2008年4月28日 星期一

Japanese whiskies take world titles

washed-up

Bitter taste for Scots distillers as Japanese whiskies take world titles


TWO Japanese whiskies have been voted the best in the world.
Yoichi has become the first variety produced outside Scotland to win the single malt award in an international competition run by trade paper Whisky Magazine, it was revealed yesterday.

The whisky, distilled near the city of Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido, beat dozens of other varieties, including last year's winner, Talisker 18 years old, produced on the Isle of Skye.

Suntory Hibiki, the brand advertised by the washed-up actor played by Bill Murray in the film Lost in Translation, scooped the award for the world's best blended whisky.

Rob Allanson, the editor of Whisky Magazine, said: "Hopefully this will make people sit up and realise that the Japanese are producing some phenomenal stuff. While they don't have a particularly strong toehold in the UK, they are making great gains which the British market should take note of."



日本威士忌常被品酒人士認為不道地,還和英國釀的紅酒一樣成為各界調侃的對象。但今年日本威士忌卻在國際權威競賽拿下雙料冠軍,擊敗所有享譽全球數百年的蘇格蘭品牌,震驚品酒界。

星期泰晤士報27日報導,「威士忌雜誌(Whisky Magazine)」主辦的年度國際競賽中,日本余市(Yoichi)20年單一純麥威士忌被選為最佳單一純麥威士忌,擊敗數十種參賽品牌,包括去年奪冠 的蘇格蘭斯開島(Isle of Skye)塔利斯科(Talisker)18年單一純麥威士忌。這是蘇格蘭威士忌首度丟掉單一純麥威士忌獎。

評審表示,每瓶售價150英鎊(約台幣9,000元)的余市20年單一純麥威士忌「巧妙融合蘇格蘭威士忌的煙燻味與甜黑醋栗的風味」,散發「爆炸性香氣」,入喉「留下濃郁綿長的芳香」。余市威士忌在日本北海道札幌附近釀造,是日本知名酒廠一甲(Nikka)旗下品牌。

在調和式威士忌方面,日本三得利「響(Suntory Hibiki)」獲評鑑為全球最優質的調和式威士忌

這項評鑑結果震驚蘇格蘭,因為威士忌與風笛、肉餡羊肚、蘇格蘭裙同為蘇格蘭民族認同的具體象徵,如今竟輸給日本威士忌,有如一九七○年代法國頂級紅酒輸給美國加州紅酒。

評審指出,日本氣候多變化,有助於佳釀熟成,並造就香氣更濃郁、更純粹的威士忌。

2008年4月27日 星期日

天聲人語數則

補近十天前的舊聞

New gas suicides also harm those left behind

04/26/2008

Manga artist Shigeru Mizuki once visited a temple in Aomori Prefecture dedicated to jizo, the guardian deity of all creatures as well as children who died before their parents.

There, he found many bizarre-looking stone statues of the deity wearing military caps and students' uniforms. Mizuki, an expert on monsters and supernatural beings in the manga world, felt a subtle sadness that belongs to neither the living nor the dead. It was like "a sort of spiritual gas," Mizuki recalls in his book "Yokai Gadan" published by Iwanami Shoten Publishers.

Kitaro, one of Mizuki's best-known characters in the manga series "Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro," can use his hair as an antenna to detect looming evil spirit activity. The uncanny "spirits," in the form of invisible gas, provide settings for stories only when they choose when and where to waft. If they were to gush out at anytime or anywhere, it would spoil the atmosphere.

Suicides using poisonous hydrogen sulfide have occurred one after another recently. Since the gas is invisible and can leak from tiny holes, it can easily cause collateral damage to people who happen to be nearby. In the municipal housing complex in Konan, Kochi Prefecture, where a junior high school girl died Wednesday in an apparent hydrogen sulfide suicide, 80 people were taken to hospital.

Such suicides have rapidly grown this spring. Explanations on how to produce the gas using household products are circulating on the Internet and apparently spread among young people seized with the desire to kill themselves.

In preparation of producing the gas, many people also put up a sign outside their doors to warn neighbors, as instructed on the Internet. The sign reads "poisonous gas in production."

Before hydrogen sulfide, explanations on how to use briquette coal to produce carbon monoxide as a means of committing suicide spread through the Internet. All that has changed are the materials used and the kind of gas being produced.

Meanwhile, the urge to take one's life is spreading among copycats and the trend is giving rise to more new jizo statues. People consult the Internet to learn ways to commit suicide and put up signs of warning to neighbors. Can they not change their desire to "connect" with others and to take their painstaking efforts to end their lives, thereby keeping the will to live?

