Going on Rails

Life is an intriguing multidimensional object

2012-01-08T23:01:00.006+09:00

I used to think in a simpler way; advanced countries should be the future of developing countries. Developing countries should follow suit and should catch up with advanced countries.

It was easy for me to think this way when I lived in advanced countries such as Japan and Canada. But my thoughts are started to change after I actually began to experience life in developing country such as Vietnam and the Philippines.

There are many social problems in developing countries. Social infrastructures are poor. Governments are corrupt. Many destitute people have no access to basic necessities such as medicine and education.

Yet I have also found positive sides in developing countries. People are more relaxed and enjoy their lives. Family bonds are strong. Friendships are more appreciated.

Even though advanced countries boast their power and wealth, their people are not at all euphoric. People in advanced countries have a set of problems that is different from that of developing countries. People are forced to work hard under pressure. They have no time to enjoy their lives despite their wealth. Family bonds are week and almost disappearing. Friendships are sacrificed over their individualistic goals.

I slowly started to realize a simple fact. Probably, the comparison of an advanced country and a developing country is not a matter of which one is better. Instead, all we can say is that they are just different. None is more advanced nor lags behind. Each has its own pros and cons.

We can apply this way of thinking to another field, life. Some people are very smart and others are not. Some graduate from the best universities and others lack even basic education. Are university graduates are making more money than others? Maybe. Then are university graduates happier than others? This is a tricky question. I have no clear-cut answer to this.

After all, life is not something that you can grasp easily and get bored with quickly. Life are full of wonder and it stems from life's inherent self-contradictory nature. Life is an intriguing multidimensional object.

New Fourties

2011-12-27T18:18:00.001+09:00

I was born in 1970. I am 41 years old. I am becoming 42 next June.

You are always new to your age. You are 20 years old, 30 years old or 40 years old for the first time and only once in life. You always feel vulnerable each year your birthday adds one to your age.

We need role models more than we would expect. We are almost slaves of role models. We need them because we feel nervous. The established idea tells us what we should do depending on how old you are. If you are off the track, you will invariably feel insecure.

There are a plenty of role models for young people. Most novels, movies and dramas feature young characters. Once you have reached 40, however, you will see a dramatic decrease of such lliterary role models that you can refer to.

Here is a reason. Young people are in search for many paths in life. By the age of 40, people accept fixed social roles and feel perfectly accustomed to monotone life styles. They are too boring to be drama characters. That is why we have few mediocre stereo types for people over 40.

The time is changing. Material production is no longer a big problem(especially for those who live in advanced countries). Instead, knowledge produces more value in the economy. People are now forced to learn throughout life and to adapt to new social changes.

For most people, the first role models are their parents. My father was an ordinary salaried man. He was a middle-level manager at a factory. He worked very hard, but his life style lacked variety. Once he would finish work and go home, he would turn on and watched TV purposelessly. I didn't like his life style at all and this experience grew my general disgust for life styles of salaried men.

I don't want to be like my father. I have no role models. I have no external guide on how to lead my fourties. As Steve Jobs said before, I have to listen to and follow my inner voice. I have to create my own life style by myself.

Impression on the Philippines

2011-12-23T17:51:00.006+09:00

Yesterday I aired a radio program via Ustream. I invited three guests. They are Filipino English teachers.

Click here to listen to the recording.

They graduated from the University of the Philippines(UP). UP is the most prestigious university in the Philippines. Those teachers are intelligent as well as friendly. They speak English fluently. I like them very much.

This is my first visit to the Philippines. My first impression is that people are truly hospitable and outgoing.. They find happiness in conversations with their family members and friends. They know how to enjoy their lives. I was hugely impressed.

On contrary, Filipino economy has not yet reached its full potential. Its economic development has been impeded by its notoriously corrupt politicians. It has been saddening me for many years.

I have visited almost all Asian countries but the Philippines until this year. What prevented me from coming to the Philippines? It was probably because I did know that Filipino people would be super-nice despite innumerable serious social issues. I did not want to feel depressed when seeing these difficult problems. I wanted to avert my eyes from them.

I have not reached the conclusion yet. After all, I am just an outsider; it will take a long time before I finally understand the essence of this tropical country. It is unlikely for me to fathom it to the full extent before I die.

I will try to comprehend this country better step by step as I socialize with this world's most amiable Filipino people.

Self introduction video

2011-12-07T09:51:00.000+09:00

It's been a while since I posted an entry last...

I have created a self introduction video in English. Take a look. You will see what kind of person I am.

Skip lists in Ruby

2011-09-10T05:06:00.004+09:00

Skip lists are an interesting data structure that you can use as a substitute of balanced trees. This relatively new data structure was invented by William Pugh in 1990. According to his paper on skip lists :

Skip lists are a data structure that can be used in place of balanced trees.
Skip lists use probabilistic balancing rather than strictly enforced balancing
and as a result the algorithms for insertion and deletion in skip lists are
much simpler and significantly faster than equivalent algorithms for
balanced trees.

I have tried to implement skip lists in Ruby. It is not super hard because the paper has pseudocode and the algorithm is rather intuitive.

class Node
  attr_accessor :key
  attr_accessor :value
  attr_accessor :forward

  def initialize(k, v = nil)
    @key = k 
    @value = v.nil? ? k : v 
    @forward = []
  end
end

class SkipList
  attr_accessor :level
  attr_accessor :header
  
  def initialize
   @header = Node.new(1) 
   @level = 0
   @max_level = 3 
   @p = 0.5 
   @node_nil = Node.new(1000000)
   @header.forward[0] = @node_nil
  end
  
  def search(search_key)
    x = @header
    @level.downto(0) do |i|
      while x.forward[i].key < search_key do
        x = x.forward[i]
      end
    end    
    x = x.forward[0]
    if x.key == search_key
      return x.value
    else
      return nil
    end
  end

  def random_level
    v = 0
    while rand < @p && v < @max_level
      v += 1
    end
    v
  end

  def insert(search_key, new_value = nil)
    new_value = search_key if new_value.nil? 
    update = []
    x = @header
    @level.downto(0) do |i|
      while x.forward[i].key < search_key do
        x = x.forward[i]
      end
      update[i] = x
    end    
    x = x.forward[0]
    if x.key == search_key
      x.value = new_value
    else
      v = random_level
      if v > @level 
        (@level + 1).upto(v) do |i|
          update[i] = @header
          @header.forward[i] = @node_nil
        end
        @level = v
      end
      x = Node.new(search_key, new_value) 
      0.upto(v) do |i|
        x.forward[i] = update[i].forward[i]
        update[i].forward[i] = x
      end
    end
  end
end

I have not implemented the delete method yet. It is similar to insert method and won't be so difficult to code. If you are interested, why don't you try to write it on your own?

Visiting Goole

2011-09-01T01:04:00.001+09:00

Yesterday I visited Google's headquarters to meet one of my acquaintances in US. He works for them as a software engineer. The Google's offices - actually they call them campuses like ones in college - were just overwhelmingly beautiful and affluent. As I have heard before, there were a plenty of decent restaurants and cafes inside the campuses and all foods and drinks are served to employees and visitors for free of charge.

I also got into the inside of office buildings and saw how employees work there. Their working desks were rather ordinary for North America, separated with cubicles (but the walls were semitransparent so that they won't feel isolated) However, beside their desks, there also existed sofas, toys, food and drink vendors, and all other kinds of amenities that help engineers alleviate their tiredness and keep concentrating on their work.

Google boasts of the quality of their engineers. They are the best and brightest in the world. They don't care which country the engineers come from and what kind of background they have - as long as they are smart.

I was totally overwhelmed. I just stood there in utter amazement. I was forced to realize that every effort I used to make in Japan just ended in vain. It is simply impossible for Japanese IT companies to defeat Google. It is just because Japanese companies run IT business wrong, while Google does it right.

(I also posted on FB and G+ .... Actually at first I didn't mean to post it on Blogger, I changed my mind because I've heard that G+ has a restriction that forces you to see only the latest 250 posts in your Profile screen)

Reverse a linked list

2011-08-26T09:47:00.005+09:00

I got a phone interview with a tech company located in San Francisco Bay Area.

The interviewer questioned me about a linked list. I think that a linked list is basic but still can get really hard to answer in a short time under tremendous pressure.

The question goes:

Reverse any given linked list. For example, if a linked list A->B->C is given, return a new linked list C->B->A as an answer.

The interviewer gave me a hint that a simple loop is easier to program than recursion. After I struggled a lot, I came up with a rather clumsy solution. Probably, the interviewer wasn't very impressed.

I should have studied more about data structures...Well, "don't cry over split milk" though.

So today I have thought about a recursion version of the solution. I implemented it in Ruby. It took me quite a time (about 1 hour) to complete the code shown below. Please take a look if you are interested.

require 'test/unit'



class Node

  attr_accessor :value

  attr_accessor :next



  def initialize(value)

    self.value = value

  end



  def add(node)

    n = self

    until n.next.nil?

      n = n.next

    end  

    n.next = node

  end



  def self.from_array(a)

    return nil if a.nil? || a.size == 0

    list = nil 

    a.each do |value|

      if list.nil?

        list =  Node.new(value)

      else

        list.add(Node.new(value))

      end 

    end

    list

  end



  def to_array

    arr = []

    n = self

    until n.nil?

      arr.push(n.value)

      n = n.next

    end

    arr

  end 

end



# returns [head, tail]

def reverse_linked_list_impl(list)

  if list.next.nil?

    return [list, list]

  end

  head, tail = reverse_linked_list_impl(list.next)

  tail.next = list

  list.next = nil 

  return [head, list]

end



def reverse_linked_list(list)

  head, tail = reverse_linked_list_impl(list)

  return head

end



class TestAlgorithm < Test::Unit::TestCase

  def test_from_array

    list = Node.from_array([1, 2, 3])

    assert_equal(1, list.value)

    assert_equal(2, list.next.value)

    assert_equal(3, list.next.next.value)

  end



  def test_to_array

    list = Node.new(3)

    list.add(Node.new(5))

    list.add(Node.new(7))

    assert_equal([3, 5, 7], list.to_array) 

  end

  

  def test_reverse_linked_list

    arr = [1]    

    assert_equal(arr.reverse, reverse_linked_list(Node.from_array(arr)).to_array)

    arr = [1, 2]   

    assert_equal(arr.reverse, reverse_linked_list(Node.from_array(arr)).to_array)

    arr = [3, 1, 2]   

    assert_equal([2, 1, 3], reverse_linked_list(Node.from_array(arr)).to_array)

    arr = [5, 3, 1, 2]   

    assert_equal([2, 1, 3, 5], reverse_linked_list(Node.from_array(arr)).to_array)

 end



 end

TweetMonkey allows you to tweet from any page on the web - now Google Chrome extension supports OAuth

2011-08-21T14:54:00.010+09:00

TweetMonkey is a web browser tool that allows you to post messages on Twitter from any web page on the spot. With this application, It takes just a few clicks to tweet.

Last year, I built a Google Chrome extension for TweetMonkey.

TweetMonkey allows you to tweet from any page on the web - latest Google Chrome version has been released.

Shortly after this release, however, Twitter stopped offering Basic Authentication. All Twitter clients are now required to support OAuth. Implementing OAuth was so painful that it took me a long time to complete the OAuth supported version of TweetMonkey.

Prerequisites
All you need should be the latest version of Google Chrome. Mine is version 13.0.782.112 on Mac.
Google Chrome on Windows should also work.

How to install
Click on the link below to start the installation. You will be navigated to Chrome Web Store.

Install TweetMonkey now

Once the installation is completed, you will be navigated to a Twitter page and asked to authorize TweetMonkey to access to your Twitter account. Please authorize it (you can always disallow it by logging out on the option screen). Twitter page will show it as "TweetMonkeyEx" but this is what you want to get. Please be assured.

How to use
You left-click on the TweetMonkey icon and will see a pop up show up. Enter a text and click on "Update" button to tweet. You can also enter the title and a shorten URL of the active tab by clicking on the chain icon.

Right-click TweetMonkey icon in the right top corner of Chrome and choose "Option". Once the option screen shows up, you can log out and prevent TweetMonkey from accessing to your Twitter account.

Have fun!

References
This time, I check out so many websites to gather the information. I would like to show my gratitude to all the authors. Especially, I learned a lot on how to implement OAuth and Google Chrome extension from Twitter Notifier. I would like to thank its auther, Peter Josling.

Source code
You can get a file called tweet_monkey.crx from the download link above. This is the extension file but it is merely a zipped file. Once you unzip it, you can have a look at source code of this software.

Maybe I should post this to Chrome Webstore to reach broader audience. Before making this extension public, I would like to change the icon of the application. This "t" shape icon was taken from an old Twitter official website, so I need to change it to something original. If you could help me, please give me a shout. I would be very grateful.

