Not so useful KEGG manual:
http://www.kegg.jp/kegg/docs/keggapi_manual.html
More handy perl scripts
Her analysis of democracy and free market in many developing countries explain many failures and problems after the collapse of the Berlin wall.
She also wrote a controversial book on child education. I think the book was sensationalized by the publisher. That Chinese education system is not very different from Japan’s Korea’s and Jew’s etc. Important message is to reconsider the method of child education.
What fraction of population in other nations must be smart enough to compete with Japan? (If all the other conditions are considered to have same impacts. )
If 50% of Japanese people are competitive, then
China needs only 4.7%
India 5.3%
USA 20%
Indonesia 26.7%
Pakistan 34%
UK 100.2% of their population to compete with with Japan. This idea disproportionally favors populous nations. Smaller nations may be able to reach effective national policies more easily and have less people to feed. Many none competitive people surely drive their nations downward even though they may be good consumers. Interaction and collaboration between nations and many factors make the definition of national competitiveness more bluer.
This entry is just a collection of information about immigration issues in Japan found on the web to find out its possibility. Immigration models used in USA, Canada or New worlds are not likely applicable nor feasible to Japan without significant modification because of their histories are totally different. More realistic models that Japan can adapt are probably European models: British or Swedish models might work. (Most likely none of the models are suitable.) But there is no perfect solution on this in any country. Probably Canada is one of most successful countries as for immigration because it only borders with USA and the Antarctic ocean. It has vast resources and lands, but Japan does not have neither unfortunately.
But who want to come to Japan? Actually probably a lot of people like to come, including highly skilled workers as well as non-skilled. Main problem is how Japanese accept these people and accept multicultural society, instead of totally transforming them into Japanese. But many Japanese likely want to convert them into Japanese completely. I am not sure how many immigrants will put up with such assimilation pressure.
Finding Home: Immigrant Life in Japan
By Sharon Noguchi
http://japanfocus.org/-Sharon-Noguchi/2349
How to immigrate to Japan
New study suggests migration does not bring happiness
August 31, 2010
The grass might not be greener on the other side of the border, a new study from the University of Leicester has found.
Dr Bartram said that the research might also serve to allay some media fears and people’s concerns about being “overrun” by immigrants: “The fact is, most people around the world do not want to move to a wealthy country like the UK: perhaps they understand that money is not the most important thing, that there would be a real price to pay in leaving one’s family and community.
“Perhaps the research could also help potential migrants, especially those who are attracted by wealthy-country income prospects, to develop a better understanding of what life as an immigrant in a wealthy country would really be like.”
Good news or bad news? Many people do not need this kind of “study” to figure this out. People who do need this information will or can not read it either. An opportunity outside of their countries provide them challenge and valuable experience. But what is happiness anyway?
But, looking at the paper, it does provide good insight.
Social Indicators Research
An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life MeasurementEconomic Migration and Happiness: Comparing Immigrants’ and Natives’ Happiness Gains From Income
David Bartram
Abstract
Research on happiness casts doubt on the notion that increases in income generally bring greater happiness. This finding can be taken to imply that economic migration might fail to result in increased happiness for the migrants: migration as a means of increasing one’s income might be no more effective in raising happiness than other means of increasing one’s income. This implication is counterintuitive: it suggests that migrants are mistaken in believing that economic migration is a path to improving one’s well-being, at least to the extent that well-being means (or includes) happiness. This paper considers a scenario in which it is less likely that migrants are simply mistaken in this regard. The finding that increased incomes do not lead to greater happiness is an average (non)effect—and migrants might be exceptional in this regard, gaining happiness from increased incomes to a greater extent than most people. The analysis here, using data from the World Values Survey, finds that the association between income and happiness is indeed stronger for immigrants in the USA than for natives—but even for immigrants that association is still relatively weak. The discussion then considers this finding in light of the fact that immigrants also report lower levels of happiness than natives after controlling for other variables.
In the end, it depends. I am not moving around primarily because of financial reasons, but because I can do more valuable work, and am also aware of the high cost of moving around — any one who lived abroad for long time knows. Uninformed would-be immigrants should read this, which I doubt they would.
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/ta/ta_20101013-1700a.mp3
Korea’s bold attempts to create a special English speaking school district in which only English is allowed may revel the intrinsic weakness of Korean society. First, they do not want to have such a district in main land — not-in-my-back-yard attitude or just simply lack of lands. Second, they like to domesticate students with English without giving away kimchi mentality. Third, some school specifically seems to exclude Japanese. Well, they want to cultivate the environment peppered with global culture with Asian face except Japanese. — That is fine and the number of Japanese American is relatively small as well and if Japanese-Americans want to go to this Korean school is questionable.
“There is an expressed desire in Korea to seek the benefits of a ‘Western’ or ‘American’ approach to pre-collegiate education,” said Ted Hill, headmaster of the Chadwick School, whose Songdo campus has been deluged with applicants to fill the 30 percent of slots reserved for Korean students. The balance of the student body will be recruited from expatriate families living in South Korea and China.”