It is sad to think that the last thing that links suicide victims with this world is poison gas. Using gas to kill themselves is the worst thing they can do to their neighbors and the people who rush to their rescue having read the signs. Such horrible deeds only double the grief of those left behind.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 25(IHT/Asahi: April 26,2008)



2008年04月25日付 “广而告之”的自杀案

翻译:天声人语翻译讨论小组
整理:baiheps

▼水木しげるさんが青森の地蔵堂を訪ねた時のことだ。堂内には、軍帽や学生服を着けた異様な地蔵たちが並んでいた。漫画界の妖怪博士は、生者でも死者でもない、そこはかとない物悲しさを感じ取る。「一種の霊気」のようなものだった(『妖怪画談』岩波新書)。

水 木しげる先生拜访位于青森的地藏堂时,曾经发生过这么一件事情。(他发现,)大殿里整齐地排列着穿着军帽和学生服的怪模怪样的地藏菩萨像。在这个既没有活 人也没有死人的大殿里,这位漫画界的妖怪博士感觉到了一种无处寄托的、近似于“一股灵气”的悲凉感。(『妖怪画談』岩波新書)

▼水木さんが世に出した鬼太郎は、髪を妖気のアンテナとし、忍び寄る不吉な事物を察知できる。その怪しい「気」は、漂う時と場を選んでこそ物語の起点となる。ところ構わず噴き出しては、趣もへったくれもなかろう。

水木先生笔下的鬼太郎能把头发变成探测妖气的天线,从而感知附近潜藏的不祥事物。正是那股奇异之“气”选择了不同的飘忽时间和场所,才引发了一系列的故事。但倘若它是出其不意地出现,恐怕就既无趣、也无价值了吧。

▼有毒ガスの硫化水素を使った自殺が続いている。なにぶん姿もなく小穴を抜ける気体のこと、巻き添え被害が後を絶たない。おととい少女が亡くなった高知県香南市の市営住宅では、80人が病院に赴く騒ぎになった。

最近,连续发生了几起利用有毒气体硫化氢自杀的事件。越来越多的人被这种看不见摸不着的、从小孔里泄露出来的气体所害。前天,死亡一名少女的高知県香南市的市営住宅区内有八十人涌向医院,从而一度造成了混乱场面。

▼硫化水素による自殺はこの春、一気に増えた。日用品からガスを生む手法がネット上に出回り、そうした願望に捕らわれた若者らに広まったらしい。ネットの教え通り、戸口などに「毒ガス発生中」の張り紙をして事に及ぶ者も多い。

今年春天,因有毒气体硫化氢而导致的自杀事件猛增。网上开始登出如何从日常用品中提取(有毒)气体,越来越多的年轻人希望借助这种方法自杀。有很多自杀者还会像网上教的那样,在大门上贴上写有“毒气发生中”字样的纸,但还是会连累很多人。

▼ネットでまず浸透したのは、練炭で一酸化炭素を発生させる手だった。「気」をかえ品をかえ、死への執着は模倣の輪となり、新しい地蔵様が増えていく。知識を得んとキーを打ち、注意を促す紙を出す。「つながりたい」思いと手間を、なんとか生きる力に転じられないものか。

率 先在网上推广开来的,是用煤来制造一氧化碳的方法。年轻人们用尽了各种方法去自杀,他们对于死亡的执着是在效仿过去的地藏(菩萨)。这种轮回,衍生出了新 一代的“地藏様”。从网上学到方法后将门紧闭,而后贴上提醒别人注意的纸。难道这种“希望与外界保持联系”的想法和手段,就不能转化为些许活下去的力量 吗?

▼逝く者とこの世を最後に結ぶのが毒の気とあっては切なすぎる。張り紙で駆けつける善意の人を筆頭に、近隣にこれ以上の仕打ちはない。肉親の悲嘆が倍加するだけだ。

将故去者与这个世界最后联系在一起的居然是毒气,这实在是太过可悲了。那张帖在门上的纸,对邻居们、特别是对那些看到它而赶来的善良的人们而言,造成了无与伦比的伤害。此外就只剩下徒增亲人们的悲叹了。

解说:

背景资料:
水木 しげる(みずき しげる、1922年3月8日 - )は日本の漫画家である。本名は武良 茂(むら しげる)。鳥取県境港市出身。東京都調布市在住。世界妖怪協会会長、日本民俗学会会員、民族芸術学会評議委員。調布市名誉市民。境港市には水木しげる記念館がある。

1,「そこはか」は「其処は彼」、つまり「その場所はたしかにここである」という意味のことばです。ゆえに「そこはかとない」とは、立脚点も着地点もさだかでないふらふらした状態をあらわすことになります。
当『そこはか通信』は、そのような「そこはかとない」モノたちを愛し、また自らも「そこはかとない」存在であることを目指しています。
·たまごのカラザ
·雨上がりのアスファルトのにおい
·テレビの「しばらくお待ちください」のときに出てくる絵
·ベルフーズのおかし(むむむんほわ トンビューン ねるねるねるね)
·さんまのはらわたの中によく入っている、赤くて細長い糸のようなもの(虫?)
·耳かきが鼓膜にあたったときの「もうちょっと奥までいけるかも、でも……」という逡巡

2,「気」をかえ品をかえ——应该是从“手を替え品を替え”演变而来,是作者自创的,呼应用来自杀的“毒气”、我们呼吸的“空气”和开篇所说的“灵气”“妖气”。意为用尽各种手段方法。
手を替え品を替え…いろんな方法を試してみること。手段や方法をあれこれと替えて、色々やってみること。


Unethical fools debase firms

04/25/2008

Nomura Tokushichi Shoten, an Osaka stock brokerage, made bundles of money from the great stock market boom in the years following the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) and the subsequent market crash. Owner Tokushichi Nomura (1878-1945) went on to spend a fortune on an overseas tour. Upon his return, he set out to radically modernize his operation.