A "Hello World" Twitter client with OAuth

2011-08-12T10:59:00.003+09:00

Last year I wrote a Twitter client that allows you to tweet on any webpage in the browser. Shortly after I released it, Twitter abolished BASIC authentication and my Twitter client was not working any longer because of it. The age of OAuth has come, but I haven't done anything about it.

Now I've started working on OAuth stuff again. I took a look at some blog entries and tried to build my first "Hello World" progarm for Twitter API with OAuth. This looked simple but it took me some time to write it. I will show you a few steps on how to write a Twitter client with OAuth in Ruby.

As a prerequisite, you need to have two Ruby gem packages installed on your system. If not, run the following commands on the terminal:

sudo gem install oauth

sudo gem install twitter

1. Get a consumer key and a consumer secret by registering your client at Twitter's website.

2. Have the users authorize your Twitter client to use their account

Type "irb" to start irb on the terminal. Copy and paste the below(double-click on the pane and you can copy and paste more easily):

require 'rubygems'

require 'oauth'



CONSUMER_KEY = "(your consumer key)"

CONSUMER_SECRET = "(your consumer secret)" 



consumer = OAuth::Consumer.new(CONSUMER_KEY, CONSUMER_SECRET, :site => "http://twitter.com")



request_token = consumer.get_request_token 

request_token.authorize_url

Navigate to the URL for user authorization and have users to authorize your client to access to their account information.(Most likely, your client's first user is yourself. If so, authorize your client to access to your own Twitter account).

3. Get OAuth token and secret to access to the account information of your Twitter client users.

Keep entering the below on the irb session:

require 'twitter'



oauth_verifier = "(a number shown on the user authorization screen)" 



access_token = request_token.get_access_token(:oauth_verifier => oauth_verifier )

token = access_token.token

secret = access_token.secret



Twitter.configure do |config|

  config.consumer_key = CONSUMER_KEY 

  config.consumer_secret = CONSUMER_SECRET

  config.oauth_token = token

  config.oauth_token_secret = secret 

end 



Twitter.update("Hello World!")

Congratulations! Now you should be able to see a tweet with "Hello World" posted to the authorized account.

Sorting algorithms in Ruby

2011-08-09T12:15:00.027+09:00

If you wish to learn sort algorithms, this is the best website to visit. Bad news for English speakers is that this site is written in Japanese.

The author of the website uses Java for his sample code. I could write Java code but I am not a big fan of it since Java forces me to type too much (Who wants to type "HashMap<nteger, Boolean> map = new HashMap<Integer, Boolean>()" when you can do the same task by typing "map = {}" in Ruby?). So I rewrote his sample programs in Ruby.

There are three interesting algorithms: heap sort, merge sort and quick sort. They are the most efficient ones among all the sorting algorithms.

Let's start with heap sort.

class HeapSort

def initialize

@heap = []

end



def push(item)

@heap << item

    i = @heap.size

    j = i / 2

    while i > 1

      if @heap[i - 1] < @heap[j - 1]

        t = @heap[i - 1]

         @heap[i - 1] = @heap[j - 1]

         @heap[j - 1] = t

       end

       i /= 2 

       j = i / 2

    end

  end 



  def pop

   res = @heap.shift

   return res if @heap.size == 0

   last_item = @heap.pop

   # bring the last item to the root

     @heap.unshift(last_item)

     i = 1

     j = 2

     while j <= @heap.size

       if j < @heap.size && @heap[j - 1] > @heap[j]

       j += 1

    end

    if @heap[i - 1] > @heap[j - 1]

      t = @heap[i - 1]

      @heap[i - 1] = @heap[j - 1]

      @heap[j - 1] = t

    end

    i = j

    j *= 2

  end

  res

end



def run(list)

    list.each do |item|

    push(item)

end



res = []

while item = pop

res << item

    end



    res 

  end

end

Heap sort is a bit tricky in terms of how to maintain a balanced binary tree. It looks complicated especially when you remove the root element from the tree (look at pop() method above). The second algorithm is merge sort.

class MergeSort

  def initialize

  end



  def merge(a1, a2, a)

    i = 0

    j = 0

    while i < a1.size || j < a2.size

      if j >= a2.length || (i < a1.length && a1[i] < a2[j])

        a[i+j] = a1[i]

        i += 1

      else

        a[i+j] = a2[j]

        j += 1

      end 

    end

  end



  def merge_sort(a) 

    if a.size > 1

      m = a.size / 2

      n = a.size - m

      a1 = []

      a2 = []

      0.upto(m - 1) do |i|

        a1[i] = a[i]

      end

      0.upto(n - 1) do |i|

        a2[i] = a[m + i]

      end 

      merge_sort(a1);

      merge_sort(a2);

      merge(a1, a2, a);

    end 

  end 



  def run(list)

    a = list.dup

    merge_sort(a)

    a

  end

end

The idea of merge sort is rather simple. You can implement it with recursion elegantly. And the last one is the queen of sorting algorithms, quick sort.

class QuickSort

  def initialize

  end

  

  def pivot(a, i, j)

    k = i + 1

    while k <= j && a[i] == a[k] 

      k += 1

    end

 

    if k > j  

      return -1 

    end

  

    if a[i] >= a[k] 

      return i

    end

 

    return k

 end



  def partition(a, i, j, x)

    l=i

    r=j

    while l <= r

      while l<=j && a[l] < x  

        l += 1

      end

      while r>=i && a[r] >= x 

        r -= 1

      end

      if l > r 

        break

      end

      t=a[l]

      a[l]=a[r]

      a[r]=t

      l += 1

      r -= 1

    end 

    return l

  end 



  def quick_sort(a, i, j)

    if i == j 

      return

    end

    p = pivot(a, i, j)

    if p != -1

      k = partition(a, i, j, a[p])

      quick_sort(a, i, k - 1)

      quick_sort(a, k, j)

    end 

  end 



  def run(list)

    a = list.dup

    quick_sort(a, 0, a.size - 1)

    a

  end

end

Although finding a pivot is a little tricky, quick sort is a cool algorithm. It is so elaborated that it almost looks like magic.

Usually Java or C/C++ is used to describe algorithms, but Ruby is also great because it can highlight the essence of algorithms with a fewer lines. I LOVE RUBY, MAY RUBY LIVE FOREVER!

A philosophical difference in hiring processes for software engineers between US and Japan

2011-08-04T14:54:00.008+09:00

A person currently working in US suggested me reading a book named "Cracking the Coding Interview". He told me that the book was one of the most famous books that let software engineers prepare for their recruiting interviews. I was so impressed and excited because the way US software companies hire engineers is so rational.

It says that interviewers can ask very intricate technical questions that relate to algorithm and coding. Sounds great! That's the way it should be.

In Japan, interviewers rarely test candidates with coding questions, odd as it might sound. Japan's IT industry was dominated by a few big software "general contractors" such as NTT Data and they usually don't look into candidates' technical skill set scrupulously. Instead, they rather attach greater importance to candidates' "communication skills", a vague concept that allegedly guarantees a candidate to be a good "team player".

However, I think that this is an absolute nonsense. A software engineer is supposed to be hired to code, not to chat. If a candidate is a very likable nice guy, but is unable to code even a line, he is useless in the workplace of software production. No wonder that Japanese IT industry has lost its competitive edge.

I feel very encouraged. I have finally found a reason to study computer science in earnest. If nobody really cares about proper knowledge on algorithm, who is willing to make serious efforts to learn it, after all?

What do I want to achieve through information technology?

2011-07-23T16:03:00.001+09:00

A tweet told me that Twitter was seeking a Japanese software engineer at their San Franscisco Headquarters.

Software Engineer - Japanese Product Focus, Applications

It looked interesting to me, so I applied for it. Let's see what will happen.

It is actually a little premature for me to apply for any job. I am not well-prepared yet.

I need a story... I want to accomplish something in this world. However, I still haven't found it yet. I am most interested in the web among many different fields inside information technology. I am especially interested in social networks or education. I am interested in making a difference in the society. I used to write a tiny electronic bulletin board system for communication with my old friends. I was also interested in groupware software like Lotus Notes for a better communication in workplace.

Maybe I have some ideas to make the world a better place. But I don't know how to make them happen yet.

Inventing my own English

2011-07-22T12:38:00.001+09:00

As a non-native speaker of English, I have been feeling awkward about it. My pronunciation carries a heavy Japanese accent and my listening skills are far from perfect. I am a very slow reader of English. However, when it comes to writing English, there is a silver lining. Unless you are participating a real-time chatting, you are not required to respond to something quickly when you write it. You can stop to think for a while. You can modify your sentences after drafting swiftly.

I am aware that my grammar is not perfect. I do know that I keep making small mistakes regarding choices of particles and singular/plural. Writing nouns is the most difficult part of English. The distinction between countable and uncountable nouns is just terrifying.

Choice of words is not the only problem. Even problematic is choice of phrases or syntax. There are some very English-like syntaxes. (Sorry, I can't come up with a good example) Not only words but also syntaxes are very different between Japanese (my mother tongue) and English. It is very difficult for me to compose natural sentences characteristic of English.

After a long reflection, however, I came to a conclusion that it does not really matter. The most important thing is to have people understood my ideas. As long as there exists a context, my subtle grammatical errors or unnatural syntaxes in English do not prevent people from understanding what I want to mean. What a great relief am I given if I think this way!

In a way, this is the invention of a new language, my own English. It is not exactly the same as what typical American people speak, but still understandable to them. I can express my ideas with that tool. Let's not worry too much about superficial things such as grammar and wordings. Let's focus on the thoughts that I want to convey.

My English is already good enough to express anything in the world. Let's stop worrying and start telling something more interesting. Probably, my writing skills also grow gradually. But it doesn't really matter. The most important thing is what you say, not how you say.

You don't need a formal education to be a good programmer

2011-07-21T15:13:00.005+09:00

Y Combinator is a startup funding founded by Paul Graham. He is a programming guru as well as a popular author. One of my friends suggested me look at "Hacker News" of their website, where job openings of many startups are listed.

Hacker News at ycombinator.com

As I looked into it, I found some interesting features regarding the long list.

Very few of these job openings require candidates to have a formal education in information technology field. They emphasize how active their companies are and how exciting their jobs are. They list programming languages and technologies they use to perform projects. However, they don't say "you need to have a master degree or above in information technology or related disciplines" or something like that.

I don't have any formal education in the field of information technology. I started programming at thirteen. I studied economics at university. I learned everything about being a professional software engineer on the job. It didn't take long before I became a decent programmer at work.

As I observed people working at workplace, paradoxically, many of the most excellent programmers have any formal education in neither IT nor computer science. And some of the most useless programmers had degrees in computer science. I thought this mystery over and came to a conclusion. For the most talented people, probably, programming is too boring to learn in the classroom. All they need to be a good programmer is a cheap ordinary personal computer. You can learn almost everything about programming from computers themselves. If you still don't understand, then, you can also rely on the Internet (when I first started programming, I didn't have access to the Internet. I had to read technical books then. Nowadays, you don't need to read books any longer).

Therefore, it is quite a correct attitude that you don't ask candidates for a formal IT education when you try to hire good people. I think that people who put ads at Y Combinator know how software should be created. I like it. Their way of thinking resembles mine.

I am a kind of crazy person who can't adapt a normal society. My way of thinking is too little of conformist to fit an ordinary conservation organization. Bay Area seems to attract this kind of eccentric but smart people. If so, I have no choice but to go there, no matter how difficult it is.

Move beyond the comfort zone

2011-07-20T15:35:00.019+09:00

Recently I stopped blogging in Japanese. Why? Maybe, my Japanese blog has too many readers for me to express something very personal :-). It might sound absurd, but when your blog get too much attention from the public, it will turn into a kind of "media" rather than mere personal records.

I am sick and tired with the Japanese blogsphere. Many of them are too much of inward-looking...whenever I read something in Japanese, I feel it too domestic and Japan-specific. It lacks universality which I adore.

I started programming at the age of 13. I have been a professional software engineer in the past 15 years. I am a native computer user. I am very familiar with the way digital devices work. Actually, it is so natural to me that I often forget the fact that a bunch of people still have difficulty in using computers.

Unfortunately, I could not find any computer job that is very interesting for me in Japan. The IT industry of Japan is not tech oriented. It is rather sales oriented. That is, IT companies don't pay attention to technology itself. As long as they can get enough amount of work from big corporations, they are happy with it and don't make a serious effort to improve their technical skills. This seemingly mysterious behavior has to do with the hierarchical industrial structure of Japanese IT industry. It runs deep.

When I was younger, I was more tech oriented. That's why I could not find any interesting IT company in Japan. More accurately, I was more innovation oriented. There are a plenty of tech guys who are exclusively interested in IT itself. However, most of them are not interested in innovation, which is a process where technology transforms the society. Technical people are not interested in social issues in Japan.

I am interested in both technology and the society. More precisely, I am only interested in the interface between them. I am very curious about the dynamic process where technology creates a new society. I am not so interested in subtle technicalities of information technology.

