Day 1st in Thai land

Atmosphere at Anantara Koh Samui perfectly matches our image of south Asian
culture. It would rather go beyond my expectation. I'm very happy to experience
stay at Anantara. Facilities including garden, pool, room, lighting, BGM
are perfect! Besides, neat and clean! I thought I would be annoyed by
a lot of mosquitoes and bugs. But it's totally different from my worry
before I visit.
On the top of that, I don't forget how staff members are well trained.
Greeting(which is trivial but very important as Asian culture), English,
sophisticated attitude and so on. There is no room to complain.
http://samui.anantara.com/default.aspx

Which has the bigger impact TV or the internet?

Both sources are beneficial to all of us as information sources. I believe that the internet has the bigger impact on our lives.

First, the internet is literally World Wide Web to exchange information. Information on the net is distributed from the four corners of the earth. For example, I can have a net meeting with multiple locations. One engineer in the U.K, other engineer in the U.S and myself in Japan. We can get this benefit through the internet. On the contrary, TV is relatively local operation restricted physical limitation such as signal transmission on air. Specific devices for satellite TV and cable TV are more or less needed. I’m afraid the flow of information is intermittent over continuance.

Secondly, we can access enormous knowledge in the world through such as Wikipedia, Yahoo search engine. You can choose them on your own decision. You can do it at the moment you want to know. However, TV unilaterally sends information to the audience. You are just given the information TV program feeds. Some of information is not necessary for you. You might not be allowed to access the information you want.

Thirdly, we can experience active mode to send information and passive mode to receive information on the net. We can easily send information to all over the world. However, TV doesn’t have any active aspects distributing information from individual. Bilateral information route is the biggest benefit of the internet.
In conclusion, I believe that the internet has at least great advantages against TV.

Changing in women's attitude towards their career

These days, women have an important role in our society. I’ll discuss two aspect of this topic.

First of all, they pursuit their own career more than before. Performance based system, so called merit system has been installed in our society for the last two decades. In essence, this system is not a matter of gender as long as they can perform well. In this environment, the roll of women has been changing. I can relate to my work place. The number of female engineers is significantly increasing. In the past, 10% of all employees are female engineers. But it increases up to around 40%. They continue their career after getting married or having baby. It’s a good evidence that they pursuit their own accomplishment/fulfillment on the job.

Secondly, they expand their choices of employment. They don’t hesitate to take jobs under harsh condition such as long working hours and risky vocation. For example, at my work place, we have female security guard at the entrance gate. She is strapping lady though. In the past, only male guards served. But the number of female guards has increased for the last decade. I believe that the variety of women’s career has been expanded.

In conclusion, they enhance the possibility to play an active role in our society.

Why are Japanese people getting married later and living with their parents longer?

Increasingly, getting married later and living with their parents longer have become recent trend for the last two decades. I’ll discuss two points here.

First of all, changing lifestyle of young people retards the time of getting married. Performance based system has been installed in our society for the last two decades. This system is not a matter of age and gender. As a result, it especially changed the role of young people. One of my female subordinates told me that she wants to pursuit her own fulfillment and challenge. She doesn’t want to be annoyed by house chore, allegiance to family for a while.

Secondly, people tend to live with their parents longer because of financial efficiency.
It is estimated that they need to at least \60000 for rent for 1 bed room in Tokyo. As for those who don't have any stable income, it’s beneficial to live with their parents to avoid paying additional money. I used to go to the university taking two and half hours for one way. I didn’t want to impose further financial burden on my parents.
Thirdly, privacy is well secured in modern age’s family. Before proliferation of nuclear family, sharing room was common. They couldn’t expect to have privacy. Now with changing lifestyle, they are given private room and they fell comfortable in their rooms. In this environment, it’s not necessary for them to live alone.
In conclusion, individualism and financial aspect change our lifestyles.

Take-san!

I'm afraid that I don't know your Email address....

What will be more important in the future technology or the environment?

In the past, economic growth was considered as the first priority, then environmental sustainability followed it. However, now that we are facing serious environmental crisis such as global warming and water shortage, we need to tackle with this issue. This is the grave concern not only for our generation but also for that of the future. I am seriously concerned about this issue because natural environment is our asset for mankind. I’ll talk about why the environment is more important than technology in the future.

