Questions

In order to become a more advanced society higher education is required.

A,SA,SD,D,O...

Human population and growth should be regulated by world governments.

A,SA,SD,D,O...

The world is heading towards some kind of global catastrophe.

A,SA,SD,D,O...

Well that`s all I could think of off the top of my head, hope that helps.

Topics for Debate

In class today my group was having a hard time finding a topic where our opinions were different. Eventually we brought up the idea that the way's in which we introduce sex to children differ greatly. For example, in America when there is a store that sells children books and pornographic materials the normal way to deal with it is to put the porn into it's own little room usually with a camera on it. Also if there is a porn section it is never around the kids books, magazines, movies etc... and if there is a case where there isn't enough porn to need a room for it then we at least put black panels that sit in front of the porn so the covers aren't visible.

In Japan I've seen many instances where not only are the very graphic covers of porn very visible but are also right next to the children manga and seeing as the average child is 3-4 feet tall, the porn is directly at eye level. I've also found that many mangas intended for children feature very sexual topics or very sexual characters usually in the form of very large breasted women that show tons of cleavage. The anime we discussed was One Piece where they introduce the a character named Ivan who is the king of the "okama". I'm not saying these topics are bad at all but merely whether or not they should be introduced the way they are.

Here are a couple examples from One Piece.
(The second one has Spanish subtitles but you get the idea)

Nuclear Warfare

This post is a little late but these things happen.

I was in high school when I studied World War 2 because World War 2 was included in the World History class which was required for graduating, so everyone in my school had to study it. Because WW2 was a world changing event, I'm sure everyone studies the subject even if it's very little. In American, however, we are asked "Was the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the right thing to do?" and the general feeling in America is that it was not the right thing to do, but there are a lot of people that would say that it was required at the time to finish the war.

I think that war involves changing the way you're thinking in order to get through the times ahead of you, so when you're not in a war, dropping bombs is the wrong thing to do no matter the case but when you are in a war, dropping bombs on people is a daily event. The same emotions exist when it happens but during war you have to put those emotions aside to finish the task at hand. Putting myself in the position of America at the time when the war was just coming to a close and then suddenly a new war was about to start with Japan I can see how dropping a couple bombs to make the point that the war is over seems like a good idea.

I personally don't think wars should ever happen in this modern age and the only reason we have them is because only some countries are modern and those that are not will have issues with those that are either because of them interfering with the rest of the world or not helping them become modern.

Freedom?

Freedom has always been a subject of much debate all around the world and is enforced or restricted on many different levels depending on your location, race, gender etc.. The main reason for this being a touchy subject is because it's all based on someones moral values. For instance to a murderer, pedophile etc... most likely sees nothing wrong in his actions and to him it is morally right, but we as a people decided that those actions were morally wrong and restricted a persons freedom just a hair to prevent those awful situations from occurring more often. In Japan (and everywhere else) we see lesser cases of this same issue.

If we look at the situation with protesters outside a movie theater we see people exercising their freedom of speech and protest, but there exists a fine line. If they were to get violent or not allow people to enter the theater then they begin to limit other people's freedom to watch what they want making them hypocrites. In the end, however, protesters and movie goers are merely the two sides of the moral debate on whether or not the movie in question is morally sound and should or should not be made accessible to the public.

The main problem I see with the protesters in Japan (that I've seen) is that they tend to not be reasonable. What I mean is that they are unwilling to calmly sit down and argue the points for why it shouldn't be viewed in Japan. I'm not saying they don't give reasons but when they do they seem to bee flimsy at best and are too stubborn to listen to people with opposing viewpoints. In the end what I think you should take away from all of this is that everyone has to decide for themselves what is morally acceptable and in the end if you find that you believe something like a movie to be unacceptable then, and here's the main point, don't watch it. You have all the freedom you need to not see something you don't want to see but that doesn't give you the right to suddenly become the moral judge for others.