He began by hiring "well-educated" people, convinced that the conventional custom of staffing a company with those who started to learn the trade as detchi apprentices with minimal education would no longer suffice.

Next, he strictly forbade his staff from engaging in stock transactions for personal gain. A 50-year history of Nomura Securities Co., published in 1976, says, "The intention (to ban personal transactions by staff) was to enhance the dignity of stock brokers and improve their standing in the business community."

Nomura must be turning in his grave now. A 30-year-old Nomura employee, a Chinese national who has since been dismissed, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of engaging in insider stock trading, along with two compatriots. They allegedly made as much as 40 million yen by abusing privileged information to illegally sell and buy stocks.

He worked in a section that advises merger and acquisition strategy to client companies. The confidential information that flew back and forth was the "material" on which the company's business relations with its clients relied. It was never to be used to make a personal killing on the stock market.

No customers could trust their stock brokers if the latter were to help themselves to their goods, so to speak. Nomura says this was just a crime committed by an individual in its employ. But if this is not a case of gross mismanagement of privileged information, what is?

Eying the world's growth markets, Nomura was actively hiring talented foreign nationals. The Chinese individual concerned is "well educated," having studied at Kyoto University. But for whatever reason, he made the inexcusable mistake of using his talent to advance his own financial gain. There are various kinds of so-called "elites," and this is a sobering warning we must bear in mind.

In an international corporation, employees of different nationalities sharing the office floor is a common enough sight. The varied cultures and business practices they bring can certainly benefit the company. At times, however, there are employees who are not only indifferent to the successes and failures recorded in the corporate history, but also have little respect for professional ethics. It is such fools who destroy the company's dignity and debase its standing.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 24 (IHT/Asahi: April 25,2008)




008年04月24日付 证券公司的“精英”员工

翻译解说:xjnuflc、dllgy
整理:baiheps

▼日露戦争後の大 相場 と、その後の 暴落 を通じて財をなしたのが、大阪の株式 現物 問屋、野村徳七商店だ。店主の徳七は、大枚をはたいて世界一周の旅に参加したのを境に、猛然と組織の近代化に 乗り出す

大阪的股份制货物转运商——野村德七商店通过日俄战争后的股市投资、以及随后而来的股票暴跌投机攫取了大量财富。老板德七在花费重金参加了环球一周的旅行后,毅然决定对公司组织进行近代化调整。

▼まず、丁稚(でっち)からの店員ばかりではだめだと「学校出」を採り始めた。次いで店員の自己売買を厳しく禁じた。「証券業者の品位を高め、その地位の向上を図るというところに、その真意があった」(野村証券50年史、76年刊)。

首先,他改变了以往店员全部来自学徒工的状况,开始招“学校毕业”的。紧接着,他又命令禁止店员的个人交易。“其本意是提高证券商的信誉度,提升他们在客户心目中的地位。”(野村证券50年历史,76年刊)

▼創業者も泣いていよう。野村証券に勤めていた中国人(30)が、在日の同胞2人とともにインサイダー取引の疑いで逮捕された。内部情報を悪用し、不正な売買で4千万円もの利益を得ていたという。

恐怕就连创业者也会很伤心吧。(因为,)野村证券的一名中方雇员(30岁)伙同两名旅日同胞因涉嫌内线交易而被捕。据悉,他们滥用内部信息,通过非法交易获利四千万日元之巨。

▼ 元社員は、買収などの戦略を一般企業に指南する部門にいた。飛び交う極秘情報は、ゆめゆめ「株価の材料」などではなく、顧客とを結ぶ商いの糧だ。売り物に 手をつける社員がいては、おちおち相談もできやしない。会社は「個人的な行為」というが、これが情報管理のほころびでなくて何だろう。

该员工曾任职于负责指导一般企业进行收购等战略的部门。交错往来的绝密信息可绝不是操纵“股价的材料”,而是招揽客户的资本。如果公司员工将其用作私利,那么就无法心平气地和客户进行商谈了。公司称这是“个人行为”,但这不是信息管理的破绽又是什么呢。

▼世界の成長市場をにらみ、野村は優秀な外国人の採用に力を入れていた。元社員も京大で学んだ「学校出」である。選ばれし才覚を、何を間違えたか私腹のために使ってしまった。エリートにも色々あるから油断ならない。