First, handling environmental sustainability has been a significant impact on corporate sustainability. It seems that big corporation’s policies have been changed and they’ve tackled with environmental sustainability citing “CSR” which stands for Corporate Social Responsibility. This is a good trend. Companies are significantly sensitive to media coverage. Therefore, they will make strong efforts to earn good reputation from public. For example, the company I work for ranked the last place of the latest Greenpeace ranking system. The CEO issued instructions to all employees to take environmental deliberation into our consideration. It has become clear that through earning good reputation, we can make more profit. In other words, good reputation plays crucial role for corporates sustainability.

Second, I’d like to shed light on technical effort. Let me take actual example from my work place. I’m working on semiconductor chip design field. We design chips which are geared for mobile phone, GPS and so on under some criteria. One of fundamental goals is related to power consumption. As the first priority to save power, our design is constricted by how much power the chip is allowed to consume. This is an effort to hold buttery as much as possible for environmental sustainability. In short, this is good evidence that environmental sustainability is much more valued than technology.


In conclusion, environmental sustainability enhances corporate growth and technical improvement. We should positively accept environmental sustainability as the first priority for our prosperity.

Would you like to travel into space?

Seemingly, I’m enticed by traveling into space. But, I’d say NO THANK YOU. Now I’ll talk about why I think so with using two points.

First, traveling into space is too risky. On behalf of engineers, I can definitely emphasize that no one can guarantee its safety. Let's take semiconductor chips as example. Semiconductor chips used in space craft should work under harsh condition – from extremely low temperature to extremely high temp. It's a big challenge to design robust micro chip which works properly. In reality, guaranteed temperature limit is at best from -20 to 100 degree. Temperature outer space could exceed the limit. Electric parts would malfunction at all. I don’t want to become space junk.

Second, I can’t find any sufficient motivation to travel. In my definition, travel is consisted of some factors such as enjoying interpersonal communication with local people, enjoying local food, traditional culture and so on. However, I can’t expect such an experience from space traveling. At best, we end up traveling along Earth's orbit for a long time.
In conclusion, I’ll have something to loose and nothing to gain.

How different will our lives be in fifty years?

In fifty years, our lives will dramatically change. I can envisage that 80 year old lady serves us at Macdonald counter. I’ll talk about why I think so by using two points.

First, biotechnology or genetic engineering has opened possibilities that we might be able to prolong our lives for another couple of decades. With medical improvement, age to be over the hill is extended. The life expectancy around WW2 was 50 years old. Now it is over 80. It would extend to over 100 years in fifty years.
Age restriction is old-fashioned system before appearance of demographic imbalance. I believe we can expect huge merits from it. I’d like to shed light on two aspects here.

Second, the elderly compensate for lack of labor shortage. According to the demographic statistics, one in four in 2025 would be over 65 years old. Even now, we suffer from demographic imbalance. To solve this problem, to extend the retirement age can be good solution. The merit system has been installed for the last two decades. I believe the system is not a matter of age. Current 50’s and 60’s are still alive and kicking.　As far as people who are willing to work can bear fruit, they should be allowed to continue their career. Their contribution compensate for the shortage of younger work force.
In conclusion, the elderly play much more important role in our society in fifty years.

Is space reserch worthwhile or a waste of resources?

Yes, I believe that space reserch is definitely beneficial to us. Many criticise it wastes of time and money. Priority should be given to other issues on Earth such as poverty and hanger. But I believe that space reserch plays an important role to improve our quality of life. Now I’ll focus two aspects of this issue.

First, we can expect great leap in technology. We will learn how to live and work in space. We'll make an effort to achieve space travel. Through this effort, we can defenitly achieve great leap in technology. Let's take semiconductor chips as example. Semiconductor chips used in space craft should work under harsh condition -- extremely temperature hot and cold. It's a big challenge to design robust micro chip which works properly. This effort enhances our technology.

Second, we can expect the secondary benefit for other pupose. Let’s take instant noodle for example. It is well suited for preservative food. As evidence, instant noodle was brought to space shuttle discovery. We would be able to experience three stars restaurant's taste in space craft/authentic Sushi/Tempura whatever. Through improvement of food technology, we can expect indirect benefit. It would contribute to hunger in Africa. It would improve oour food variety in daily life.
In conclusion, space reserch is a driving force to improve our quality of life.