One small problem that bothers me is that I am so accustomed to be self-employed or bohemian that I am stuck in a rut. If I wish to engage in some more interesting business activities, I have to give up some part of freedom I am enjoying now. I have to sacrifice some part of my current lifestyle for a more valuable cause. Something inside me resists the change.

To judge it objectively, my current life is comfortable but somewhat boring. It is easy but doesn't help me grow. I can't keep on doing this forever. It is just not right. I must move beyond my "comfort zone" to enter another growing phase. Today we are all obliged to keep learning and growing until we die. Otherwise, we can't rationalize our long life for young people. We are not supposed to be just burden to them when we become old.

What prevents the middle-aged from new challenges

2011-07-14T09:24:00.016+09:00

I've been thinking of moving to and working in Silicon Valley, also known as the Bay Area in US. It's a famous mecca for IT engineers. It's been my long time dream. I used to be a very eager-to-learn and frustrating young programmer who was never satisfied with Japanese IT industry. I really wanted to go to the Bay Area. But I didn't. I can name a dozen of reasons why I didn't go there. This might be just a "sour grapes" attitude, that is, a kind of rationalization, though.

I moved to Canada in 1999. That would have been the best timing to move to the Bay Area, but I didn't. It's rare for me to regret something. Exceptionally, however, I feel a little regrettable about it. The first decade of the 21st century saw so many the Bay Area-based IT companies flourishing including Google, Apple and facebook. I missed the best decade of the Internet expansion from the Bay Area to the rest of the world.

The Bay Area has been a very exciting place for ambitious engineers and entrepreneurs. And it will be. I met a Japanese guy who had a long working experience in US. According to him, there's neither "best" nor "worst" time to move to the Bay Area. Even the macro economy is in slump, some new startups are growing rapidly there. Similarly, even when the macro economy is booming, some companies are going bankrupt there. "The real best time for you to go to the Bay Area is when you WANT to go there," he added.

I have no wife. I have no children, either. I have nothing which binds me to my home country, unlike other typical middle-aged people. I can do whatever I want to do.

Nevertheless, I still feel hesitating to go to the Bay Area. Why?

The real enemy resides in my own body. It's the memory of the past 12 years. I didn't go to the Bay Area 12 years ago in 1999. I have wandered all across the world since then. It was a great fun. I do appreciate these unique experiences. However, the idea of going to the Bay Area now makes me feel that I made a huge error in the past 12 years. Why did I not go there in 1999? Did I make a big mistake? "Are you stupid?" The inside of myself keeps blaming on me.

It's considered normal for the middle-aged people to get conservative and stop challenging something new. They usually say that it's because their body is getting old and does not function as before. Or they may say that they have a family to support and can't jeopardize the life stability. However, the real reason why they go with the status quo might be somewhat different. Probably, the real reason resides in themselves. They have too much memory to deal with. They feel compelled to rationalize what they have been doing. They might say "When I was younger, I had a dream and wanted to do that. The dream has gone, but it's OK. I don't want it any longer, and even if I did, it would be too late. What else could I do?"

Sometimes, those middle-aged people are right. Actually, their dream has gone forever. They can't do anything about it. Even if they still can do something about it, however, they also tend to give everything up. That's because they don't want to admit that they got wrong somewhere in the past.

It is always painful for you to admit your mistakes. The more serious the error is, the more painful you feel. But middle age is not old age yet. It is also true that it's too early to give up everything and to retire with the status quo. It's really difficult for me to admit my own mistakes. But I will. And I will challenge again.

English is a language handy to address legal issues

2011-07-13T14:17:00.001+09:00

Although I'm a slow reader, reading English sentences is fun because I find them more well-structured than those of Japanese.

Mentioning one language is more superior to another always gets political and controversial. So I'd say there's "officially" no functional superiority or inferiority between languages.

Nonetheless, experienced language learners can easily recognize that each language has its own strength and weakness depending on which matter you want to express by that. In my opinion, no other language is more excellent in terms of stating legal matters than English. For example, Japanese legal terms obviously lack sufficient vocabulary. Meanings of legal documents easily get obscure when expressed in Japanese.

Let's take a look at a few examples. The legal term "sekinin(責任)" can stand for two distinct English words, that is, liability and responsibility.

Another term "hosho" is even more confusing. Hosho can be stated in three different spellings in Japanese, which are "保証", "補償" and "保障". And these words would mean assurance, grarantee, warranty, surety, certification, compensation, indemnification, and security!

Maybe you can get by daily conversations where the context can help you, but this ambiguity could be fatal in the legal field where one wording could change the whole meaning of a document.

The reason why I left Canada

2011-07-09T13:50:00.028+09:00

I used to live in Canada. I lived there for 4 years, from 1999 until 2003. My life there was just fantastic. I loved the liberal Canadian society. Different peoples lived in peace together. Its ethnic diversity was such a wonder for a person who grew up in one of the world's most homogeneous societies. I even obtained permanent residency and decided to live there forever.

However, I ended up leaving Canada. Why did I leave Canada even though I loved it? I should rethink of it now that I am considering moving to another English speaking country, the United States. If I don't figure out the exact reasons, I might make the same mistakes in US.

The official reason why I left Canada is its climate. Canada is simply too cold to me. I really hate cold weather. I could not stand wearing a thick gown jacket for six months a year. I longed for a warm climate. (So later I ended up living in Vietnam!)

Having a closer look, however, this is not the only reason of my departure. I was lonely in Canada... I did
n't have any Japanese male friend there. (There were very few young Japanese men, actually. It was virtually impossible for me to find a person with a similar social background in Toronto of early 2000s...) I could not find another interesting job in Toronto. I
didn't speak a perfect English and it was a source of my inferiority complex.

I wanted to make friends with Canadians who were born there. They were native English speakers and didn't seem to be interested in immigrants who were born abroad. Cultural gap was so huge that it was difficult for me to find a common topic to talk about over dinner party. Toronto people were not so friendly during the long cold winter. It made the winter even more unbearable.

Maybe, this is a typical melancholy felt by immigrants who seriously wish to assimilate into the new society. Maybe I was too short-tempered. Time might have solved the problem. However, I wanted to get it solved immediately and when I saw it would take time to do so, I just decided to leave Canada instead of sticking to it.

Asian societies are easier for me to adapt but not as exciting as English speaking countries. English speaking
societies keep stimulating my brain...make me think and grow my mind a lot. I like them. But the same time I hate them because it is difficult to adapt them...this is an ambivalent feeling.

8 years have passed since I left Canada. Time flies! I still haven't solved this paradox yet. Maybe it's time t
o give it another try. Maybe this time I can do it better. I have had variety of experiences since leaving Cana
da. Now I am more mature than before.

After all, I am still too young to give up everything.

Challenge for Working in Silicon Valley

2011-07-08T22:00:00.015+09:00

It's been a while, my dear blog readers! I have long been away from this blog site. Why? I was just busy to update my Japanese version of blog and to tweet in Japanese. But now I feel like returning to English speaking world...

Whenever I feel this way, it is usually because I am fed up with the Japanese speaking world. Japan saw a terrible disaster this year. On March 11th of 2011, a massive earthquake hit the northeastern part of Japan. A tremendous tsunami followed it. To make the situation more miserable, a nuclear power plant exploded in Fukushima. As many as 3 reactors and 1 used fuel pool blew up. This sequence of events have changed Japan forever in a profound way. We will never be the same after 3/11.

However, the Establishment (elites in politics and economy) of Japan still behave as if nothing had happened on March 11th and nothing had changed. They are in a state of denial. They seem to pay more attention to their own interest rather than recovering and reconstructing Japan. Even before 3/11, I never like them. Now I am just sick and tired of them. I wish I wouldn't have to see and hear about them. Unfortunately, they are the leaders of Japan.

I came back from Vietnam to my mother's house in Yokohama in February 2011. I was heartbroken then. I really wanted to build my own business in this rapid growing young country. But widespread political corruption prevented my business paperwork from proceeding without bribing and it knocked me down. You might ridicule me, but I just couldn't stand helping those corrupt officials build their filthy wealth any longer. Anyway, I had to come back with a broken heart and much reduced amount in my bank account.

In the first few days back in Japan, I thought about settling down in Japan. Get a job, make money, find a girlfriend and maybe get married...well, these things did not excite me that much, but anyway I was back in my home country, what else could I do? I was standing at a loss with a diminished dream then. I was just sad. More accurately, I was really depressed. My body didn't function properly, either.

I got a small project in Japan. I worked with a team of a Japanese customer. The outcome was another disaster. The customer demanded me work in the morning and at night without a proper planning. I found it ridiculous but it was just a norm in Japan. It is how the business works here no matter how absurd it looks.

Then 3/11. Reactions of the government and business communities were disappointing enough to me. They were totally confused. They could not think properly. They could not come out with an appropriate plan. Post-3/11 consequences of Japan were so hopeless. I was forced to recognize the fact that Japan is not a kind of country that I could live with. OK, let's get out of Japan...AGAIN! (how many times have I attempted...I simply can't remember!)

You might say I am stupid. Maybe I am. 12 years ago, I went to Canada and lived there 4 years. And I came back to Japan. 3 years ago, I went to Vietnam. And I came back to Japan, again. In the both cases, I abandoned Japan when I left it. I swore to myself I would never ever come back to live in Japan. But I could not keep my promise to myself. I am embarrassed.

However, I am too young to retire. Life goes on...no matter how many times I make mistakes! The rest of life is too long to cry over the spilt milk. So...let's move on. Let's give it a try!

So...now I am thinking of going to the United States of America...more specifically Silicon Valley. Working and living in Silicon Valley has been my dream for a long time. There is no place more innovative in terms of new industries...especially information technology. I do know it will be a difficult challenge. But it is worth challenging.

I passed all 4 parts in USCPA exam! I made it!

2010-08-29T14:17:00.002+09:00

I sat for all 4 parts of USCPA exam in Hawaii last July.
Two days ago, I finally learned that I had passed all 4 parts!

The scores are BEC 83, AUD 85, FAR 92 and REG 89, where 75 is the passing mark.

I am very grateful to those who helped me successfully achieve the goal. I'd like to say the biggest thanks to my mother, who kept encouraging me while I was preparing for the exam.

I studied for the exam during the 7 month period starting December 2009 and ending June 2010. I studied about 1,000 hours during that period. REG was the most difficult part for me.

My main textbook was Wiley. I also used some Japanese textbooks but didn't find them very useful.

Business Environment and Concept(BEC)

Auditing and Attestation(AUD)

Financial Accounting and Reporting(FAR)

Regulation(REG)

Tweeting in English

2010-08-06T21:56:00.004+09:00

I have just started tweeting in English at @elm200e. Please follow me if you are interested.

Why are Japanese white-collar workers inefficient?

2010-05-12T21:02:00.008+09:00

"Why are Japanese companies so slow in decision-making?"
"I never know who is responsible for what in Japanese companies."

These are common complaints made by foreigners who conduct business with Japanese companies. Even Japanese people including me often feel frustrated in the same way.

Japanese companies can be very different from those in the West. A Japanese company does have a organizational chart that is very similar to one in a western company. However, the way they actually operate is very different. In a Japanese company, its formal hierarchical organizational chart is less relevant than its informal power structure. In Japan, power is much more spread toward the lower rank than in the West. More than often, a Japanese boss can be a mere symbol that integrates his or her section rather than an active leader who command his or her employees. You can recall the position that the Japanese emperor occupies in the constitution. Probably, this implies something more than only a coincidence.

Even if you are a businessperson in negotiation and have reached an agreement with a person who is supposed to have authority in a Japanese company, therefore, you can never feel relieved. His or her promise will not fulfilled unless his or her boss, coworkers and even subordinates in the company also agree with it. People have to go through a prolonged process of soliciting supports from other "interested parties" in the same company. This process is called "nemawashi" in Japanese, and one of the most important techniques you have to be proficient in to get work done in a Japanese company.

Cumbersome as it might look, the lengthy solicitation process or nemawashi has a positive aspect. Unlike an imperative working environment in the West, Japanese employees are encouraged to participate in decision making processes even if they are low-ranking. Japanese employees can have a high morale and feel that "we are supporting our own company". This mechanism seems to have worked very well until 1990 when Japanese economy enjoyed a rapid development.

However, the serious pitfall of this "all-participatory management" is that it is very obscure who has real authority and responsibility. When a company has to embrace a drastic change, it suddenly becomes paralyzed. Since nobody seems to take a responsibility, it is extremely hard for the company to make a risky but potentially profitable decision. Nobody takes initiative. Every single employee becomes quite conservative and sticks to status quo as much as possible, even if they are subconsciously aware that things won't last forever.

In a nutshell, this is where we Japanese are. These phenomena are quite pervasive and can be observed in every single aspect of Japanese society now. Probably, many people outside of Japan have already realized how ineffective Japanese politics are. This is only one example of the wide spread "indecisiveness syndrome" that inflicts Japanese society.