紧盯世界新兴市场,野村加大了雇用外国优秀人才的力度。该员工就是从京都大学“毕业”的。(此类员工将)被看重的聪明才智错误地用来肥了一己私利。精英也是形形色色什么样的人都有,所以不能疏忽大意。

▼国際企業なら、多国籍の社員がデスクを並べる光景は日常だ。持ち寄る文化や習慣は会社の財産ともなろう。だが時に、社史に刻まれた苦楽や功罪に無頓着で、ついでに職業倫理もお構いなしという馬鹿者が、品位と地位をけ落とす。

在跨国企业里,来自多个国家的员工一同共事已是平常之事了。他们带来的文化和习惯也可以说是公司的一笔财富。但同时,那些对于公司历史所铭刻的苦乐和功过名不在乎,对职业道德麻木不仁的混蛋的存在,无形中降低了(企业的)信誉和地位。

解说:

1、丁稚:学徒、徒弟、徒工。
-丁稚上がりの支配人。-丁稚にやる。

2、インサイダー取引:insider trading (股票)内线交易。

3、無頓着:不关心、不在乎、不在意。
-人からの批判に無頓着だ。


TV is one thing, but the courtroom is another

04/24/2008

"After wearing it for a day/ I fold my faded blue prison garb/ Feeling the lingering warmth of my body." This tanka was composed by Akito Shima, who committed murder when he was 24 and was executed at age 33 in 1967. The poem describes the joy he felt at the end of each day and is a testament to his deep remorse and appreciation of life.

If I were a citizen judge, what judgment would I have passed on the person who killed a mother and her daughter in Hikari, Yamaguchi Prefecture, nine years ago?

In an appealed court decision passed Tuesday, the presiding judge at the Hiroshima High Court, ordered by the Supreme Court to retry the case, overturned two previous life sentences and handed down the death sentence to the defendant who was 18 at the time of the crime.

There are two images that I can clearly picture in my mind when I think about the case. One is a photo of the victim Yayoi Motomura holding her baby daughter. She was 23 and her child was 11 months old when they were murdered. Their bodies would never be warm again.

The other is the image of her bereaved husband Hiroshi, 32, who sought the death penalty. I cannot think of anyone who can put words to his simmering resentment more quietly yet strongly than him.

When I think about the atrocity of the crime, the death penalty may seem inevitable. Still, I cannot completely cast aside my doubts.

Prior to the court ruling, the Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organization of Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) and commercial broadcasters made reference to the way television news shows have been treating the case and pointed out that they were presenting the image of a "bizarre defendant and his counsel" versus "the bereaved family" and making emotional comments based on the images.

I cannot say for sure I have not been influenced by such images. Before I realized it, I found myself identifying with Hiroshi Motomura. Meanwhile, the only image I have of the defendant is from behind as drawn by a court artist. Had I seen his expressions and known the way he carried himself as a boy, I might have felt differently.

The citizen judge system is due to take off in about a year. Although the system only applies to trials of the first instance, citizen judges would probably be required to pass judgments that seriously affect the lives of suspects or even end them in the courtroom where evidence and emotions are mixed.

Since citizen judges are chosen by lottery, you or I may also be appointed. Are we prepared to try suspects as human beings made of flesh and blood, not in our living rooms, but in the same room, face to face?

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 23(IHT/Asahi: April 24,2008)

2008年4月26日 星期六

京都:坂茂建築設計(Shigeru Ban Architects)

Seeking Tranquillity,Kyoto, Japan 京都一年(八年)

再怎麼說 京都一年京都八年 都是別人的故事
我當然也有些自己的故事
譬如說 90年代初與吳國精先生到京都一遊(三天兩夜)
對於吳先生而言 是"文化衝擊"
所以他十來年之後 還會帶留學美國康乃爾大學的女兒去重遊
我在他們廣州中山市的工廠之高幹宿舍中 讀到
京都八年
要了解這千年古都 也需要數代的傳承


 林文月先生的《京都一年》似乎可以增訂 譬如說 加 平岡武夫教授的《白居易》

林文月教授的平岡武夫教授的《白居易》(據(第五屆日本漢學國際學術研討會專題演講)主持人鄭清茂教授說法)



This is in Kakegawa,shizuoka,Japan. This museum will exhibit art works that mede by children of nemunoki gakuen. ■Site I drove with the car for 20 minutes ...Nemunoki Museum of Art/Terunobu Fujimori 2006 >>flash ver. ▼explanation  ▼Related Books Nemunoki Museum of Art/Terunobu FujimoriNemunoki Museum of Art/Terunobu Fujimori


我就是在翻譯坂茂的東西....