For them it is just a business opportunity, but hey, others want it.
Western Schools Sprout in South Korea
They like to cultivate English skills without compromising Korean identity, culture and pride.
I hope they will not repeat the failures of American universities in Japan.
”日本にいながらアメリカに留学できるわけです。
当時のキャッチフレーズは『私、日本にいながらアメリカの大学通うの!』だそうです。”
http://home.owari.ne.jp/~shima60matsuo-s/newpage60.html
Osaka governor has already planed this type of project in Itami and it might be a good bet. To attempt to create a similar “virtual international district” from scratch, one must realize that “nation building” is not cheap nor easy. So the governor’s idea might be better than the Korean project since Itami is more attractive than a developing island.
One difference is that Korean started it already and Japan is just thinking about it. Or it already failed similar American university nightmare, though this phenomena was fundamentally different.
If Japan and Korea want to compete globally then they have to come up with universally acceptable values shared by all ethnic groups. They are both afraid of wider scale immigration even though they see its benefits. “Globally compete” means that excelling in hardware as well as content creation and accommodation that can be accepted by many people who can use as well as expand it as their own.
Xenophobic people like to focus on the failure of immigration in the US and France, but they totally ignoring the contribution of immigrants in these countries. Also Detail analysis of human genome indicates that ethnic puritanism is a joke. Xenophobic people idealize the past when only a pure blood-linage flourished, but such people will be disappointed to find that the population of modern human might have been down to about 600 during the last ice age. So Japanese far right wing may need to accept their neighbors as brothers and sisters.
Justice in this case is not equivalent to “正義”. If “justice” means “正義” — correct principle, then the discussion is over. “Justice” should be translated to “公平” where acceptable action is determined by people. Justice is not a universal nor God given principle that leaves no room for further discussion. He emphasizes the ambiguous aspects of “justice” and tries to construct a fair consensus among people to maximize common utility. So putting “正義” upfront seems to be odd.
http://www.justiceharvard.org/
http://www.utilitarianism.com/mill1.htm
It is probably easier to follow his lectures in English and more meaningful.
The Rise of Anti-Japanese Sentiment and School Segregation in San
Francisco
“The Gentlemen’s Agreements illustrate the corrosive effects of racism
and discrimination on both foreign and domestic policy and support the arguments
of some legal scholars that racial bias has long affected American immigration and
naturalization rules. Continue Reading
Internet provides a lot of information but it tends to be shallow. Useful information can be found in specialized data base but most of people do not use them. Libraries provide much more comprehensive information but not many people use it for blogging.
Nationalism and Immigration Policy: North and South
Richard Sigurdson
Department of Political Studies
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3T 5V5 CanadaConclusion
In general, the North is continually brought closer to the South in terms of both freer trade and more direct flows of migrants, mainly from the South to the North. But while trade remains fairly open and western governments have negotiated various agreements to keep it so, migration is heavily restricted and regulated. Immigration rules and procedures have become less discriminatory and policies of multiculturalism or other means of accommodating culturally diverse people have been put in place throughout the North. But there continues to be a strong resentment of more open immigration policies by citizens in the North, regardless of the economic factors (most of which support the call for greater flows of immigrants). The principal reason that immigration remains such a highly controversial issue appears to be the continued strength of nationalist thought and sentiment among citizens of the Northern countries.
The main concerns with immigration continue to revolve around the fundamental role of the nation-state in providing security, maintaining sovereignty, ascribing citizenship, promoting identity, and providing a sense of belonging in a sociocultural sense. As long as nationalism remains strong, countries will resist opening the doors too wide to those who may challenge the majority understanding of the community and its national image.
================
Post-National Politics in Japan?:
The Immigrant Right to Vote
Choong Hoon Lee
Department of Political Science
New School for Social Research, NY.“We do not think of aliens, legal or illegal, as being ‘disenfranchised,’ because we assume that voting must be based on nation-state citizenship. We do not even think of aliens having politics. They are here mainly for their physical survival
and our convenience: to work as janitors, domestics, nannies and drivers. They are here to scrape by, not govern. They inhabit Aristotle’s realm of private necessity rather than the space of public deliberation. We don’t pause to question the prevailing exclusion of aliens; they are meant to be ruled, not to share in
ruling (Raskin 1993, 433: cited from Varsanyi 2005). “Human rights/civil rights
• Protection of life, liberty, and property
• Due process of law
• Rights of association in economy, civil society, and cultural life
• Freedom of speech and opinion
Social rights • Collective bargaining and trade unions
• Old age pensions
• Unemployment benefits
• Health care
• Housing/child care/educational subsides
Cultural rights
• Schooling in own language
• Cultural and art subsidies
Political rights
• Run for, hold, and vote for office at all levels (local, regional, and national)
• Establish political, civil, and cultural associations
• Military service
I really cannot find good impartial discussions about French immigration problems. Probably I need to check it in French.