As a Japanese national, I long for the solution that addresses to this problem. However, I am also aware, with a little resignation, that it will take a long time before Japan gets rejuvenated by overcoming this issue because the problem runs deep in the very Japanese culture itself.

Japanese society resisting change

2010-05-11T21:40:00.011+09:00

My Japanese blog is getting even more popular these days. However, it doesn't make me so happy. The more I think about Japanese society, the more despair I feel.

Many Japanese companies still force employees to work for long hours and are even reluctant to pay for their overtime. This is obviously an illegal act but the Japanese society is somehow lenient with it.

Today I discovered a surprising fact. According to this paper, working hours of Japanese workers have not changed at all during the period between 1986 and 2006. This report's conclusion apparently contradicts Japanese government's official statistics, which show a significant decrease(more than 15%) in working hours in Japan. This mystery stems from the existence of unpaid overtime work, also known as "complimentary overtime work(sabisu zangyo)". Employers report their employees' working hours based on the amount they have actually paid to them. However, it is an open secret that employees are "not allowed to ask" their employers for overtime payment to the full extent. Therefore, the governmental statistics inevitably show a lower number than the actual one in working hours. How unfair.

Now we know that the working hours are about the same between 20 years ago and now. Here, we need to pay attention to the fact that Japanese economy was enjoying such a prosperity so called "bubble economy" 20 years ago. People were much better off then than now. Yet Japanese people work as long hours now as 20 years ago. It is puzzling.

The conclusion is rather simple: after all, Japanese companies have failed to improve labor productivity miserably. Or maybe they even have not tried to do so in the first place. For many Japanese people, labor is supposed to be cheap or even free just as the name "sabisu zangyo(complimentary overtime work)". They never really made an serious effort to save labor cost by restructuring the workflow. Employers simply chose not to pay overtime time payment.

You might wonder why Japanese employees are still as obedient as sheep after this kind of unfair treatments. The answer can be found by looking at a unique feature of Japanese labor market. It's very difficult for Japanese workers to switch workplace. It is still considered a social stigma. Working long hours is thought to be a sign of diligence. Innovating a new way to save labor time is not really encouraged and it is sometimes labeled as a form of laziness.

Japan's economic stagnation is blamed on Japanese companies' own behavior. Japan has been defeated by itself. But they are yet aware of it.

It's alright. That's THEIR way. They go their way, while I go my way. It's them who are ultimately responsible for their own acts. I will go my own way on my own risk. Nobody can prevent me from doing so.

TweetMonkey allows you to tweet from any page on the web - latest Google Chrome version has been released

2010-04-12T12:25:00.007+09:00

TweetMonkey is a web browser tool that allows you to post messages on Twitter from any web page on the spot. Tweeting has never been easier!
（NOTE: This article is obsolete. Please refer to this post for a newer version of TweetMonkey Chrome extension / August 21, 2011)

TweetMonkey allows you to tweet from any page on the web

TweetMonkey for Google Chrome

I have just created a TweetMonkey for the latest version of Google Chrome.
(Actually, the old version of TweetMonkey no longer works on the latest Chrome)

Prerequisites
All you need should be the latest version of Google Chrome. Mine is version 4.1.249.
(There's a report that one user successfully uses it on Mac, too)

How to install
Installation got much easier than before with the official version of Google Chrome extension.
(It used to be a beta version)

Download TweetMonkey

Clicking on the above link will allow you to install the extension automatically.

How to use
Right-click TweetMonkey icon in the right top corner of Chrome and choose "Option". Once an option screen shows up, you should enter and save your Twitter account and password. (I take advantage of a HTML 5 feature called local storage here)

You left-click on the same TweetMonkey icon and will see a pop up show up. Enter a text and click on "Update" button to tweet. You can also enter a shorten URL of the active tab by clicking on the chain icon.

Enjoy it!

References
Tutorial: Getting Started (Hello, World!) - Google Chrome Extensions - Google Code

Google's tutorial and API descriptions. Very easy to understand. I guess these people are so smart.

Tutorial: Debugging - Google Chrome Extensions - Google Code

Especially, debugging has never been easy like this on web brower extentions. Google rocks.

Source code
You can get a file called tweet_monkey.crx from the download link above. This is the extension file but it is merely a zipped file. Once you unzip it, you can have a look at source code of this software.

I am devoting more and more time to Twitter recently. Twitter is such a great social media that it can even transform the world ... maybe. At least, I love it.

The sun will set soon

2010-04-09T22:17:00.008+09:00

Hello, my dear readers.

I have been away from this blog for a few months...not for specific reasons. Well, maybe, part of the reason would be the fact that my Japanese blog got popular recently and I was busy with updating that blog. Since a number of people read a new entry on my blog once I post it, I can't update it casually like before any more. This is a side effect of getting popularity on my Japanese blog.

Contrarily, no attention is paid to this English blog. Nobody really cares what I write here. This fact gives me some relief.

I also tweet. But I don't tweet in English that much any more because most of my followers are Japanese speakers and perhaps many of them are not good at reading English. So I am also exposed under pressure to write in Japan there, too.

Now I am not in the mood of updating my Japanese blog. I have been thinking of how to revive Japan's economy. But I feel more and more depressed when I think of the current gloomy political situation in Japan. Many thoughtful people point out the fundamental problems of Japan's economy. Solutions to address them are also actively suggested among the intellectuals. However, nothing changes. These radical reforms are not supported by the public of Japan.

Lawmakers from the coalition show off their populist policies, which deeply disappoint me. But that's exactly what the public wants. The lawmakers are just doing their job. If the majority so wish, how can I object to it?

As The Economist puts, the economic situation of Japan won't be sustainable soon or later. If the catastrophe is inevitable, what's the use of worrying about it? This kind of resignation is a Japanese way of thinking when coping with a serious disaster(I suspect that it has to do with the fact that big earth quakes regularly destroy everything on the ground in Japan) Anyway, thinking of Japan is too depressing now.

Yeah, surely, we need a "big bang" in the Japanese society to break the ice. But it's a long way to go, though.

Can Japanese organizations embrace diverse people as members?

2010-01-21T21:09:00.009+09:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, the recruiting process for new employees have stayed the same in the last 40 years in Japan. Basically, big Japanese companies hire permanent employees only from among new graduates just once a year. They do not only avoid to employ old workers who used to work for other companies, but also stay away from young people who graduated just a year ago and have not found a job yet. Some people sarcastically say that it is because Japanese companies seek only "work experience virgins".

This unique recruiting practice in Japan has a specific name "shinsotsu ikkatsu saiyo" or "concentrated hiring of new graduates" in English. The Japanese version of wikipedia on this term tells us an interesting fact. According to a governmental study in 2006, the top 2 reasons why Japanese companies continue this recruiting practice is (1) to maintain the age structure of employees (balance in numbers between the young and the old) (2) to acquire human resources who have not been (adversely) affected by other companies' corporate culture. Japanese companies expect these new employees to hold a solid loyalty to them and work for them until the time of retirement. It helped Japanese economy grow fast and steadily until the 1980s.

In the age of globalization and the flattening world, however, this Japan-specific hiring practice most likely will not work any more. The fundamental defect of this method is that it miserably fails to embrace different kinds of people in an organization. Japanese organizations assume homogenious members and if not, they make desperate efforts to uniform the members' ideas by "brainwashing" them. In another word, Japanese people do not know how to organize people other than by gathering people with the same thoughts and background.

In a Japanese organization, members are expected to look the same, think the same, and behave the same. Exotic attitudes are not publicly criticized but privately finger-pointed. Unwritten rules govern the organization. Real power often resides in the people who have no position on the organizational chart, even out of the organization. It is very hard for outsiders to understand. Sometimes it is confusing even to insiders.

This is the time when companies place an appropriate person to a position only on the ground that the person has suitable skills and talent. Other elements (sex, age, ethnic background, etc) are not essential. Only Japanese companies go to the opposite way. Are they stupid? I used to think so. But now my thought has changed slightly. Probably, Japanese companies simply don't know how to deal with diverse people. The management executives have never worked in an environment where different kinds of people work in harmony. It is not that they are willing to keep the traditional recruiting process; they just have no choice but to keep doing it. Maybe, we should feel a little pity for them, instead of despising them.

Japanese university students take to the street demanding a better recruiting process

2010-01-20T14:13:00.009+09:00

Do you know how university students in Japan find a job after their graduation? Actually, they start looking for a job long before they actually graduate from university. Students go to university for 4 years in Japan. As early as they are a junior (the 3rd grade), many of students start their activity in search for their permanent job - this activity is called "Shukatsu".

This job search activity or Shukatsu is a prolonged process that can take up to 1.5 years. Candidates must go through an IQ test and several interviews before they finally acquire a position. The competition is fierce for a limited number of openings in some popular corporations. Usually traditional big corporations are popular among prospective graduates.

An interesting tendency in Japanese companies is that they don’t really care what students have achieved in university. What the companies are more interested in these prospective graduates are which university they come from. The more prestigious university the candidate comes from, the better. They would hire a graduate from a prestigious university with GPA 2.0 rather than a graduate from a less known university with GPA 4.0.

A prolonged recruiting process coupled with indifference of companies toward students’ academic achievement leads to Japanese students’ typical thinking that studying in university is of no use. You might be so surprised to find how much students – especially those who study business related disciplines like economics, management, marketing and law - do not study on campus in Japan. Electing subjects they major is not considered important. Their sole purpose is to go to university and it does not matter what they study. Furthermore, you don’t need high marks to get a job. As a result, it is rational for them to study more than barely to pass final exams.

This mysterious attitude of Japanese corporations stems from their traditional belief that on-the-job training and company-held seminars are sufficient to turn these potentially intelligent but ignorant students into competent employees.Companies invest education in employees and their grateful employees work for one company for a period long enough to allow the educational investment to pay off. This is a beneficial cycle that brought a splendid success to the Japaneanse economy – until recently.

Now the cycle has rather become a vicious one. Japan has seen a still ongoing economic stagnation in the last 20 years. It is increasingly more difficult for university graduates to find a “good, stable and well-paid” job nowadays. The period for a job search becomes longer, while the chance to find it is slimmer. Some frustrated students finally decided to take to the street. Now they are organizing a demonstration demanding for a fairer and less-burdening recruiting process. One of them sent me an email asking me to promote this event to the public. The demonstration will take place in Tokyo on January 23rd. Joining this event might help you understand more about plight that Japanese students face today.

Why is China often considered to be a threat to the rest of the world?

2010-01-16T00:17:00.007+09:00

Google and the Limits of "Cyber-Democratization"

An unidentified cracker, while the Chinese government is strongly suspected, attacked the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights artists late last year. In response to this incident, Google has decided to stop self-imposed censorship on search results in China. The world's largest web search engine corporation has stated that it might withdraw the business in China unless Chinese government abandons its strict access control imposed on the Internet of its territory.

Sigh. How many times have I sighed thinking of the Chinese government's repressive policies on its freedom of speech?

An article titled "China Threat" or a "Peaceful Rise of China"? analyzes why the West often considers China as a threat. According to the author, there are three reasons:

(1) ideological and cultural factors
(2) geopolitical and geoeconomic factors
(3) possibility of the collapse of China

The issue (1) concerns difference of the values between the West and China. The issue (2) has to do with China's sharply rising economic and political power which potentially overshadows the American hegemony. The issue (3) is related to the Soviet Union-type sudden breakdown of China and enormous confusion thereafter.

In my opinion, the fundamental reason why many citizens in the West feel eerie about China is the issue (1) - especially China's reluctance toward democratization and negligence on human rights including the freedom of speech.

Personally, I understand that the Chinese government is standing on a very shaky ground in the midst of social upheavals coupled with its rapid economic development. There are so many domestic problems both economic and political in China, anyway.

Still, I strongly wish China would be a democratic country. OK, maybe it does not have to have general elections like in the West for now. The real problem is weakness of the governance structure of the Chinese government. The government policy is not controlled by the parliament whose members are chosen through a general election. Nobody has accountability of what they are doing. No activities are checked and corrected in a coherent and transparent manner. This is a fearful situation for both Chinese people and outsiders.

This concern leads to the issue (3) above, which involves the potential collapse of the China regime.

I think that the Chinese government does not need to introduce full-fledged election system from the beginning - like elections for the National Assembly members and even its Prime Minister. In order to avoid the social unrest, the government should start with elections for some important positions within the Communist Party. Voters will be only Communist Party members which make up of only a few percentages of the whole Chinese population. After they feel confident in electing important positions, they should gradually move onto larger-scale elections whose voters are normal Chinese citizens.

This is not exciting at all. But I believe that this way will be the most practical and the most probable scenario to democratization of China.

More young Japanese people should go abroad to study and work

2010-01-12T01:10:00.004+09:00

I have posted a new entry in Japanese. The entry's title is "If you are a 15 year-old Japanese person, get out of Japan and go abroad".