朝陽科技大學營建工程系碩士論文

第一座紙管屋已於1995 年7 月初建於神戶Nagata-ku 的Minamikomae .... 案址:日本,神戶(Kobe, Japan). 建築師:坂茂建築設計(Shigeru Ban Architects)

2008年4月24日 星期四

橋下徹 Hashimoto Tōru

橋下徹

维基百科,自由的百科全书

跳转到: 导航, 搜索
日語寫法
日語原文 橋下徹
假名 はしもととおる
罗马字 Hashimoto Tōru


橋下徹1969年6月29日-)是日本政治家律師及第52任大阪府知事早稻田大學政治經濟學部經濟學科畢業。東京都澀谷區出生,成長於大阪市東淀川區東中島。

2008年1月27日當選為大阪府知事2008年2月6日就職後成為現任日本最年輕的知事

目录

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[编辑] 簡歷

出生於東京都澀谷區。小學5年級時移住至大阪[1]。中學3年級時母親再婚。中學、高中時代加入橄欖球社。就讀大阪府立北野高等學校時,是大阪府三項冠軍比賽其中之一的英式橄欖球隊的隊員。

就讀早稻田大學政治經濟學部經濟學科,畢業後在1994年通過司法考試,1996年成為律師1998年大阪市設立「橋下綜合法律事務所」。 他本為關西地區性的電視藝人,直到成為(大家最想去的法律事務所)電視節目,其中四個律師之一,開始成為全國性知名的人物。他的妻子為同間高等學校,育有3個兒子和4個女兒。

[编辑] 大阪府知事選舉

在前任知事太田房江無意連任下,他以無黨派身分獲得執政的自民黨公民黨支持,當選新任知事,就任後要面對大阪府的財務困境,並加以改變。

[编辑] 注釋

  1. ^ (日文)橋下氏泣き落とし?初街頭でオカン話、nikkansports、2008年1月11日

[编辑] 外部連結


大阪藝人新知事 一哭紅透日本
日本大阪府新任知事橋下徹 ,最近「一哭成名」。
東京特派員陳世昌/攝影

日本第二大城大阪最近冒出一顆政治新星,就是大阪府二月新選出的知事、才38歲的橋下徹,他是名律師,也是高知名度的演藝人員。

這位政壇初生之犢上任才兩個月,新聞版面上就不斷出現他的消息。最近議會開會削減地方財政支出,這名新星竟當場「哭」了起來,沒有想到這麼一「哭」也哭出了名。

事情是這樣的,大阪府累積了不小的財政赤字,橋下徹上任後就著手改革大阪府的財政。他說,美國的次級房貸造成世界金融風暴,主要就是不在收入範圍內制訂預算,造成了收支不平衡的結果,大阪府這些年來累積龐大財政赤字也是一樣,所以他要求各單位節省開支,削減預算。

那天出席會議的許多町、村的代表,一聽說要刪減他們的預算,沒有一個人肯心平氣和與橋下知事溝通。只見橋下知事紅著眼,努力解釋他要刪減預算的理由,鏡頭透過電視轉播,讓他成了全國的名人。

隔天,同樣藝人出身的宮崎縣知事東國原英夫立刻聲援橋下,指稱「怎可如此打壓這麼一位努力服務鄉梓的人?」一時之間,支援橋下知事的信塞爆了大阪府的電子信箱,橋下徹一夜之間名聞遐邇,比他在電視上擔任評論員時還要紅。

橋下曾在電視擔任評論員,說話較辛辣,所以剛當上知事時因為口無遮攔而惹了不少禍。他曾在大阪府議會上數次發言不當,在府內朝會上也受到年輕職員「盡說漂亮話」的非難。

在府議會上首次不當發言,是他對教員的工作評價。橋下說,「將命令教育委員會嚴肅處置不努力上進的老師」,但是知事並沒有管理教師的權限,橋下後來不得不收回這段話。

另有一次,在議會居少數的共產黨籍議員要求凍結大型開發,橋下答辯時說,「想要讓人聽你,等你成了多數派再說」,結果共產黨指他藐視少數意見而強力抗議。

橋下式發言不僅限於議會。在府內年輕員工的朝會上,有人提出工作前開朝會該給加班費,橋下強硬表示,「如果15分鐘的朝會屬於加班,那抽菸的休息和聊天時 間也該扣工資」。結果一名女職員當場向他嗆聲:「你知道基層要免費加多少班嗎?職場的問題該由職場自行解決,別盡說些挑撥大阪府員工和居民關係的話」。

大阪府是橋下徹從政的第一個職位,他認為要讓政策落實於民間,不能只在研究室內草擬政策,而要多聽民間的意見。有人認為,只要橋下在大阪有了好的政績,進軍中央政壇是遲早的事。

因此,被問到十年以後的他會是什麼模樣?他笑著說,現在他有七個小孩,希望十年以後還能夠再添一個孩子。他就是改不了這種玩世不恭的個性,卻受到大阪人的喜愛。

2008年4月16日 星期三

南極観測船4代目はエコシップ 舞鶴で進水式

南極観測船4代目はエコシップ 舞鶴で進水式

2008年04月16日

 引退する南極観測船「しらせ」の後継船の命名・進水式が16日正午から、京都府舞鶴市のユニバーサル造船舞鶴事業所であった。進水後は内装工事をして 09年5月に完成、同年11月に初航海の予定だ。初代「宗谷」から数えて4代目。「名前を残して」という声が多数寄せられたため、3代目から船名が引き継 がれることとなった。