Dolphins

After class today I came back to my dorm and read the thoughts about dolphin killing I found on the internet to see what kind of arguments people had for and against it. I found that like in life there were extremes ranging from boycotting Japanese products until Japan stopped killing whales and dolphins to America being a "cultural imperialist". I would agree that America does have a habit of forcing it's moral values on other countries but just because America does that does not mean that those morals are wrong or right.Every time an issue of morals comes up anywhere in the world there will always be this separation of society because of our moral diversity.

Any argument is crap in the end because there are always people on both sides so who is right? The main point is no one knows for sure but why does that give anyone the right to be cruel and hurtful to anything in this world? The only thing that guides our moral compasses in this world is what other people might think of what we're doing and even then it doesn't work. I can give you plenty of examples like how in Sparta many centuries ago it was completely acceptable to kill a deformed infant until people decided it was wrong then it wasn't done anymore, or when in America there was the slaughter of Native Americans or Slavery or Segregation or Sexism etc etc....

Until the world as a whole can completely decide on what is right and wrong then issues like is it ok to kill whales and dolphins will come up, because there are countries like America that think dolphins are cute and intelligent and deserve compassion because they can feel pain and panic and then there are countries like Japan that think that dolphins are just another fish that eats the fish they like to eat so who gives a shit if it's cute or intelligent. Personally I agree with the American way of thinking about dolphins and if someone were to try throwing the whole "well Americans eat pigs and cows and chickens which are the same right?" at me then I'll say the following: Yes there are plenty of Americans that eat those things and plenty that don't eat meat at all and yea there are probably some people that eat other people so what! I'm not saying that you're right or I'm right I'm just saying that I personally like dolphins and don't want then killed cause I thing the world is a better place for having them swimming around then being eaten.

Role of the Parents

When it comes down to the importance of one parent vs. the other I believe that there will never be a unified answer. There are a few reasons for this but the most prevalent reason would be that everyone's home life and parents are different from other people's home life and parents, especially in this day and age with the whole nuclear family ideal fading away, divorce rates high as ever and the inclusion of homosexual couples with children. Now I can't be sure about Japan but I know that in America these kind of situations are quite frequent making it difficult for people to get on the same page with this kind of question, but I think in the end every child will need two roles from the parents to have a healthy childhood. The first role is that of the motherly comforting role which is very important for the child to learn compassion and if the child is a girl they would obviously need advice about their transition into womanhood from the mother role who should know about this matter. The second role is that of the fatherly supportive role, this role is used to teach the child responsibility, accountability and of course if the child is a boy the same rule applies as the girl. In the end it doesn't matter if the fatherly role is played by a woman or not and visa versa as long as both are present in the child's development. Obviously there would be complications with homosexual couples being able to inform the opposite sex child about puberty with examples from experience but as long as the parent playing the appropriate role knows plenty on the topic then there shouldn't be any problems. The only time I can see a problem with a child's development is when he/she is missing one of the vital roles (i.e. Divorce, Death of one parent) or when they have two of the same roles (i.e. Two parents trying to perform the same role). As my last word I'll say that in the end having both the mother and father roles is equally important for the healthy development of a child and whenever you become a parent, making sure your child has a healthy childhood is the most important responsibility you have in this world.

Trip

As far as where we should go for our trip I'm all for the place where we could do Japanese crafts. I think that not only is that an educational venture but it's more fun then just talking to people about diseases.

Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll

Our second class last week went more towards relationship differences between Japan and the other countries represented in the class. My particular group talked mostly about one night stands and how frequent and acceptable they are in Japanese society. One student mentioned how in the UK one night stands are fairly common and accepted as a normal part of society, I agreed, saying that in the U.S. it is the same if not more abundant. In Japan, however, it seems that even though they have such things as "Love Hotels" things like one night stands aren't very common at all or if they are it's almost taboo to talk about it in certain circles or situations. I believe that in the end topics dealing with such sensitive subjects as sex are going to get little to nowhere in a classroom setting and if anyone seriously wanted to find out about sexual habits or norms in Japan they'd be much better off finding a boyfriend or girlfriend here and asking them.