In this post, I insisted that young people under 15 years old give up entering a Japanese university. Japanese universities, especially those teach liberal arts, are infamous for allowing students to graduate from them without substantial study. After 4 years of study, students would neither acquire any professional knowledge nor English proficiency. They are like innocent babies compared to students who studied in English speaking countries like US. Why? The reason is simple; Japanese companies have never looked for graduates with professional knowledge. They are just looking for young ignorant people who graduate from prestigious universities for screening purpose only. They don't care what students have studied in university.

This post has aroused strong emotional reactions among the readers. I have got more than 20,000 hits within only two days. Perhaps, a half of the readers supported and the other half of them opposed my assertion.

Why has this kind of post created such vehement responses from a variety of people? Probably, almost all Japanese people are already aware that something is seriously wrong with Japanese economy and feeling uneasy, at least subconsciously. Nevertheless, many of them do not wish to admit it. When you witness something that you don't want to see, it will cause an intense discomfort in your mind. This explains why my post saw such fervent oppositions.

Some people who live abroad and are able to speak a good English have also attempted some objections to my post. Probably, many of them simply don't know what's going on at workplaces in Japan. Anyway, they can survive anywhere in the world, so good for them. More miserable people are those who are monoligual and have no choice but to stick to Japan. I am afraid I can't come up with any good solution that allows them to get by in this tough economic situation in Japan. I am sorry, but they need to think by themselves.

I just want to give a piece of advice to the younger generation below 15 years old. "Get out of Japan to get a broader view". They are innocent. It is our responsibility to help them acquire abilities enough to lead a happy life in coming days. They will deadly need English skills and global perspectives. This is just minimum requirements for them to have a good life in the future. After making some effort to get professional skills, they will be able to get a job anywhere in the world including Japan.

The language barrier makes Japan so unique, but is it really beneficial?

2010-01-08T17:59:00.005+09:00

This is a good essay about "foreignness".

The Others

This is well-written about how expats would feel after spending many years in a foreign country. Since I have also lived outside of Japan for nearly 6 years, this essay is very persuading to me. The funny part about this essay is a paragraph that describes Japan as "the last remaining place you can feel truly foreign in the world"

The most generally satisfying experience of foreignness?complete bafflement, but with no sense of rejection?probably comes still from time spent in Japan. To the foreigner Japan appears as a Disneyland-like nation in which everyone has a well-defined role to play, including the foreigner, whose job it is to be foreign. Everything works to facilitate this role-playing, including a towering language barrier.

I laughed a lot. This is painfully true. After visiting more than 20 countries and spending several years, I have come to the conclusion that Japan is so unique that no other country is alike. This uniqueness was brought by the geographical isolation, the huge market with purchasing power, and the language barrier.

Chikirin, one of the most popular Japanese bloggers, showed in her recent post her optimistic view on Japan's future. According to her entry, there are three reasons why she believes in Japan's bright future:

1. Uniqueness of Japan is valuable
2. Younger generation is increasingly more excellent than the elder
3. The global economic center of gravity is shifting toward Asia

However, she did not forget to mention that even though Japan owns numerous aspects of its valuable uniqueness, Japan has been failing to turn it into money effectively so far. I believe that the fundamental reason why it happens resides in Japanese's lack of communication skills with outsiders. The language barrier, that is, lack of English proficiency of Japanese people, plays an important role. Most Japanese including intectuals are monolingual and so myopic. They don't know and are not willing to know what is happening outside of Japan. Naturally, they can't imagine how outsiders look at Japan. Japanese people don't know what foreigners find valuable in Japan and what they don't.

Japanese need to learn how to communicate with outsiders. Japan used to be called "the factory of the world". It has completely become a past. New industries with high added value often involve services(not goods) and languages, communication and media often play a critical role. We Japanese need to be more proficient in English to work with non-Japanese people. When these conditions are met, Japanese economy will be properous again like the past glory days.

Who owns the English language?

2009-12-29T23:01:00.011+09:00

It is obvious that English has its origin in Britain. It started out as one of low-profile European languages. As the British Empire prospered, English also spread across the world. It has been spoken as one of the official languages in the former British colonies since then. After Britain had lost its power, the United States overtook the dominance over the world. Even though there's signs of American power decreasing, US is still the world's most influential nation in terms of technology and international regulations.

Historically speaking, British people used to be Caucasian people with their distinct culture. However, the characteristic has got blurred because of the large scale introduction of immigrants from the rest of the world. US began its history as British colonies. Even after its independence, US was a country where white people are dominant for many years. But now Caucasians are increasingly becoming a minority - its population has been largely replaced by people other than Caucasians such as Hispanics, Asians and Africans.

Therefore, we have to be aware of the fact that, even though Britain and US are still the leading countries in the English speaking world, many members consisting of them are no longer traditional "white" people. English is becoming a global language, which is now spoken by many different people with different backgrounds.

Usually a language is spoken in a certain cultural context. English is not an exception. English is still strongly associated with the cultures of Britain and US. As a Japanese person, I find some difficulty in accepting certain aspects of the British or American culture. Probably, if English wishes to be a truly global language, it should be more culturally neutral. Or it should be tailored to the situations of each region where it is spoken. For example, English should be customized to accommodate the needs of Japanese people when it is spoken in Japan. New vocabulary and expressions should be added to English depending on the English users' demand.

It's important for us to have a recognition that English is not "theirs" but "ours". Although I am not a native English speaker, I am still entitled to use it to convey my ideas to the people across the world. In order to keep it possible to communicate with many different people, I should use a standard English. However, the standard English itself should be determined by the needs of all the people in the world, but not by only those of the people in the English speaking countries.

I wish I could read English as fast as Japanese

2009-12-27T17:58:00.006+09:00

I have been studying for US CPA(Certified Public Accountant) exam for one month. It would take a several months before I pass all the four subjects(FAR, BEC, REG and AUD). I use Wiley textbooks. The four textbooks have more than 3,000 pages. Each page is printed in a very small font, which makes my eyes very tired.

The content is difficult. But a bigger problem is my reading speed. It takes too much time to finish reading one chapter in a textbook. I have been studying English for many years but I can't read English very fast. It is not quite comfortable to read long complicated English sentences.

This is a depressing fact. My native tongue is Japanese and it is only hindrance to master English. This is a situation very different from when a Dutch person tries to learn English, for instance. Since Dutch is a close relative of English linguistically, the fact of being a native Dutch speaker does help to have proficiency in English. Being a native Japanese speaker does not. The ways of thinking are so distant between English and Japanese. That precisely explains why so many Japanese people are still struggling with improving their English skills after a tremendous amount of effort to learn it has been made.

As economic globalization penetrates across the world, the influence of English language is significantly increasing. No matter how you hate it, you can't avoid using English in the international business context. Japanese people incurs a great disadvantage in this situation because their lack of proficiency in English is inherently caused by the influence of their native language, Japanese.

Preparing US CPA exam

2009-12-19T23:13:00.004+09:00

I am currently studying accounting. I am planning to sit for US CPA exam in May 2010. The reason why I am studying accounting is not that I want to audit the accounts of company as a certified public accountant. I would like to understand more about corporate finance to help more IT ventures grow in Japan.

Japanese economy is now in a great slump. Japanese economy has two bottlenecks, which are the labor market and the capital market. The both markets lack vivid dynamism. In order to rejuvenate the long-stagnated Japanese economy, we need to activate these two markets. I would like to help grow a healthy capital market in Japan ... eventually.

Of course, I have to confess that I would be rewarded monetarily if I succeed in the financial market. Greed can do a good thing in the market. That has been a common belief among economists since the age of Adam Smith.

I spoke at BarCamp Phnom Penh

2009-10-03T17:50:00.004+09:00

Now BarCamp Phnom Penh is being held. I gave a presentation. The title is Introducing Japanese cool web services. This was my first presentation in BarCamp. I was a little nervous but had fun. I would like to give another presentation in the coming BarCamp Saigon on next month.

TweetMonkey for Google Chrome

2009-08-25T11:27:00.004+09:00

TweetMonkey allows you to tweet from any page on the web. I've created a Google Chrome version of it. It looks different due to Chrome's specific issues. An input box is always displayed at the bottom of the window and you can tweet from it anytime you like!

References
I used Google Chrome's "extension" functionality. It is yet mature and development seems to be going on vigorously. It looks like an alpha version. Documents are also not sufficient yet. I'd like to pay respect to a few pioneers who don't hesitate to explore this wild and unmanned field.

Extensions
Official document. Still coarse.

Building a Twitter Extension for Google Chrome
There's sample code.

How to install
It seems that extension functionality is not available in stables version of Chrome. "Dev" version or latest Chromium snapshot is recommended to install. Chromium is a flavor of Chrome for developers. Personally I suggest you use Chromium because it does not affect Windows registry. You can just unzip and use it. My Chromium is version 4.0.203.0 (24088).

To install TweetMonkey for Google Chrome:

1. First, you need to install Chromium.

2. Download TweetMonkey for Chrome.

3. Unzip it into C:\twmk directory. （This is just an example. In fact, any directory is OK)

4. Edit C:\twmk\tweetmonkey.html.
Put your Twitter information on the lines of username/password at the beginning of the source code.


var username = '(your twitter account)';
var password = '(your password)';

5. Run Chromium with --load-extension="C:\twmk" option. It can be convenient if you register it to a shortcut.

6. It's done. You should see a Twitter input box at the bottom of the Chromium window. (It might take a few seconds to show up)

How to use
An input box is always displayed at the bottom of the window. You can tweet from it anytime. If you click on the chain icon, you can enter the short URL of the current site. You can click on Update button to post your message on Twitter.

Personal notes
Nowadays, we spend most of time using web browsers. So customizing them with Javascript can be the most productive programming now. The age of cloud computing is coming soon. Once it comes, the server side will be taken care of by big corporations like Google and Amazon. We small individuals won't have to pay attention to trivial server side stuff like scaling. Maybe, client programming using Javascript will be more interesting and useful in the future for ordinary programmers.

TweetMonkey allows you to tweet from any page on the web

2009-08-23T10:49:00.005+09:00

I have just created a tool that allows you to post messages on twitter from any web page. It's called TweetMonkey. This is something like a Twitter version of commonsmarker.com.

Prerequisites
TweetMonkey is a Greasemonkey user script.

Firefox 3 or above with Greasemonkey 0.8 or above must be installed.（My testing environment is Firefox 3.013/Greasemonkey 0.8.3）
Greasemonkey 0.8　is a Firefox plugin and you can get it here.

Greasemonkey allows you to customize Firefox. Ask Dr. Google for details.

How to install
1. Access to the link below with Firefox 3
download TweetMonkey

Install the Greasemonkey by following the instructions.

2. Click a monkey icon at the bottom right corner of Firefox to edit the TweetMonkey source code.
Put your twitter information on the lines of username/password at the beginning of the source code.


var username = '(your twitter account)';
var password = '(your password)';

3. It's done. Access to any web page to see if a Twitter input box will show up at the bottom right corner of the screen.

How to use
A Twitter input box will show up at the bottom right corner of the screen on any web page. You can enter a short URL by clicking on "Add short URL of this site" link. Tweet by clicking on "Update" button. You can use it just as on Twitter.

Private note
To tell you the truth, I usually use Google Chrome. I don't really use Firefox so often recently. I hear that Chrome can be customize in a similar way to Greasemonkey. Probably, I should give it a try on Chrome.

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated!!

Failed to write a twitter client bookmarklet

2009-08-20T11:32:00.006+09:00

I saw somebody say that we could post your tweets by GET method using twitter API on the internet. This made me excited because it would mean that we could build very easy-to-use client bookmarklets. Before making sure of this information on twitter's official API guide, I started writing code like below. After a while, it turned out that twitter API allows only POST methods when we tweet. That's REST. My dream was short-lived. It's gone now. Sigh.


<html>
<head><title>Twitter Bookmark</title></head>
<body>

<script type="text/javascript">
 (function() {

 // This code does not work for IE6 or below.
 // It is OK since IE6 has died. Good bye IE6!!
     var xmlhttp = false;
    try {
     xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
   } catch (e) {
     xmlhttp = false;
     }

    if(!xmlhttp) return;
    
    // Well, you can never update any information by GET method...that's REST.
    xmlhttp.open('GET', 'http://twitter.com/statuses/update.json', false, "twitter_user", "twitter_password");
    xmlhttp.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded');
    xmlhttp.setRequestHeader('X-Twitter-Client', 'TwitterBookmark js by Eiji Sakai');
    xmlhttp.setRequestHeader('X-Twitter-Client-Version', '0.1');
    xmlhttp.setRequestHeader('X-Twitter-Client-URL', 'http://elm200.blogspot.com/');
    xmlhttp.send('status=' + encodeURIComponent("Hello World!"));
    if(xmlhttp.status != 200) alert(xmlhttp.status + ' ' + xmlhttp.statusText);

 })();

</script>

hello

</body>
</html>

How can Japan be respected by the international communities?