Does money lead to a happy life?

There are various definitions for a happy life. I believe that there is s strong correlation between money and a happy life. The answer to this question is yes. I’ll talk about why I think so.

First, money leads to stable life. One of my definitions of happy life is stable life without any annoying and worry. Let’s take net café refugees. People who don’t have stable residence and who stay at net café instead, we call them net café refugees. They don’t have stable job and they get by as daily worker with low income. Anyway, the fact remains that a lot of people are struggling with low income. Every time media takes up net café refugees, I can’t help thinking I’m very happy to own condo.

Second, as another definition of my happy life, it is life I’m able to afford what I want to enjoy to my heart's content. I love grilled chicken, Yakitori in Japanese. Yakitori with beer is the best matching. Way back when I was university student, I wanted to eat bunch of Yakitori from the bottom of my heart. But it was impossible just because I didn’t have any income if any, allowance from my parents. Small potatoes never satisfied my young big appetite. I consider that this is financial restriction. Now, I have enough income and all the money at my command to enjoy Yakitori. Having Yakitori with beer, this is the moment I feel I’m very happy.


In conclusion, I believe that money is important factor for a happy life.

Does a long life equal a happy life?

These days, it’s very difficult to enjoy a happy life. I believe that a long life does not always equal a happy life. Quality of life is much more important factor than a long life. I’ll talk about why I think so.

First, the longer we live, the more the life of the elderly seems to be in danger. One of my definitions of happy life is life without any annoying, conflict and contention. However, I feel uneasy about the future. Demographic imbalance causes some social problems such as labor shortage, medical crisis, pension fiasco and so on. Especially for people who don't have any children like me, it’s a serious matter to handle posthumous chore. Whom can I rely on? If I become unconscious out of the blue, who deal with payment of medical care, handling real estate/bank account, informing utility sector about my death, discarding refrigerator/VCR, my cat and so on? There is no sophisticated system in our society. A lot of things would annoy the elderly. It’s no exaggeration to say that it’s not happy to live in such a low quality environment.

Second, We can have a happy life even if we live a short life if we have made a significant contribution or accomplishment to society or to the work we are doing.
As another definition of my happy life, it is life I feel accomplishment, fulfillment and contribution to society. I believe that I could contribute to society through technology. Because I have already had released some consumer products such as GPS, Electric train pass on the market. Of course, I want to pursuit further technical enhancement. But there is no limit. I’d accept my finish even if I’m forced to end my life in some reasons or others. I believe we can experience a happy life not to say long life.

In conclusion, whether our life is happy or not is not a matter of time. It’s a matter of quality of life.

What has caused the current dilemma of water shortages around the world

I believe that excessive affluence has caused the current dilemma of water shortages. Trees trap and absorb water through leaves, trunk and roots. But when trees are cut down, the water supply is depleted. I believe that deforestation could be caused by excessive affluence. I’ll discuss two aspects of this topics.

First, excessively increasing livestock farming. We are in abundant environment that we can easily purchase meet on the market. According to one report, 40% of tropical rain forests in South America were destructed for livestock farming of the exported beef during these 40 years. If we abstain from eating meet, it would be effective to stop the destruction of tropical rain forests. We should a little bit forgo excessively relying on meat industry.

Second, land clearing. The rapid increase in the number of Slash and burn agriculture in order to produce food. Slash and burn agriculture is particularly important throughout the tropics where, when done properly, it can provide people with a secure source of food and income. Many critics point out however that when done improperly, slash and burn agriculture can quickly degrade large areas of forest which do not recover. We are too much in affluent environment. For example, it is said that 30% of lunch box sold at convenience store are thrown out. What a waste it is! Let’s reduce the variety of lunch box. We should refrain from excessive supply on the market.

We should not forget that we can get affluence in return for environmental destruction.

In conclusion, excessive affluence is absolutely dealing a significant blow on water supply.

Big corporations and environmental sustainability

In the past, economic growth was considered as the first priority, then environmental sustainability followed it. However, now that we are facing serious environmental crisis such as global warming and water shortage, we need to tackle with this issue. This is the grave concern not only for our generation but also for that of the future. I am seriously concerned about this issue because natural environment is our asset for mankind. I’ll talk about this issue with two points. I’ll mention how our awareness has been shifted from economic growth toward environmental sustainability.