“France rejects affirmative action as incompatible with its republican ideals of color-blind equality for all citizens. Nice in theory, but that’s not working in practice: discrimination continues, inequality is rife, and notions of color-blindness don’t square with the rising chorus of racially loaded commentary. Color-blindness may also function to keep France blind to racial discrimination and inequality, but the rising tide of anger in the projects and racist chatter in the mainstream suggests that the French may soon have no choice but to openly confront what color-blindness prefers not to see.”
But many people think that is their strength.
“In France it is prohibited by law to create and collect any statistical data concerning race or religion. Therefore, questions such as “How many Blacks in France?” ,”How many Protestants?” , “What is the number of people of Arab origin?” or “Where do French Jews live?” have no statistically official answer. It is prohibited, under heavy penalty, to keep any such individual data on a computer file and the CNIL (Commission Nationale Informatique et Liberté) has huge powers to investigate it. The reason for this is in the vision the French have of their own identity : anybody born in France is (automatically) French and becomes identical to all his/her compatriots, whatever his/her origin. No discrimination can be made, based on the color of the skin or religious beliefs and no such community can be officially acknowledged”
http://www.understandfrance.org/French/Issues.html#ancre38162
Zacarias Moussaoui: a victim of French racism?
“It was reported that, during career interviews at school, some teachers led him to believe that, since he was an Arab, his professional ambition would be fulfilled by simply becoming a clerk. Experiences such as this created resentment, which explains in part why he started to turn towards fundamentalism.”
“This newspaper – which is owned by Le Monde – contented itself with publishing some brief portraits of Zacarias Moussaoui, no more detailed than those published in the international press. Like other regional newspapers, generally of poor quality in centralised France, their mission to explain the local dimensions of a world catastrophe—the fundamentalism of some French Muslims—was not carried out.”
“Our ethnic minorities do not have a sufficient presence at mainstream editorial desks. Despite the demographic weight of non-white residents in France, they have little visibility. The same applies to our parliaments and governments.”
The US is a nation of immigrants. So they must have been welcoming all immigrants. But it is not the case. Probably through out its history, people who had to fight with labor markets with these immigrants hated them all the time, while employers who could benefit from eager immigrants welcomed them.
Key Dates and Landmarks in United States Immigration History
Timeline (from Harvard university http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/timeline.html)
1789 | The Constitution of the United States of America takes effect, succeeding the Articles of Confederation that had governed the union of states since the conclusion of the Revolutionary War (March 4, 1789). | ||
1790 | The Naturalization Act of 1790 establishes a uniform rule of naturalization and a two-year residency requirement for aliens who are “free white persons” of “good moral character” (March 26, 1790). | ||
1798 | Considered one of the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Naturalization Act of 1798 permits Federalist President John Adams to deport foreigners deemed to be dangerous and increases the residency requirements to 14 years to prevent immigrants, who predominantly voted for the Republican Party, from becoming citizens (June 25, 1798). | ||
1802 | The Jefferson Administration revises the Naturalization Act of 1798 by reducing the residency requirement from 14 to five years. | ||
1808 | Importation of slaves into the United States is officially banned, though it continues illegally long after the ban. | ||
1819 | Congress passes an act requiring shipmasters to deliver a manifest enumerating all aliens transported for immigration. The Secretary of State is required to report annually to Congress the number of immigrants admitted. | ||
1821–1830 | 143,439 immigrants arrive | ||
1831–1840 | 599,125 immigrants arrive | ||
1840s | Crop failures in Germany, social turbulence triggered by the rapid industrialization of European society, political unrest in Europe, and the Irish Potato Famine (1845–1851) lead to a new period of mass immigration to the United States. | ||
1841–1850 | 1,713,251 immigrants arrive | ||
1848 | The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican-American War and extends citizenship to the approximately 80,000 Mexicans living in Texas, California, and the American Southwest. | ||
1848 | Gold is discovered in the American River, near Sacramento, California. | ||
1849 | The California gold rush spurs immigration from China and extensive internal migration. Continue Reading |
Internet as well as mobile phones made communication with mass accessible to any one who pay $50-$100 or so per month. But such mass communication was totally controlled by states, rich companies or individuals for many centuries. So it is time for normal citizens to enjoy or abuse it.
Speed of communication:
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=1457&HistoryID=aa93>rack=pthc
Better than shouting
Post haste: 6th century BC
Imperial communication: 522-486 BC
Speeding up the messenger: 2nd – 11th century AD
Pigeon post: from the 11th century
Gutenberg and western printing: AD 1439 – 1457
The spread of printing: AD 1457-1500
From incunabula to mass communication: 1457 – 1525
First with the news: AD 1609-1690
Optical signals: 17th – 18th century AD
Mail coach: AD 1784 – 1797
The reporters’ war: AD 1854-1856