2009-08-17T17:49:00.012+09:00

TED Talks: Gordon Brown: Wiring a web for global good

Gordon Brown is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party. According to Wikipedia, "Brown has a PhD in history from the University of Edinburgh and spent his early career working as a television journalist". This speech given by him does not really contain anything special. The content itself is rather mediocre and totally predicable judging by his socialistic tendencies. Yet I admire that he can express his thoughts clearly with humor in front of the large audience. At least, he has a set of coherent political ideas. He sticks to his beliefs and his policies are by and large implemented based on them. Easy to understand.

Take a look at Japanese prime ministers in the past. Very few Japanese prime ministers managed to convey their political beliefs effectively to the Japanese public. (Perhaps, one of a few exceptions was Junichiro Koizumi) Japanese political processes are very hard to understand to outsiders, even to the Japanese public. Japanese politicians have been accused of its lack of political philosophy. There are neither long-term goals nor strategies to achieve those goals.

Japan still has the world's second largest economy. Japan has been donating a large sum of money to the world's poorer countries in the last few decades. However, Japan has yet received sufficient respect from the international communities in proportion to its vital role in the global economy. Why?

I think it's because Japanese politicians don't have clear political philosophy. When certain important values such as human rights are threatened, British politicians like Gordon Brown are determined to object to such a move. They don't hesitate to speak up against other countries that violate such fundamental values on humanitarian basis. Their attitude is consistent and predicable. On the contrary, nobody knows what the Japanese government values the most. They look just inconsistent and opportunistic.

Japanese politicians should define what are the most important for them, prioritize the goals and take actions strategically to achieve them. The goals must serve the good of both Japan and the rest of the world. Only when do they succeed in doing so, Japan will be respected by the international communities.

The conditions of creativity

2009-08-16T21:01:00.013+09:00

TED Talks: Paul Romer's radical idea: Charter cities

Stanford economist Paul Romer has come up with a radical concept, "charter cities". Basically, this idea comes from the outstanding success of Chinese special economic zones. In 1979, China designated Shenzhen, a small village next to the prosperous economic city, Hong Kong, as one of four economic special zones. At that time, China's national economy was strictly managed based on economic plans built by the central government. China had few private companies and virtually no economic freedom. But things were total different in economic special zones like Shenzhen. Economic freedom was secured and foreign companies was able to invest there without restriction. A lot of companies from Taiwan and Hong Kong actually made a direct investment in Shenzhen and it changed the destiny of Shenzhen forever. Since 1979, Shenzhen has achieved an incredibly rapid economic growth. Now it is a prosperous metropolitan with the population of 6 million.

Shenzhen's success would have never taken place if not for the neighboring Hong Kong, which had been governed by Britain before it was returned to China in 1997. Hong Kong was allowed to rely on sophisticated British legal system(good rules). It brought huge benefits to businesses operating in Hong Kong. Shenzhen learned how to make good rules from Hong Kong.

Paul Romer generalized this particular success in Hong Kong and China into an idea "charter cities". A "host country"(e.g. China) provides a "partner country"(e.g. Britain) with a small tip of territory or a "charter city"(e.g. Hong Kong). In return, the partner country provides the chartered city with a set of rules the most suitable for economic and social growth.

In other words, now Paul Romer is trying to "reproduce" Hong Kong all over the world.

How audacious he is! A typical conformist Japanese would think that his idea was too radical and "unrealistic". They would say "well, a good idea, but it is simply impossible to implement". They would even laugh at his idea. But is it a right thing to do? Maybe, we Japanese should not shut down one idea simply because it looks impossible to realize now. If we want to be imaginative and innovative, we must be open to any idea no matter how absurd it looks.

I don't know how realistic he idea is. But I do respect him by speaking up an idea that he believes worth spreading. It might have taken him a courage to express this idea because it would look too radical and almost impossible. I also respect the culture of English speaking societies where any ideas are not rejected just because they are against their common sense. As long as your idea makes sense, they allow you to give it a try. If we don't tolerate this kind of try and error, we will never be able to produce creative results.

English-speaking blogs by Japanese

2009-08-15T20:49:00.019+09:00

I've just kicked off a movement called "English-speaking blogs by Japanese".

We Japanese people are often too shy to express ourselves in English. I'd like to help Japanese people make their voice heard to all the people in the world by blogging in English. There are so many interesting Japanese people, but it's too bad that many of them are little known outside of Japan. It's a huge loss to both Japanese and non-Japanese people, I guess.

Because of the linguistic distance that lies between English and Japanese, it's very hard for Japanese to master English. We are not perfect English writers. But we still have valuable ideas worth spreading. The most important thing is communication. I am sure that reading these blogs listed below will be enjoyable and help broaden your horizon.

I'd like to introduce English-speaking blogs updated by Japanese people.

31o5 - http://31o5.com/
31o5 is a co-founder of an IT company in Bangkok, Thailand. She is very active in geek communities including BarCamps in Thailand and well-known in ASEAN countries. In her blog, she talks about technology, business, life, etc in both English and Japanese (she tends to blog in English more often than in Japanese)

Ujihisa - http://ujihisa.blogspot.com/
Ujihisa is a Japanese hard-core hacker who is interested in software technologies such as Ruby, Vim, Haskell and mathematics. He lives in Vancouver, Canada. He's been blogging in English since March, 2009.

Koshian - http://koshian.typepad.com/
Koshian is a Japanese IT geek living in Bangkok, Thailand. His interest includes technologies, social issues, life and Japanese subcultures(animation & manga). He has just started his blog.

Kenji - http://kenjioh.com/
According to his profile posted on his blog, "Kenji Oh is a Film music composer / Web programmer, was also gymnastics player. Composed scores for films, TV show, ad DVD, video games etc. and female gymnastics floor."
He is so versatile. He began blogging in English just recently, but is very eager to present himself in English to a broader audience in the world.

tittea - http://tittea.blogspot.com/
Tittea is a Japanese blogger who is interested in reading books and organic cooking, and wishes to communicate with people of aspiration and independent life style.

rawell - http://turquoise.tm.land.to/
A Japanese blogger rawell discusses tech-related topics based on various news source. For rawell's more complete profile: http://iddy.jp/profile/rawwell/

EI "RAY" MURAKAMI - http://ehealthcarekawaraban.blogspot.com/
Health IT Analyst working for public hospitals in Auckland, New Zealand. He is interested in improving health care system by leveraging information technology. He is an excellent English writer.

SeekingSearchin - http://sssking.wordpress.com/
SeekingSearchin just started his English-speaking blog. He(she) is interested in expressing himself(herself) by blogging in English.

This list will be updated. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you are or you know any Japanese blogger who writes in English.

Being a slave is sad, but making your employees slaves is embarrassing

2009-08-14T12:29:00.017+09:00

31o5 is a Japanese engineer and businessperson who runs a software company in Bangkok, Thailand. As a manager, she has to constantly deal with unreasonable requests from her customers in Japan. In her latest blog post "
1 week work is 8 * 5 = 40 hours, not 24 * 7 = 168 hours" she points out a typical vice in the Japanese customers' way of thinking.

In this post, she puts:

When I say 1 week work means 40 hours work, it doesn’t mean we can work 168 hours. Or maybe I should say opposite way, when I say 40 hours work, means it takes 1 week, not 2 days.

Now I noticed some kind of people expect us to work overtime and holiday as DEFAULT. A client send us data 20:00 pm on Friday night and said deadline is Monday noon.

There were only 3 hours working time, but in their mind, there were 2 days + few hours.

In this particular case, she says she got it done by herself, not asking her employees to work in the weekend. But she also regrets having done so because she had to sell her labor at a cheap price and could not manage other projects in the meantime.

She is a sort of exceptional manger for a Japanese. In similar cases, most Japanese managers would order their employees to work in the weekend without hesitation. In Japan, work is considered somewhat "sacred". It's easy for us to cancel appointments with our family and friends in Japan. All we have to say is "I have to work and I can't come over. Sorry", and then they will not object to it.

Yes, work is important. You can make your living by working. You can express yourself through work. But your private life is as important. You are always supported by your family and your friends. Without them, how could you enjoy yourself in life?

If you are a lowest-level employee, you are just forced to work overtime. Several years later, you would get promoted and have a few employees under you. If you are soaked in a cooperate culture where overtime work is taken for granted, you might casually force your employees to work overtime all the time.

But think about it. What's your job as a manager? A manager is supposed to allocate work evenly to each employee to accomplish the business goals of the division that he or she is in charge of. The ideal state should be no overtime work at all because overtime work is a result of the failure of task allocation by the manager.

As a manager, being a slave is sad, but making your employees slaves is embarrassing. If a company forces its employees work overtime regularly, it should reconsider the structure of work flow so that they can leave work on time and enjoy their private lives at will.

Twitter as a global brain

2009-08-14T11:21:00.015+09:00

When I was using twitter yesterday, I noticed the fact that the structure of following and followers at twitter just resembles neural network. I thought that this structure was so obvious that everybody had already taken it for granted. However, I got some positive feedbacks from my twitter followers so I decided to elaborate this idea a little further on my blog.

Twitter and a human brain look alike in many ways. Both of them are networks with a tremendous number of small nodes. These nodes are brain cells or neurons in a brain, while they are users on twitter. A neuron has many inputs and outputs called synapses that conduct stimulus. Similarly, a twitter user has following users and followers, where inputs come from following users and outputs go to followers.

Twitter and a human brain have the same mechanism to channel information. So we may say that twitter has literally become "a brain" now . Just as collaboration of all the brain cells creates a thinking process collectively, twitter "thinks" when innumerable people tweet, exchange ideas and influence each other. On twitter, we all become one brain.

Be open-minded

2009-08-12T11:54:00.007+09:00

The other day, I had an interesting conversation with Thomas, a German gentleman living in Saigon. He has been a consultant in many different industries. (His blog)

He has been living in Asia and hopes to continue to do so for a long time toward the future. Although he is a German national, he says that he is not too keen on mingling with the German community in Saigon. His mind is more international-oriented and he hopes to have more international friends, not only German ones.

I felt empathy with his statement. When an expatriate community becomes introvert, its ethnicity gets even more condensed than that of their motherland. German expatriate communities become more German than the society in Germany, and Japanese expatriate communities become more Japanese than the society in Japan. This is probably because these people try to overcome fear of living in an alien land by clinging to their own ethnic community.

That's the exact reason why I feel reluctant to dive deep into the heart of the Japanese community in Saigon. While, according to Thomas, the size of Saigon's German community is about 500, the Japanese community here is said to be much larger with the size 5,000. However, many of them do not understand much of foreign languages, either English or Vietnamese. When they don't speak a foreign language, how can they effectively communicate with local Vietnamese people and expatriates here? It is natural for them to just stay inside the Japanese community and form a dense and complicated web of human relationships there. It would resemble a small village in ancient times.

I think we need balance. Having friends from the same ethnic group can be comfortable. But if you wish to have a more exciting life, you need to take some risk and go beyond the complacency. We should be more open-minded and embrace different thoughts of people with different backgrounds.

Good bye, the old good days of Japanese economy

2009-08-08T01:50:00.013+09:00

Dr. Nobuo Ikeda is a professor teaching economics at Jobu University in Tokyo. He is better known as one of Japan's most popular bloggers. He is a great commentator as well as a belligerent agitator who vehemently criticizes contemporary Japanese people's complacence.

He was recently interviewed by a famous British business magazine, The Economist. He found the questions of the interviewer quite reasonable but sometimes hard to answer. To make his points clear, he posted an entry titled "Why Japan Is So Slow" on his blog site.

He points out the fact that although a long-term relationship between a supplier and a maker used to be efficient and help boost Japanese economy, its effectiveness is disappearing very quickly now due to change of the economic climate.

Now the game is over: when the future is not so bright, the payoff of "defection" would be greater than that of "cooperation". So the long-term relation became inefficient and fragile. It also changed politics: the Liberal Democratic Party has redistributed the rent of growth, but the source of the rent dried up. So voters want change, but they don't know what to change. And the DPJ doesn't know either. So we can't expect too much from them. Real change would occur when the LDP is divided after it lose the election, and the "third party" emerges.

I could not agree with him more. Japan's future is bleak. Japan will see hope only after going through several political turbulences. It's still a long way to go.

Japanese customers v.s. English-speaking customers

2009-08-06T19:50:00.016+09:00

I have been thinking of this question for many years: which customers should I focus on, Japanese customers or English speaking customers?

Japanese customers and English-speaking customers are in sharp contrast to each other. Pros of dealing with Japanese customers are at the same time cons of dealing with English-speaking customers. Contrarily, cons of dealing with Japanese customers are at the same time pros of dealing with English-speaking customers. I will summarize pros and cons of dealing with Japanese customers and English-speaking customers below.

*When dealing with Japanese customers:

**Pros
- If you are a native Japanese speaker born in Japan, you have a huge advantage over other nationals because you are supposed to know very well what Japanese customers expect and how they behave.
- Market competition is mitigated thanks to the lingual and cultural barriers. It is often difficult for non-Japanese to enter the Japanese market without understanding the details of Japanese business practices.
- Japanese customers are more loyal than English-speaking customers. Once a good relationship is established, they tend to stick to that relationship.

