commit

When thinking about why Japanese people do not protest or demonstrate, I came up with some ideas, that many Japanese

• do not have a clear idea of what is really needed for the country,
  
• so that are not sure who should be the one to control and govern,
• or simply too shy
• or do not act when they are not sure if their action will benefit them or it's gonna be successful

There actually are more in my mind but it is quite hard for me to explain everything here especially in English.

People say Hatoyama and his Cabinet members are not doing their duty or that their policy did not come out effective and trustworthy. I do not think they are wrong or right but I do when they come to chose ones to blame. It is not only Hatoyama or the Cabinet. It's those who voted for them because people take part in the governance through votes. If the representatives end up with undesirable consequences, the responsibility for the failure is brought down to them and to the voters. In my point of view the reason why people do not think feel so alarmed and motivated for a protest or demos is that they, unintended or not, neglect to consider 'what I want the government to do' or 'what should be done to make Japan a better place to live in' but instead read what is written on manifests. I see people on TV asked what they think about the crisis Japan is encountering and answer 'Hatoyama should leave and be replaced' but no mention to why and what they expect from the one replacing the position. This reflects the way the Japanese deal with the government and its policy. That is, they vote, see what happens, and when the result is to be seen, they either complain or feel content. The actual commitment is not about looking at policies on the list but deciding what kind of policies are in need.

back on the right way.....

So Rab asked us if we will be demonstrating if the government were to change the Article Nine. I said yes. But I must admit I'm greatly biased on this issue, which I cannot really help. He also said that this article is already broken. This, I could not agree or disagree with because I do not have much information about this to start with and I felt embarrassed about it. Here I recalled the sentence in "Geography of Thoughts" that says the ancient Chinese lacked the sense of curiosity and interest....