英語で紹介する日本文化Ⅱ 2009年11月6日
Lesson 6: Views of
Japan from the Washington Post Newsroom 1
(Citation from “Views
of Japan from the Washington Post Newsroom” Kodansha International, 1996)
小沢一朗、貿易交渉で妥協をほのめかす 1994年2月23日
Ichiro Ozawa, one
of Japan's most influential politicians, signaled a possible compromise in the U.S.-Japan trade dispute today, asserting that Tokyo should set
targets for purchases of foreign goods so long as they are not binding.
As a former power broker
in the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party, he was often involved in
settling U.S.-Japan trade disputes, sometimes forcing reluctant bureaucrats and interest groups to make concessions for the sake of good relation between Washington and
Tokyo. Clinton administration negotiators have suggested they hope he will play
such a role again.
日本の官僚制に挑戦する 1994年2月12日
As President Clinton
and Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa grimly announced the collapse of trade talks at the White
House yesterday, five blocks away the men (who) Clinton aides say, are largely
to blame for the failure lounged at the Madison Hotel.
These men―and
virtually all of them are men―are Japan's bureaucrats, members of a
highly educated elite who enjoy vast authority over government policies. As
trade negotiations bogged down in recent days, the White House has increasingly
cast them as villains.
It a breakfast
with U.S. reporters Thursday, Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen marveled that he sees the same bureaucrats in the background,
no matter which Japanese cabinet member he meets. And senior Clinton economic
adviser W. Bowman Cutter recently derided Japan's officials as stubborn “mandarins” whose “attitudes change slowly”.
“I am very much
disturbed by the use of the term ‘mandarin,’” said one Japanese official. “It's
offensive... We don’t control things in Japan.”
日本は核武装する？ 1993年10月31日
For the first time
since the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, Japan no longer rules out
the possibility of producing its own nuclear weapons. Fears of a nuclear-armed,
unified Korea, together with growing Chinese military power and a new mood of national assertiveness, have provoked a growing debate between hawks and
doves over post-Cold War Japanese security policy.
American
policymakers react with dismay to the proposal of a nuclear Japan.
The Japanese plutonium program is primarily motivated by the national desire
for energy independence. But it also reflects sentiment in favor of keeping the
nuclear weapons option open. The soon-to-be-tested H-2 rocket will have a thrust
comparable to the most advanced U.S. intercontinental missiles.
Tokyo, Seoul, and
Pyongyang are closely eyeing each move made by the other in what has become a three-cornered nuclear drama in Northeast Asia.
北朝鮮の来るべき爆弾 1993年11月5日
North Korea has
already tested a missile with enough range to hit Japan. A nuclear North Korea
would set off a deadly arm race in the North Pacific. Japan would go nuclear
very quickly. South Korea would follow. This would not sit well with China
and Russia. The president's task is clear. Lead. Stop talking to the North
Koreans―it is time for an economic blockade―and
start talking to the American people.
信頼できない盟友、日本 1991年4月10日
I once naively
thought that someday there might be a “solution” to the U.S.-Japan “problem”. Wrong.
There's no single “problem” capable of a solution. There is instead a permanent
W- state of anxiety, reflecting different cultures and world views.
The Japanese are
correct when they say we're jealous of their success and, at times, try to
punish them for it. But Americans are equally correct when we sense that Japan’s
spirit is to take more from the world than it gives. There's a touch
of selfishness and amorality. This, and not the precise amount of Japan’s
financial contribution, is the basic American discontent crystallized by the gulf crisis.
What we learned
from the gulf crisis is much simpler: We can’t rely on Japan in the clutch.
The Japanese aren't yet dependable allies.
ジャパン・パッシング 1996年4月14日
Especially for students,
China is more hip than Japan. It’s the East’s Wild West, unpredictable, romantic and dangerous. Japan is Dad’s blue suit: dependable but dull.
Japan may be an economic
giant and one of America’s most vital trading partners, but it is losing its
grip on the American imagination. “Japan bashing” has given way to what many
call “Japan passing.”
第二次世界大戦を反省しない日本人
1976年12月7日
Although President
Franklin Roosevelt called it “a date which will live in infamy,” December 7,
1941, is not a date Japanese school-children are encouraged to remember.
Koei Honda, 43, is
one of many teachers troubled that the majority of children in Japan grows up
ignorant of World War II or learns a version of it that most Americans would agree is incorrect. “We
have many children who think Japan did no wrong in the Pacific war.” Honda
said.
For Americans,
Pearl Harbor is synonymous with duplicity and treachery. Japanese history books convey no contrition for surprise attack.
The deepest discrepancies lie in the interpretation o of events that led up to Pearl
Harbor. In the Western view, Japan fell into the hands of blindly aggressive militarists and expansionists who wanted to colonize China and other Asian countries
to get markets and raw materials. While conceding that the war was a mistake, almost every current
Japanese textbook says the war was forced on Japan the oil and economic sections
applied by the United States and other nations.
日本人の性質 1989年2月13日
Sociologists and
others agree that the crowded environment in which most Japanese grow up helps
explain the Japanese tendency to be considerate of others, to work well in
groups while sublimating one's own desires.
Many Japanese,
accustomed to a densely packed lifestyle, seem to prefer it that way.
Yet, the intense
crowding has also led to tragedy. Several years ago, in the heavily populated
industrial city of Kawasaki, a woman threw a neighbor's dog out the window,
saying she could no longer bear the constant barking. The neighbor responded by
stabbing her to death.
日本の住宅事情 1991年3月4日
A nation shivering through winter in houses that lack modern teat and plumbing hardly fits the world’s image of Japan as an economic superpower.
And yet, most
Japanese routinely accept housing conditions that would spark strikes and lawsuits
almost anywhere in America.
日本の成長が鈍る 1992年4月16日
The slump offers
evidence that the Japanese are not the invincible, ten-foot-tall business monsters depicted in some current fiction or analysis. Japanese bankers and industrialists make bad loans and impulsive investments, too.
Wishful
thinkers see Japanese that would abandon successful work habits for the purpose
of helping out America.
The Japanese are
determined, resourceful competitors, able to think and act strategically to
maintain their advantage. That is not cause for demonizing them, and even less for underestimating them. Americans can come to terms with that reality by working harder to understand the
Japanese and to improve America’s own economic performance.
日本的終身雇用の伝統、震動す
1993年3月3日
Few expect
Japanese-style job security to collapse in the near future, but any significant
modifications, were they to occur, could mark a revolutionary shift
for the corporate system that generated this nation's postwar economic miracle.
The guarantee of lifetime employment has helped Japan Inc. keep wage costs from spiraling out of control, and it has helped instill Japanese workers with their legendary corporate
loyalty.
日本の少子化
While its efficient
factories and financial firms have made Japan an economic superpower, this rich
country faces a potentially disastrous shortfall in one vital area: The Japanese are not producing enough babies.
The Asahi Shinbun
recently reported on act exchange at women’s college here in which a professor urged
her student sake of their country to marry and have three or more children. “But
Professor,” the students reportedly replied, “if you have three children, you’ll ruin
your figure.”