**Cons
- Japanese customers are unable to express their needs effectively. They are unable to document their requests. Suppliers must infer what they want from the conversation with them. It is often very ambiguous.
- They are reluctant to make a written contract with suppliers. Even after entering into a contract, they often try to change the terms of agreement.
- Decision making is often too slow. This is due to their complicated internal decision making processes.
- They often look down on suppliers and don't look at them as partners on equal footing. As a result, they often make unreasonable requests to suppliers in terms of prices, quality and date of delivery.

*When dealing with English speaking customers:

**Pros
- Before starting any business, English speaking customers make a clearly described contract with suppliers. All the terms of conditions are well-written in the contract. There's no ambiguity.
- English-speaking customers are less likely to ask for an unreasonable request which is not described in the contract.
- The English-speaking market is huge and spreads across the entire world.

**Cons
- The market competition is fierce. There are so many competitors throughout the world.
- English-speaking customers are less loyal. Once they find more favorable trading conditions in your competitors, they don't hesitate switch suppliers.
- If you are not a native English speaker, you will be disadvantaged in terms of communication. Communication can be more difficult and costly.

In summary, Japanese customers tend to stick to a long-term relationship. It's very difficult for outsiders to get into a relationship with a Japanese customer. But once a relationship has been established, they rarely switch suppliers. Contracts are often written incompletely or even non-existent, and human relationships are more emphasized. In contrast, English speaking companies conduct business strictly based on contracts. No contract, no business. They don't stick to a certain supplier and are always in search for better trading conditions.

To my personal preference, I like the way English speaking customers do more. It's more strict but also more transparent than that of Japanese customers. When we work with diverse suppliers (unlike homogeneous suppliers found in Japan), we have no choice but to do business based on contracts. A contract symbolizes human rationality and it is the only common element among heterogeneous people.

Mistrusting Japanese companies

2009-08-05T17:58:00.008+09:00

Although I am a Japanese person born in Japan, I have never liked the way Japanese white collar employees work in Japan. They always put the customers first ... often way too much. They accept unreasonable requests from customers so easily that they often look more like slaves rather than equal partners.

For example, let's say it's 4:30 pm on Friday now. You are an employee and thinking of the weekend's plan at office in Tokyo. Now the telephone rings and you will hear your customer telling you casually: "Oh I am sorry but can you finish this new work by 10 am Monday?" Yikes. That's tons of work. It means that you have to work overtime on Friday and throughout the weekend. But you have already appointments with your friends and family.

What do you think? Would you accept it? If you work in the culture of English speaking countries such US and Canada, you might say like this: "I am afraid I simply can't make it. Would you mind putting off the deadline a bit further like next Wednesday?" However, you can't usually say like this in Japan. You are exposed to a very strong social pressure and it's very difficult for you to refuse such a request from your customers.

I don't think this makes sense. This is a really terrible business practice, but is commonly observed in Japanese business scenes.

I can't deal with these Japanese companies. That's against my values. Of course, not all the Japanese companies are like this...but I have to say most of them are still like this.

Closing the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be

2009-08-04T23:06:00.008+09:00

I am a big fan of TED. The website has so many great speech videos. As the site puts, those are exactly the "ideas worth spreading".

One of the greatest videos is this:
Michelle Obama's plea for education

Well, I am not much of a political person. I do like President Barack Obama, but it's because I find charisma in his personality, not because I support all his policies.

Likewise, I like this video because I find the speaker is a woman who has overcome numerous obstacles in her personal life, not because she is First Lady of the United States.

But Barack reminded us on that day, all of us in that room, that we all know what our world should look like. We know what fairness and justice and opportunity look like. We all know. And he urged the people in that meeting, in that community, to devote themselves to closing the gap between those two ideas, to work together to try to make the world as it is and the world as it should be, one and the same.

I am aware of the reality as well as the ideal. I am looking at both now. I am struggling between the two. One day I have hope, dreaming of the ideal. Another day I am discouraged, seeing the reality and how large the gap between the two is.

As Mr and Mrs Obama say, we must try our best to close the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be. This is no easy task. But we have to assume the responsibility to make the world better place for our children.

Traffic jam in Saigon

2009-08-03T22:58:00.003+09:00

As everybody knows, motorcycles dominate the roads in Vietnam.

On the way to e-Town this morning, I was stuck in a terrible traffic jam. Cach Mang Thang 8 (August Revolution) street was packed with motorcycles. Even worse, road work was going on everywhere on the street. Oh god. I have never seen the actual hell yet, but if I see it, it must look like this.

I strongly believe that motorcycles are the integral part of Vietnamese culture. Yet I must feel sorry for motorcycle commuters at the peak time. Saigon needs a little bit more of public transportation. Hopefully, subway or monorail. It will certainly make Saigon people's life easier.

Freedom of speech in Vietnam

2009-08-02T09:58:00.017+09:00

Vietnam is a lovely country. I enjoy living in this state. However, there's one thing I don't like about it: Vietnam lacks freedom of speech. Nobody can criticize the ruling Communist Party here.

Once upon a time, Vietnam went through a fierce war. Politics destroyed everything in this country. Since the Vietnam war ended in 1975, Vietnamese people have lost their interest in politics. They have learned that politics doesn't make them happy.

Vietnam has neither freedom of speech nor democracy. But people don't seem to care as long as the government keeps its promise that it brings economic development to its people. This is a kind of implicit social contract. And so far so good.

I don't really object to it. After all, Vietnam is still a developing country and it's more important to feed its people properly than to give them freedom of speech. This is understandable.

However, there's a risk that it will prevent Vietnamese from thinking in a creative manner in the future. This can become a problem once Vietnamese economy has reached a certain level of affluence.

You could say that Vietnamese people are currently tuned more to be good factory workers than to be imaginative creators. Maybe, it's okay for now. I hope that someday it will have a full-fledged freedom of speech for the future generations in Vietnam.

How to keep myself motivated in writing blog in English

2009-08-01T19:14:00.009+09:00

My native language is Japanese, not English. It's certainly much harder for me to write entries in English than in Japanese. I have tried to keep writing English blog several times in the past, all in vain.

In the meantime, I have been posting numerous entries in Japanese on http://d.hatena.ne.jp/elm200. The blog site has attracted more than 900,000 page views in the last 3 years.

The reason why I could keep writing the blog in Japanese but failed to do so in English is rather simple. In English blog entries, I have never received any reactions. No comments nor social bookmarks. It was as if I were talking to the wall. I say something but nobody responds.

There's a web site called lang-8 (http://lang-8.com/). This website has been created and maintained by a Chinese guy who lives in Japan. This is basically a social network system which specializes in language exchange. You can join the network to help people who learn your native tongue and get help from native speakers of the language you study.

Maybe I can post my entries in lang-8 to get my articles corrected by English native speakers. They might not respond to the content of my posts but I can at least receive some reactions in the form of sentence correction. It can be a motivation to keep writing in English.

However, I never really liked it very much. I don't know why. I just wanted to have an English-speaking blog. Perhaps I should just start writing in English. I don't have to make any excuse. As http://31o5.com/ at Bangkok says, after all, we are not English native speakers and it's simply impossible to be perfect on English. The most important thing is to make ourselves understood to as many people as possible. English happens to be the best tool to convey your ideas to the maximum number of people on the globe. Probably, we don't have to be too sensitive on grammar and structures of our English sentences. Just do it. Make your voice heard. That's all we need to do.

Regretful Japanese-speaking web

2009-06-04T12:00:00.009+09:00

Uchio Umeda is a board member of Hatena Inc, which provides one of the most popular web services in Japan. In a recent interview titled "Regretful Japanese-speaking web", he criticized Japanese-speaking web, saying that while web services are vital in people's life in the United States, the Japanese speaking web is not used effectively except for some subcultural websites like Nico Nico Douga. According to him, especially the problem is that the most intellectual people don't express themselves through web in Japan even though the Internet has great potential to boost their intelligence.

I also share his view on Japanese-speaking web. The Japanese-speaking web is too negative. Too often do I witness negative anonymous comments that attack and insult other people. The reason is, as Dr. Obuno Ikeda says, that Japanese people have no chance to express themselves under their own name because it's too risky. Under the Japanese evaluation system, once they lose their reputation, it is almost impossible to regain it later. They are afraid of criticism from their bosses and coworkers. Therefore, they insult others under an anonymous name to release their pressure in their real life. How sad it is!

Personally, I am fed up with the Japanese-speaking web. It's just fruitless. I have to cut down on the time I spent reading Japanese-speaking web. It's sad...because I am a native Japanese speaker.

I'd like to be a good English writer

2009-06-04T11:32:00.003+09:00

For better or worse, I have to admit that English is the single universal language in the 21 century. For those who have international aspiration, English is an essentional tool for communication. On the internet, the most important English skills are reading and writing. If you want to get your voice heard to the public in the world, you need to express yourself in Enlgish. This is a lethal handicap for non native English speakers like me...but whining is no use and I just have to do what to do.

I do notice that my English sentences are not perfectly natural for native English speakers. I'd like to improve my writing but don't know how. Anyway, I will try my best to express myself in English.

Long time no see

2008-09-09T00:52:00.002+09:00

I haven't posted entries for a long time.

Now I am preparing to leave for Vietnam.
I will leave Tokyo on September 22nd.
I will go through Korea and China to visit my friends.
I will finally arrive in Ho Chi Min City(Sai Gon) around October 10th.

Hopefully, I'd like to set up a software company that exports software to the countries like Japan and US.

I have been learning Vietnamese for three months. It's so much fun. This is no wonder since I am a natural language mania, so...

Open up your mind, Mr United States!

2008-05-18T09:55:00.003+09:00

US Latinos are 'finding a voice'

The United States' 43 million Latinos are the fastest-growing minority group in the country. For Emilio San Pedro, travelling from coast to coast talking to fellow Latinos has also allowed him to reflect on his own identity.

Cheer up! The hispanic people in US! I feel that the US is becoming more and more introvert these days. Have a look at the very restrictive number of issues of H1B visas for professional people. The US might not be "a country of freedom" as the current US President might think.

By the way, are there any difference between the words "Hispanic" and "Latinos"? Is this the matter of political correctness like the relationship between the words "Black" and "African Americans"?
I am not sure.

2008-04-25T04:43:00.003+09:00

This is a good article written by Marc Andreessen.
Birth of Newspapers, part 1: The very first newspaper

All early forms of media had lots of people who suffered from doubt, were skeptical, were dismissive, or just didn't get it -- and in fact there were a lot of dead ends and failures from a lot of innovators before the true form of any medium and its business foundation became clear.

But all of that doubt, skepticism, criticism, and failure were in each case accompanied by enormous social, cultural, political, and business transformations when things did finally become clear.

Currently, I am helping out one of my client businesses that is trying hard to create a totally new medium which has never existed before. The president of the company appears to be very lonely as nobody understands where he is heading for. He has been in pain in the process of producing something brand-new. As Marc says, no media have
never created without going through a long period of trial. His message is quote encouraging.

Language mania

2008-04-18T20:40:00.003+09:00

What I love the most in the world is learning languages.

While I do like to learn computer languages, learning natural (that is, normal) languages gives me even a greater joy. I don't think I am a good writer, but manipulating letters and lingual sounds is such fun. I love learning grammar, too.

I wish I could make money just from learning languages. Probably, I should develop some websites or software that help people learn languages with pleasure. That could be the purpose of my life.

When MacOS conquers the world

2008-04-12T21:04:00.004+09:00

This is hillarious news. Good job, Apple!

Apple's OS Edge Is a Threat to Microsoft

iKnow

2008-04-12T14:28:00.006+09:00

English learning web service for Japanese speakers: iKnow.

This is an interesting web service. The appearance looks so cool. If you are an English learner(who can understand Japanese), this web service allows you to learn English through a sophisticated learning software on the web. It focuses on dictation and you are supposed to be able to improve your listening skills as well as your vocabuluary.

I have started using it today. At the first glance, it looked so exciting. However, as I used it for a while, I started feeling a little bit frustrated because it has only ready-made lessons. I'd rather want to learn English through a real material such as newspaper and blogs. This web service offers no support to such "customized learning materials". While iKnow can serve as a preparation for actual communication in English, you also need to try to communicate with real people in English. Otherwise, your English skills will never be of practical use.

Just do it

2008-04-12T00:14:00.003+09:00

In my life, I have been thinking too many things. It's more than enough. What I need to do is action. The most important thing is to take up courage and start doing something actually. In stead of criticizing the society, I will think about how to cope with the problems. Just do it. An act is more valuable than one hundred thoughts.

I'll refrain from criticizing the society until...

2008-04-02T17:52:00.003+09:00

Recently, I have started recognizing how stupid I am.

Why do I want to criticize the Japanese society? The answer is simple: because I am coward. I am so whimpy that I am just afraid of failing in any form.