 新船は基準排水量約1万2500トンで、3代目よりわずかに大きい。観測隊用の部屋は60人分から80人分に増える。厚さ1.5メートルの氷を時速約5.6キロの速度で割りながら進む能力は変わらない。

 海洋汚染の防止に配慮した「エコシップ」が特徴だ。燃料タンク周囲の船体外壁を二重にし、事故などで損傷しても燃料が漏れにくくした。トイレや調理室な どから出た汚水は処理装置で浄化して海へ流す。また、船首にある20の穴から毎分約260トンの海水を出して氷上に積もった雪を溶かし、砕氷しやすくして 燃料の省エネを実現した。建造費は約380億円。搭載ヘリコプター2機を含む総額は約500億円となる。

写真「しらせ」の後継船の進水式に臨む人たち=16日午前10時56分、京都府舞鶴市、上田潤撮影
写真進水式を終えた南極観測船「しらせ」=16日午後0時15分、京都府舞鶴市、本社ヘリから、森井英二郎撮影

2008年4月11日 星期五

日本之後生可畏

'Curling-type' rookies,awe


'Curling-type' rookies should be held in awe

04/09/2008

Some of this year's rookie company employees must have taken some deep breaths over the weekend before they braced themselves for their second week at work on Monday.

I wonder if they are beginning to get used to their new environment, or still feeling a bit overwhelmed. Even their seniors at work, who may come across as wise and experienced, have had to deal with their rookie year. A profession brings a certain dignity to everyone involved.

The job market favors jobseekers now, and this year's newcomers are said to have "glided" smoothly to gainful employment. Perhaps because of this, they are nicknamed the "curling type" after the wintry sport played on ice where competitors use a broom to guide along a polished flat-bottomed rock. According to the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development, which came up with this moniker, these new recruits may feel discouraged and slow down or even lose their motivation to keep going if people around them stop working their brooms, so to speak.

It has been quite some time since a "type" came to be assigned to each year's graduate workforce. For instance, when I was a freshman a quarter-century ago, my contemporaries were dubbed the "mah-jongg tile type." This meant that we were "all uniform in size and shape and therefore easy to align, but people couldn't tell what 'hand' we were dealing them."

We made our elders lament our lack of individuality back then, but we are now nearing that rung on the corporate ladder that puts us on the management level. And I, for one, sometimes catch myself muttering about the "younger generation," just like my seniors used to do about my generation. It's rather sobering to realize that somewhere along the road, I myself have become a runner in the "relay of complaints" that must have been perpetuated since the dawn of human history.

"We should be in awe of the younger generation,後生可畏." warned an ancient Chinese sage What he meant was that since young people are filled with potential, nobody knows what heights of greatness they may achieve, so we ought to hold them in awe and respect.

There's a joke about an old Japanese man who always gushes about the good old days and finds fault with everything in today's society. He blurts out one day, "When I was younger, Mount Fuji wasn't anything like what it is today."

The joke should be a lesson for people who belittle the younger generation. Taking this as a warning, I am cheering for this year's "curling-type" rookies.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 7(IHT/Asahi: April 9,2008)

2008年4月9日 星期三

ジョセフ・ジュラン Joseph Juran 在日本

ジョセフ・ジュラン Joseph Juran

我們從這篇可以知道日本在1960年已"整理"出 Juran的東西...
另外值得注意的是翻譯者都是"公司"

プロフィール
1904年 誕生
1912年 アメリカにいる父親に一家が合流
1920年 ミネソタ大学入学
1924年 シカゴにあるウェスタンエレクトリック社のホーソン工場で働き始める
1926年 ホーソン工場訪問中のベル研究所のチームから検査訓練プログラムの一員に選ばれる
1928年 品質に関する最初の作品となる訓練小冊子「製造上の問題に応用する統計手法」(Statical Methods Applied to Manufacturing Problems)を作成
1937年 ウェスタンエレクトリックのニューヨーク本社で生産工学関係の長
1941年 レンドリースの局長補佐
1945年 ウェスタンエレクトリック社を去りニューヨーク大学へ
1951年 「品質管理ハンドブック」(Quality Control Handbook)発表
1954年 講演のため日本に招待される
1964年 「現状打破の経営哲学」(Managerial Breakthrough)発表
1979年 ジュラン研究所設立

著書/関連書
「現状打破の経営哲学―新時代の管理者像」(Managerial Breakthrough)
日本化薬 訳(1969年発行 日科技連出版社)

「品質管理ハンドブック 全3巻(I経営革新のための品質管理、II品質管理のための統計手法、III主要産業における品質管理)」
(Juran's Quality Control Handbook)
東京レーヨン株式会社 訳(1966年発行 日本科学技術連盟)

2008年4月6日 星期日

On Japan’s Catholic Outposts, Faith Abides Even as the Churches Dwindle

parishioner,parochial


On Japan’s Catholic Outposts, Faith Abides Even as the Churches Dwindle

Ko Sasaki for The New York Times

Parishioners took part in a recent service at a Roman Catholic church, in Shinkamigoto, Japan.