First, the establishment of evaluation system. It seems that big corporation’s policies have been changed and they’ve tackled with environmental sustainability citing “CSR” which stands for Corporate Social Responsibility. This is a good trend. But to extend this trend further, I propose establishment of evaluation/ranking system. I believe, audit body formed by media/authorities as watchdog is effective. Companies are significantly sensitive to media coverage. Therefore, they will make strong efforts to earn good reputation from public. For example, the company I work for ranked the last place of the latest Greenpeace ranking system. The CEO issued instructions to all employees to take environmental deliberation into our consideration. It has become clear that through earning good reputation, we can make more profit. In other words, good reputation plays vital role for making profit. Nowadays, handling environmental sustainability has been a significant impact on corporate sustainability.

Second, I’d like to shed light on technical effort. Let me take actual example from my work place. I’m working on semiconductor chip design field. We design chips which are geared for mobile phone, GPS and so on under some criteria. One of fundamental goals is related to power consumption. As the first priority to save power, our design is constricted by how much power the chip is allowed to consume. This is an effort to hold buttery as much as possible for environmental sustainability. In short, we create better products and offer better service to customers through this kind of improvement.

In conclusion, environmental sustainability enhances corporate growth and technical improvement. We should positively accept environmental sustainability as the first priority for our prosperity.

Assisting the victims of natural disasters

Natural disasters frequently occurred in this world. I’ll discuss three aspects of this topic. Human resources, relief supply and money.

First, dispatch SDF troops. For example, several big earthquakes hit Niigata area. Every time SDF troops were dispatched to the relief activity.

Second, relief supply. I’d like to focus on food supply. For example, I propose a tiny fraction of excessive food should be supplied to the victims. It is said that 30% of lunch box sold at convenience store are thrown out. What a waste it is! We prepare more than we consume. What we don’t consume is thrown away. I’m not saying that leftover should be supplied. I’d like to shed light on the potential to feed.

Third, fund a relief effort. It’s efficient to use celebrity’s high profile to raise funds. For example, the world’s tennis top-ranked player-- Roger Federer. In the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster’s aftermath, he used his high profile to bring the world’s attention to their plight. He established the Roger Federer Foundation to fund projects benefiting the victims.

In conclusion, thress factors could contribute to assisting the victims of natural disasters

Who is threatening the preservation of nature on the planet today?

I belive that human activity threatens the preservation of nature on the planet. Excessive affluence in daily life accerates deforestation. As the result, it generates environmental destruction such as water shortage, global warming and so on. I’ll discuss two aspects of this topic.

First, excessively increasing livestock farming. We are in abundant environment that we can easily purchase meet on the market. According to one report, 40% of tropical rain forests in South America were destructed for livestock farming of the exported beef during these 40 years. If we abstain from eating meet, it would be effective to stop the destruction of tropical rain forests. We should a little bit forgo excessively relying on meat industry.

Second, the rapid increase in the number of Slash and burn agriculture in order to produce food. Slash and burn agriculture is particularly important throughout the tropics where, when done properly, it can provide people with a secure source of food and income. Many critics point out however that when done improperly, slash and burn agriculture can quickly degrade large areas of forest which do not recover. We are too much in affluent environment. For example, it is said that 30% of lunch box sold at convenience store are thrown out. What a waste it is! Let’s reduce the variety of lunch box. We should refrain from excessive supply on the market.

We should not forget that we can get affluence in return for environmental destruction.

In conclusion, excessive affluence could deal a significant blow on the preservation of nature on the planet today.

What are the main environmental concerns facing Japan?

We are facing at environmental degradation. This is the concern not only for our generation but also for that of the future. I am seriously concerned about this issue because natural environment is our asset for mankind.

First, garbage problem. As a negative aspect of affluence, garbage has increased among us. This becomes serious problem. For example, illegal dumping of unused electronic products and unused cars. As another case, let’s take Mt. Fuji for example.

The beautiful Mt. Fuji has not been appointed as a World Heritage site. It is believed to be because too much garbage is left on the mountain. To prevent them, it’s important to raise citizen’s awareness. Excursion to Mt. Fuji for students and tour to the place where unused stuffs are thrown out for citizens.