But we can learn something very important from failtures and that's an essential part of our growing process.

As Google tells its employees, the important thing is "Do quick and fail quick".

2008-03-31T08:11:00.003+09:00

From Marc Andreessen's blog post "Oh. Wow".

Future blogger Alexei Barrionuevo writing in the New York Times:

When military forces loyal to Gen. Augusto Pinochet staged a coup [in Santiago, Chile] in September 1973, they made a surprising discovery. Salvador Allende’s Socialist government had quietly embarked on a novel experiment to manage Chile’s economy using a clunky mainframe computer and a network of telex machines. [Who you callin' clunky?]

Chile's socialist government was trying to implement a planned economy using computers. The project called Cybersyn. Let's say, it would have been like one called
supply chain management system nowadays. According to a standard economics textbook, this kind of trials are destined to fail. And in this case, it actually failed as the textbook says.

You do have to give them credit for one thing -- it would have been a better plan than the standard "make s*** up" strategy pursued by so many other politicians.

This dude deserves to go in the history books alongside Doug Engelbart and Ted Nelson, that's for sure.

And tell me you've never wanted to sit in a chair like that...

The above are the remarks by Andreessen. I am not sure if he was really impressed or just sarcastic. It's sometimes hard for me to tell whether Americans are serious or just joking. I could give the computer-based planned economy guys credit for their challenge spirit. Other than that, it was basically a lame project.

The most watched YouTube video of all time

2008-03-29T10:39:00.005+09:00

YouTube yobs chase top video off the charts

The Italian blogger who uploaded what became the most watched YouTube video of all time says he decided to kill off his mega hit after he was subjected to a torrent of abuse from viewers on the Google-owned video sharing site.

The year-old video, which had been viewed over 100 million, was deleted from the YouTube servers last weekend by the Italian, who calls himself Clarus Bartel.

"I was fed up [with the abuse and accusations of statistical manipulation]," Bartel said in an email. "I am not interested in the first place if this is the price I have to pay."

The three minute clip was a home made video remix featuring the Brazilian band Cansei de Ser Sexy (CSS) and their song Music is My Hot Hot Sex .

According to the last published YouTube tally before it was deleted, the video had been watched 114, 281, 553 times since being uploaded last April.

This is interesting because:

1. "the video had been watched 114, 281, 553 times since being uploaded last April." C'mon. Watched more than 100 million times? Even Nico Nico Douga, the most popular video sharing service in Japan, does not have a video which has been viewed more than 10 million times.

2. The video hosting company, YouTube, is apperently an American company. Brazilian band Cansei de Ser Sexy (CSS) sings a song in English. (you can watch their (probably) original music video at here)
The guy who made the remix was an Italian. And the viewers are people across the world. This is really a global phenomenon. I can tell the wide stretch of English speaking world. At the same time, I feel sad about smallness of Japanese speaking world.

Invest for your gut feeling

2008-03-28T18:51:00.005+09:00

Hong Kong Billionaire Puts Another $40 Million Into Facebook

What’s another $40 million to a billionaire? Hong Kong’s Li Ka-shing, chairman of telecom giant Hutchison Whampoa, revealed during a conference call that he has raised his stake in Facebook by another $40 million or more. This is on top of the $60 million he previously invested.

For better or worse, personal investors never come to the center stage in Japan when it comes to investment to venture companies. Investors are always companies, not indivisuals. Japanese decide which to invest in a "commitee meeting", not to personal "gut feeling".

This kind of group-oriented decision making may be effective when you try to catch up with something advanced with well-defined specification. However, Japan has been an advanced country for years and what Japanese need to do now is to innovate something brand new, not to mimick something already invented.

Innovative ideas always come from somebody's brain, not from a group. Japan can be more innovative if rich investors act believing their own gut feeling.

Work in Singapore

2008-03-27T08:26:00.005+09:00

Singapore is a tropical city state surrounded by the 21st century's potential superpowers such as China, India and Indonesia. Singapore has been making a great effort to attract highly skilled workers from overseas and try to build its economy based the knowledge-intensive industries such as finance and information technology.The future of Singapore economy looks bright.

While I'd really like to work in Silicon Valley, the possibility of me getting US visas is very bleak. A backup plan would be to work in Singapore.

There are three reasons:

1. English is an official language in Singapore. All business activities are conducted in English. Doing business in English is becoming more and more common practice all over the world nowadays, and working in Singapore helps me to acquire and keep the ability to conduct business in English.

2. Singapore has a multicultural society. It consists of people with many different ethnic background - Chinese, Malaysian, Indian, Indonesian and so on. I can speak
Chinese(Mandarin) and would like to learn Indonesian.

3. Singapore is tropical. I do hate cold weather.(That's one of the major reasons why I got away from Canada) The hot weather does not bother me at all...I'd rather love it!

The potential pitfalls of living in Singapore are:

1. Political system. Singapore is not a perfectly democratic country yet. The newspaper and TV are controlled by the government and critism to the government is prohibited.

2. Micro-management. Singapore is also called a "fine city". There are so many rules in public space to force residents to behave themselves. This could be strifling.

Sigh. I wish Singapore would be a truly democratic country soon. Although I do understand its complicated historical background, Singapore society should be stable and mature enough to embrace democracy now.

Incentive superpower

2008-03-26T08:11:00.004+09:00

Marc Andreessen was a cofounder of Netscape and now a CEO of Ning. He is also known as an excellent writer. The following is his recent blog post.

The Psychology of Entrepreneurial Misjudgment, part 1: Biases 1-6

Based on Charlie Munger's work, Andreesen explains how important incentive schemes are. Human beings are not computers. They are driven by emotion not by logic. Therefore, we have to think carefully how to work on his or her emotion to get a preferable response.

Andreesen is a greater writer, I think. But as far as this blog post is concerned, it is too long for me to read them all. Sign. My English reading speed lags far behind that of my Japanese, which is my native speaking language. I wish I could read faster.

Labor protectionism in US

2008-03-25T08:45:00.006+09:00

This is an interesting entry.

Transcript: Bill Gates, U.S. Rep. spar over H-1B visas

In Washington, D.C., today, Bill Gates testified before the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology, calling again for Congress to reform the H-1B visa program that Microsoft and other companies use to bring foreign workers to the U.S.

Many foreign IT engineers come to U.S.(especially San Francisco - Bay Area) to work with H1-B visas. The number of issued H-1B got reduced dramatically after the terrorist attack on September 11th, 2001. It is very hard for foreign skilled workers to get jobs in US simply because they can't get proper visas to work. On the the other side of the coin, US high-tech companies are having hard time to find excellent workers from the overseas. Bill Gates's words represent the thoughts of high-tech industry in US.

The following is an excerpt from the conversation between Gates and U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican.

Rohrabacher: ... Our goal isn't to replace the job of the B students with A students from India, because those B students deserve to have good jobs and high-paying jobs.

Gates: ... The B and C students are the ones who get those jobs around these top engineers. And if these top engineers are forced to work, say, in India, we will hire the B and C students from India to work around them.

The Representative's assertion is a typical protectionist remark. This kind of remarks are usually popular among ordinary people, so often acquire political support, while repeatedly denied by liberal economists as harmful for economic growth.

What interested me was that there were a several comments posted which supported Rohrabacher's insistence.

Right on Rohrabacher!!! We finally have someone who will stand up to lecherous businessmen such as Bill Gates!

It seems that US also has a certain number of protectionists inside and they have illusion and resentments that cheap, non-innovative foreigners are crowding out US citizens' jobs and make them poorer. Japan is becoming more and more introvert and protectionist in the recent years. US might be going the same path as Japan.

Take a look at digg

2008-03-24T08:50:00.004+09:00

I usually use "Hatena Bookmark", the most popular social bookmark system in Japan. Looking for equivalents for English speaking people, I have heard that del.icio.us and digg are good. I tried to have a look at digg in the last few days.

When I visited digg last, the hottest entry in the last 24 hours was "You’re a MORON!".. It is an unsophisticated but eye-catching title. The story goes like this. The author of this entry got his xbox 360 stolen a few days ago. Hearing the bad news, his kind coworkers gave him a new xbox as a gift. When the author checked his mail box in the new xbox, he found a message telling him to pay money to get it back from the culprit.

Well, the culprit does seem to be a moron. He didn't know that he would be identified so easily if he conducted such an act.

This is a stupid post. But I found it kind of amusing. The sentences are well-written and entertaining. I wouldn't be able to reach this kind of silly but humorous blog entries unless I visited social bookmark systems like digg.

Find a vocation in your life where you just really enjoy the act itself

2008-03-23T08:55:00.003+09:00

This is an excerpt from a recent blog entry "In it for long haul" of David Heinemeier Hansson, the author of Ruby on Rails.

In light of this, I strongly recommend that you find a vocation in your life where you just really enjoy the act itself. Not just the results, not just the external incentives. The actual work. There's not enough time to spend it doing anything else.

He has been really enjoying working on Ruby on Rails for five years. I hope that someday I will create work that I love to do for its own sake.

Going to Silicon Valley

2008-03-22T20:52:00.006+09:00

Recently, I have started thinking of moving to Silicon Valley seriously.

Why do I want to go to Silicon Valley? There are a few reasons.

1. Curiosity. Silicon Valley keeps creating various innovation after innovation. In my opinion, it has not only good engineers, but also has excellent entrepreneurs and financial support systems for start ups. I am very interested in what makes SV so creative for a long period of time.

2. Morale. My personal goal is to be a good cosmopolitan member who is able to live and work wherever I want to. I want to live and work with people from various background (culture, language, ethnicity, nationality, etc). It is slightly difficult for me to live like that in Tokyo. You might say "Does Tokyo not have a lot of foreigners coming from all over the world?". You are right. However, it is so easy for me to work with only Japanese using only Japanese language that I often feel reluctant to mingle with foreigners in Tokyo... Well, I know how lazy I am. I'd like to get out of this "lukewarm water"... I don't want to be "a frog in lukewarm water".

3. Risk hedge. Japanese economy is not in a good state. Japanese economy is still stuck in "capitalist economy" where the manufacturing industry dominates, while other advanced countries like US is moving toward "knowledge economy", which Peter Drugger once mentioned. Life as a IT engineer in Japan is not so enjoyable, to say the least. That's because the Japanese society does not recognize how important IT engineers are and does not know how to treat them with an appropriate respect.In the meantime, Japanese politics is simply pathetic. Politicians does not seem to have any passion to show their vision toward the future of Japan. It is unwise to keep living here without preparation to "escape" Japan when it is needed. Even though I do have some patriotic affection toward Japan as a man who were born in this country, I also have obligation to protect lives of myself and my family members.

I will start preparing moving soon. First, I need to study how to get and keep American visas. Also, I need to brush up my English again.

Your (psychological) support will be greatly appreciated!!

Do you know UNIQLOCK?

2007-07-19T01:57:00.001+09:00

Time has never passed so entertaining...!

Uniqlock is presented by a Japanese apparel company "Uniqlo". Uniqlo offers affordable and fashionable selection of clothes mainly targeted for young people. There are hundreds of outlets in Japan. I don't know how many outside Japan, though.

Uniqlock is so cool. The design, music, girls and their dance are all good. This web promotion is outstanding in terms of several aspects:

1. The movie itself has such high quality.
2. The clock is addictive. It retains people's attention for a long time.
3. The dancers wear Uniqlo's selling clothes. The movie serves as an ad for those clothes.
4. Global promotion. Since the movie has no language barrier, Uniqlo has made Enlgish explanation available for this blog part so that people can put it on their own website across the world.

I was really impressed by the great talent of those who created this creative and promotion. The producer is such a great guy. Good job, Uniqlo!

2007-07-02T22:53:00.000+09:00

Marc Andreessen is famous as a cofounder of Natscape in 1990's.
I discovered that he had his own weblog and had many good entries there.

One of my favorites is this post:

How to hire the best people you've ever worked
http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/how_to_hire_the.html

He is really good at summarizing things. He shows three most important criteria for startups to hire great people.

1. drive
2. curiosity
3. ethics

Hmm... I was most impressed with no1 "drive". He says that it is more important than being simply smart.

People with drive push and push and push and push and push until they succeed.

He's absolutely right. As a owner of a small business, I need more drive to get through the tough reality.

My first entry..

2007-06-30T21:58:00.000+09:00

Hello, everybody. I am a Japanese man living in Tokyo. I am a native Japanese speaker and cannot speak English perfectly. However, I have decided to start writng some weblog entries in English so that more people can reach what I try to mean.

If you are interested in my blog in Japanese, please access to http://d.hatena.ne.jp/elm200/. I mainly talk about Ruby on Rails(a cool, increasingly popular web technology) and Japanese economy and society.

I don't know what I write on this blog "From A Country Where The Sun Rises." Probably, I will discuss some serious issues the Japanese society and economy are facing recently. Anyway... thank you for reading this entry and I hope I will see you again in the blog.

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