic administration of the site where Kajima execute such works like pillars, structural members, floors and wirings of each room perfectly, as scheduled. When we were told the recycling ratio of industrial wastes reaches to 98%, we recognized clearly that Kajima is very particular about creative construction.   After visiting the site, we moved to a nearby “gallery for high-rise apartment” and visited a theatre for publicity and show rooms. The entrance hall of the gallery is decorated with modern taste as actual entrance hall.  At the theatre, were shown the premises, urban space and living style on 3D cinema and three motion videos. Panoramic simulation of sunset, at a show room, which seems to symbolize elegant and refined living style of adults were very impressive. We had an animated discussion about sociability of high-rise apartments and a change of social structure which comes from the change of urban space from horizontal to vertical.   Visiting the jobsite of “Kachodoki 5-chome Area” was a very valuable experiences for the scholarship students. This high rise apartment, which is under construction, would be certainly a new land-mark. The under construction living apace influences the life of the residents. Apartment numbersing more than 1400 units can be said to compose a town. We expect valuable social and cultural role of “Kachidoki-tower” in Tsukisima area in Tokyo which would show case the most advanced technologies and design concept.   (Scholarship student of Atsumi International Foundation)     Translated by Kazuo Kawamura English checked by Mac Maquito   AISF Report in Japanese (original)