Published: April 6, 2008

SHINKAMIGOTO, Japan — Fringed with sheer cliffs and the narrowest strips of flat land, covered in mountains of dense forest, the islands of the Goto Archipelago of Japan are some of the country’s most remote and forbidding. And yet atop hills overlooking fishing villages, reached by bridges and serpentine roads paved over just a generation ago, rise the steeples of Roman Catholic churches.

Skip to next paragraph
Ko Sasaki for The New York Times

Ohso Church, in the background, is one of the 29 Roman Catholic churches left in Shinkamigoto. Several churches have closed in recent years.

Ko Sasaki for The New York Times

A stained-glass window in another church in the village includes representations of former residents who were officials in the local fishermen’s union.

The New York Times

Several churches have closed in recent years on the Goto Archipelago.

Japan’s persecuted Christians fled here centuries ago, seeking to practice their faith in one of the country’s southwesternmost reaches. They eventually forged Roman Catholic communities found nowhere else in Japan, villages where everyone was Catholic, life revolved around the parish and even the school calendar yielded to the church’s.

Today, one quarter of the roughly 25,000 inhabitants of the district, a collection of seven inhabited islands and 60 uninhabited ones, are Roman Catholic, an extraordinary percentage in a country where Christianity failed to take root. It is by far the highest level in Japan, where Catholics account for about one-third of 1 percent of the overall population and where the total number of Christians amounts to less than 1 percent.

But like Japan’s Roman Catholicism in general, this redoubt is also losing its vitality for reasons both familiar to Catholics in other wealthy nations and peculiar to Japan. Young Catholics here are loosening their ties to the church, their spiritual needs fulfilled elsewhere. Those who have left for the cities are marrying non-Catholics and are being absorbed into an overwhelmingly non-Christian culture.

Several churches have closed here in recent years. The membership is graying and dwindling at many of the surviving 29 churches, especially at those on the islands’ least accessible corners.

“The situation here is severe — a question of which churches will be abandoned next,” said the Rev. Shigeshi Oyama, 61, who, because of a shortage of priests, celebrated Mass at two churches on the Fifth Sunday of Lent recently.

Parishioners arrived at Hiyamizu Church for the 7 a.m. Mass, ascending a steep concrete stairway to reach a small wooden white building with a red roof. They took off their shoes at the entrance, in keeping with the custom at many Japanese churches, and stepped onto the church’s cold, though carpeted, floor. Mostly elderly, with the women hewing to tradition by covering their heads with white veils, they listened to the liturgy on the raising of Lazarus.

After Mass, one of the few younger members, Toshiyuki Mori, 40, stood outside in the courtyard, smoking a cigarette and peering down at a small bay that a solitary boat was silently crossing. An irregular churchgoer, Mr. Mori had brought his son, Tomoyuki, 8, an altar boy, to church on this morning.

Much of Mr. Mori’s boyhood had centered on the parish, and he had married a woman of the same faith. But unlike their parents, the young couple had lost the habit of praying before meals or attending Mass.

It was not that their lives now were so busy, Mr. Mori said. “I guess my faith gradually faded,” he said.

He said he would not compel his son to remain a Catholic, adding, “Once he becomes aware to a certain degree, he can quit if that’s what he wants.”

For now, though, his son said, school was more fun than church.

“But Father Oyama bought us sweets,” the boy added. “And the day before yesterday, he bought us ice cream, for everybody up to sixth grade.”

Japan’s Catholic population — 452,571 in 2006, or 0.35 percent of the country’s total population of 127 million — is believed to have peaked, said the Rev. Ritsuo Hisashi, a spokesman at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan in Tokyo.

The church is grappling with problems like a shortage of young Japanese priests and nuns. In the diocese of Naha, in Okinawa, priests from Vietnam and the Philippines have come to fill the posts, Father Hisashi said.

Most Japanese follow a combination of Buddhism and Shintoism, though Christmas and weddings in chapels, stripped of their religious meaning, have taken root in Japanese society.

Christianity had a promising start in Japan with the arrival in 1549 of Francis Xavier, the Jesuit missionary. But the isolationist Tokugawa Shogunate eventually proscribed Christianity and expelled all missionaries; persecuted Christians went into hiding and fled to places like the Goto Archipelago. For more than two centuries, Japan’s “hidden Christians” practiced their faith in secret and without priests until after the United States forced Japan to open up in the mid-19th century — an example often held as proof of the resilience of Japanese Christian faith.