Second, global warming specifically hit Japan. For example, if we excessively use air conditioner to cool down, it would accerate global warming. Besides, economy in Japan would be damaged by the increasing price of natural resources such as fossil fuels and Uranium. Because we need a lot of power supply according to the increasing power needs. However, Japan heavily relies on the import of natural resources. Economy in Japan is too vulnerable against price fluctuation.

If we don’t use air conditioner, it would degrade the productivity among international market. At my work place, temperature is set to 30 degree in summer. Every engineer works dripping with sweat. Apparently, inefficiency influences on our productivity.

I can’t imagine without any air condition.

In conclusion, garbage problem and global warming severely hit Japan.

Is it possible to stop the destruction of tropical rain forests?

The answer to this question is yes. I believe that it is possible to stop the destruction of tropical rain forests by changing our modern living habit. I’d like to talk about how to deal with this issue by using two points.

First, let’s abstain from eating meet. Let’s reduce livestock farming as much as possible. According to one report, 40% of tropical rain forests in South America were destructed for livestock farming of the exported beef during these 40 years. If we abstain from eating meet, it would be effective to stop the destruction of tropical rain forests.

I’m not saying that we should become vegetarian. But we should a little bit forgo excessively relying on meat industry.

Second, let’s avoid the rapid increase in the number of Slash and burn agriculture in order to produce food. Slash and burn agriculture is particularly important throughout the tropics where, when done properly, it can provide people with a secure source of food and income. Many critics point out however that when done improperly, slash and burn agriculture can quickly degrade large areas of forest which do not recover. We are too much in affluent environment. For example, it is said that 30% of lunch box sold at convenience store are thrown out. What a waste it is! Let’s reduce the variety of lunch box. We should refrain from excessive supply on the market.

We should not forget that we can get affluence in return for environmental destruction.

In conclusion, we should have patience against inconvenience. I believe that we can stop the destruction by changing living habit.

Should students be educated differently based on intellectual ability?

I believe that students should be educated differently based on intellectual ability. It’s important to secure efficiency for education activity.

First, for higher level intelligence group, it’s a waste of time to repeatedly learn fundamental subjects they easily master. For example, I was good at Physics in my high school days. I could easily master fundamental issues of Physics. I was driven by curiosity to know higher level subject such as Einstein' equation. I used to teach myself through reading book.

Learning fundamental subjects could hamper further development of my interest.

On the other hand, for lower level intelligence group, it’s also a waste of time to learn subjects they can understand at all. For example, Chemistry was weak subject in my high school days. I could not master fundamental issues of Chemistry. Actually, my grade was pretty bad. I could manage to get the grade to graduate. But it’s far beyond my ability to learn higher level Chemistry. The opposite is also true. I don’t want to hamper other student’s progress.

Besides, we can expect to reduce teacher’s burden. They can specifically focus on either higher or lower level subject. We can avoid distraction of their efforts.

In conclusion, to avoid inconvenience for both sides, students should be educated differently based on intellectual ability.

Why do you think bullying is increasingly a problem in today's schools?

Today, school bullying has become one of the most serious social phenomena which we need to resolve as soon as possible.

This is the concern not only for our generation but also for that of the future. I am seriously concerned about this issue because children are our future and if we don’t prevent the deaths from the bullying, we will lose our future asset.

First, labor shortage. According to the demographic statistics, one in four in 2025 would be over 65 years old. Even now, we suffer from demographic imbalance. Absolute denominator of entire population is becoming small. Among this environment, loosing work force due to mental illness makes the matter worse.

Second, a few successors for technology and craftsmanship would be serious crisis in our society. Besides, it’s difficult for young generation to succeed so-called high technology. Apparently, we end up loosing one personnel to succeed our accumulated knowledge and experience. Nowadays, high technology such as mobile phone with multiple functions is so complicated. Younger engineers need time to master the distinguished knowledge and enhance it. I’m worry about whether we have time to succeed.

In conclusion, we will lose national strength in international market if we don’t take measures on this problem. Bullying existed when I was a kid. But today’s trend goes too far beyond decency. We should stop our asset being degraded or oppressed.