“Given that history, it’s all the more puzzling why there are so few believers now,” Father Hisashi said.

Here in Shinkamigoto, many say growing wealth has sapped the people’s faith. Catholics were far poorer than non-Catholics, occupying villages along this district’s harsh, western shore, or on its fringes, some more accessible by water than by land.

But starting three decades ago, roads were built linking the most remote villages. Catholics began making economic strides, erasing the gap between them and non-Catholics. Interest in the church began declining.

“The same thing happened in Europe,” said the Rev. Yasuhiko Hamasaki, a priest at the Kamigoto Catholic Center here. “When people start gaining material wealth, they end up seeking comfort and healing in material things.”

Aggravating matters were a low birthrate and demographic changes afflicting all of rural Japan. Here, with a decline in the fishing industry and public works, the young have gravitated to cities; many never return, inviting their aging parents to join them instead.

With the town’s population declining by double digits every month, local government officials are hoping to turn their churches — two of them soon to be added to Unesco’s World Heritage List — into tourist attractions.

One of them, Kashiragashima Church, is on an islet that was linked by a bridge to the main island only a couple of decades ago. Today, 16 elderly parishioners are left, served by a priest who visits two Sundays a month.

Nine of the residents took turns cleaning the church and adorning it with flowers from their own gardens. The parish’s lay leader, Yoshiki Matsui, 70, a fisherman, had mixed feelings about its designation as a World Heritage site. The parishioners were sure to decrease and the government would cover major repairs with the listing.

“But this was not built with the thought that it would become a cultural heritage site,” Mr. Matsui said.

Away from the archipelago’s Catholic villages, more and more of the young now live in cities with few churches and believers.

“The bishop of Nagasaki once said that when Catholic kids go out into a city, it’s a religion’s graveyard,” said Kyushiro Urakoshi, 77, a member of Komeyama Church.

Mr. Urakoshi had arrived early for Saturday evening Mass at Komeyama, the northernmost parish on a slender, fingerlike piece of land jutting out into the sea and reachable by a single-lane mountainous road.

Another parishioner, Tsuyako Takeya, 66, said all but her youngest child had migrated to cities. Only two of her five grandchildren had been baptized.

“My other children married non-Catholics,” Ms. Takeya explained, adding that she was unsure how many of her children had kept the faith.

Those who remain do what would have been unthinkable a generation ago by skipping Mass or marrying non-Catholics. The growing ties with non-Catholics have already changed some practices at Ohso Church, nearer the center of town.

Parishioners now say prayers for the dead during the Buddhist festival for ancestors in mid-August, one of Japan’s biggest holidays. Catholics also gather and, following Buddhist custom, pay tribute to a relative one year or three years after a death.

“In this age,” said Mitsunori Ikuta, 60, Ohso’s lay leader, “we have come to accept these things.”

2008年4月5日 星期六

JA (行者感慨 JAA)

感慨

晉˙王羲之˙三月三日蘭亭詩序:「情隨事遷,感慨係之矣。」西遊記˙第三十八回:「行者雖然感慨,卻留心想起唐僧的夢來。」


日本アジア航空:日本と台湾結んだ32年間…ご苦労様 先月、ラストフライト /千葉

 ◇日航インターナショナルと統合

 32年間にわたり、日本と台湾間を結んできた「日本アジア航空」(JAA、本社・東京都品川区)が3月31日の運航を最後に姿を消した。4月から 日航インターナショナルに統合されたためで、運航も引き継がれた。同社の保有機は塗り替えのために順次、中国・アモイの整備工場に出発。3月31日には最 後のJAA塗装機(ボーイング747-300型機)が成田国際空港からアモイに向かった。

 JAAは主に台湾線を運航する日本航空のグループ会社。72年の日中国交回復で両国間の航空協定を結ぶ際、中国側が日本航空に対し台湾への乗り入 れ禁止を申し入れたことを受け、75年に設立された。成田、関西国際、中部国際の各空港から台北や高雄などを結び、06年までに約3377万人が利用し た。

 最近の台湾独立運動などを背景に、政治、経済、外交などの分野で台湾独自の判断をしようという動きが出始め、民間の交流機関を通じて日台双方が協議。台湾への日本航空機の直接乗り入れが実現した。

 JAA便の運航最終日となった31日、空港ロビー内は、ラストフライトを告げる立て看板を撮影する旅客の姿であふれた。そのほとんどが台湾人で、 日航成田広報室の担当者は「日本の航空会社は日本人に親しまれるのが普通。外国の旅客にも親しまれるのは珍しい」と感慨深げに見守った。現地では「日亜 航」という愛称で親しまれてきたという。

 搭乗客を見送った松井茂夫JAA社長は「中国と台湾の政治的な関係はあるが、双方とも我が国とは文化・経済交流が盛ん。日航への一本化は自然の成り行きで、JAAは歴史的役割を十分果たした」と話した。【柳澤一男】

毎日新聞 2008年4月5日 地方版