CyberMouse

Wednesday, June 16, 2004:

11303053 Asami OKA
May 11th, 2004

Public Manners in the Train

When I was a high school student, I went to the school by train. It took
about an hour. Now, I go to the Sagamihara campus by train, too. It takes
about two hours to get there from my home. With the long way to school, I
see many people who ignore public manners in the train. There are various
types of bad manners, and the ages who do it are ranging from young to old. In addition, major annoying behaviors also differ by the ages.
Let us see the major behaviors of each age group. I classified people into four groups; children under junior high school, students over junior high school or the same ages, office workers, and middle-aged or elderly people. Now I will give the main two bad behaviors of each of the four groups.
First, children especially elementary school students usually carry their school bags on their backs. That sometimes annoys people. They often don't care about their bags' depth, so they do not notice that they push on other people by their bags which are as big as their bodies. Unexpectedly, the school bags are powerful. Another case of this ages is their position in the train. As I often saw in the subway when I was a high school student, children tend to stand in front of doors. I like that position, too because it is easy to get off. However, most of the children who stand in such position don't move firmly when the train arrives at the station where many people get on and off. I think they are afraid that they can not get off at their destinations if they are in the inner part of the train. I can understand their feelings, but their parents or teachers should teach them about the manners in the train.
Second group, the students including us, carry portable music players which occasionally are troublesome things. Some of us listen to music in the train for fun, but the volume should be controled more carefully. A part of them listen to music with a very loud volume that those around them can hear what the music is. Another thing is chatting. We often get on the train with friends on the way to school or home, and we talk with each other. Chatting with attention for others is acceptable, but with loud voices is bad manners.
The worst thing I suffer in the train is 'newspapers'. This trouble often becomes to me from office workers. Some of them try to read newspapers in the crowded train. That sometimes cover the heads of the people who are small like me. I wonder why they want to read in such a narrow space. I think the people who do not shift their cell phone into silent mode are mainly this ages. I am very much surprised when a phone call rings aloud suddenly in the train.
The last is middle-aged and elderly people. Talking with cell phone in the train is done by mainly middle-aged people, I think. After a loud ringing bell, some of them start speaking 'Hello? Oh, Hi! I'm on the train and going to...' like this. Most of them do not care about others' eyes. Another behavior is their position in the train. Elderly people with many pieces of baggage tend to put their bags next to them on the seat, not on their knees, nor on the floor.
I mentioned about major behavior of each age. In addition, there are some behaviors that can be classified into two with time. In the morning, we often happen to ride the same train with women who put on make up and office workers with newspapers. In the evening, there sometimes are drunken people. They are often unsteady, or some of them lie on the seat and occupy all of it.
Recently, all the ages seems to have bad manners with their cell phones. Many train companies have concerned about the effect for people who have pacemakers for the heart. However, the styles were different from each company; for example, some asked passengers to shift into silent mode, or the other allowed cell phone with silent mode only in the even numbers' cars of the train . In the article on 'Keitai Watch ' the online news web site (http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/15449.html), they said "Last year, 17 train companies in eastern area in Japan unified the guidance about cell phone since September." The unified announcement in the train is like this; To our passengers, please turn off your cell phone near the priority seats, and in other place, please shift into silent mode and refrain from making a phone call. I think it was good that companies unified the guidance so people will not be confused about it whichever train they get on.
These types of bad manners are like unlimited problem. How should we make it better? I think it depends on people's morals. There are limits of guidance from train companies. We need to care about people around ourselves in the train. It is sure that the situation can be changed by a little consideration. Another thought is that bad behaviors are caused by a rush of the people especially going to schools or offices. They can't afford to be kind to others because they must hurry. Some companies have innovated the 'off-peak commuter' system. It encourages office workers to go to their office in the time outside of the rush hours. I think it is good and more companies should follow this system. Then there may be many people who have a little leisure in their mind. By that, the atmosphere of the train might be changed. However, the problem of manners is subtle because the values differ from each person. Now I have become more worried about how I look from other passengers in the train. I might be one of the passenger whose behavior is bad.
(1000 words)

Bibliography
?'Keitai Watch' the online news web site


Unknown // 1:21 AM

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Tuesday, June 15, 2004:

11303097 2-G (12) Keiko Kinami
The School System
Japanese people and American people are blessed with good environment and the school system of both countries is steady compared with developing countries, and we can say that the level of school system in both countries is high. Japan mainly took in the U.S. educational system, especially 6-3-3 system, after World War II. However, if the present system of the two countries is compared, there are various differences between Japan and the United States. This paper will investigate these differences of the school system of the two countries.
First, talking of the division of a school year, it is the same everywhere in Japan. It is 6-3-3 system, which means six years of elementary school, three years of junior high school, and three years of high school. The Japanese school year starts in April and ends in March, and they had three terms for a long time, and changed to two terms now. On the other hand, the United States is different from Japan. Their grade systems are different in each state, such as 6-3-3 system, 5-3-4 system, 6-6 system, and 8-4 system. However, numbered grades are common throughout the United States, from elementary school through high school, from the first grade to the twelfth grade. That is to say, they call the first year student of a junior high school a seventh grader, the first year student of a high school a tenth grader. The number of terms is also different, such as two, three, or four, but a new school year starts in September is common in the United States.
Second, as for compulsory education, six years of elementary school and three years of junior high school, a total of nine years, are the periods of compulsory education in Japan. After that, they go to a high school or work. On the contrary, although the period of the U.S. compulsory education is in general for nine years, it changes with each state. For example, California's compulsory education laws require children between six and eighteen years of age to attend school, with a limited number of specified exceptions. That is to say, they have to receive elementary and secondary education for thirteen years. It is the same as Japan to receive elementary and secondary education in order to progress to higher education, such as a university, a junior college, and a graduate school.
In Japan, the Ministry of Education has generalized national school compulsory education, so the content of study is consistent in each school. However, the American educational systems are taken charge of by the boards of education of each state, so guidelines of schools all over the country are not built uniformly and educational contents are not guided like Japan. As for the contents to teach, and how to advance a lesson and define content, are left to discretion of each school in the United States. Therefore, in order to choose a good school division, an effort to collect exact information is required there.
In addition, an excellent person can progress to high education before twelve year passes in the United States. That is so-called “grade-skipping,” and it is performed widely there. If a person has the capacity, he may be able to go on to a university even if he is an elementary school student or a junior high school student. This system is not used in Japan.
Besides, there are many other differences. For instance, it is almost natural to have a uniform on at the junior high school and high school in Japan. However, in the United States, there is an image that most have plain clothes on, and American dramas also have student who have plain clothes on. As for the method of attending school, on foot and train are common in Japan. On the contrary, although it changes with the school or geographic conditions, a school bus is used in many cases, and they go to school on foot, by bicycle, or by a guardian’s car in the United States. Thus, there is much difference in the school system of Japan and the United States.
Recently, the required number of school days a week in Japanese public schools has been reduced from 6 to 5 days a week, aiming at good direction, in order to attach importance to individuality, and the policy is called “Education free of pressure.” A policy similar to it was taken also in the United States a long time ago, but it went wrong. It is said that educational content is neglected, and academic and scholastic levels have become lower by the policy in Japan now, so it may need to be revised once again.
The educational system is always changing looking for a better direction. If Japan and the United States increasingly take in each other’s good parts of the educational system in the difference between both countries, a still better system will be made and standards will become higher, so it is valuable to compare both countries.




Unknown // 6:39 AM

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2004/06/15
Child Abuse
2-G-24 11303205 Fusako TANAKA
Recently, the number of parents who abuse their children has been increasing rapidly. The number of cases reported to a child consultation office in 2000 was 18,804, and we can imagine that many more children are abused by their parents. The number is about 12 times as large as the one ten years ago. However, in those days, there must have been some child abuse. In fact, according to a research by Health and Welfare Ministry, there were 1,611 cases in 1994 and that was many cases. The reason why we could not find child abuse at that time might be that the word ‘child abuse’ was not so known to us so much. Today we often see news about child abuse, so we can say that child abuse became the problem near to us. Abused children are not only damaged physically but mentally as well. In the worse case, they will die. Teruo Maekawa, the Tokyo public welfare office chief, says in the introduction of Current Status of Child Abuse, “Not children but parents are the cause of abuse.” It has been said that the most influential cause of parents abusing their children is their early developmental history, but an investigation by Tokyo public welfare office shows that it does not directly have much to do with the cause of child abuse, and various kinds of causes have a great influence on it. Of all them, I noticed that relatively three causes affect child abuse; single parental home, abused experience of two guardians and parents discord.
First, a single parental home is thought as the most influential cause. Parental roles in their household are quite different from a family where a father and a mother are both present. A fathers’ roll is to support their family with considerable dignity and bring up their children strictly. On the other hand, a mothers’ one is to bring up their children dearly with affectionate attitude. If their family becomes a single parental home for some reason, for example, divorce or bereavement, the other parent must have both tasks. It goes without saying that to have both tasks and to bring up their children alone is not easy. In a single parent home, a parent has a bigger burden in many aspects, economical, physical, and spiritual. There must be a lot of troubles, for example, that things go amiss or that stress builds up. If they have any means to let their stress out, for example, hobbies or favorite things, they can relax and feel better. However, some parents do not have such means, so they dissipate stress by abusing, and they keep their feeling better. Children are much weaker than parents in power, so they cannot resist their parents. They are very suitable for abusing parents to hit or kick.
Second, parental abused experience is also brought on as the influential cause. Investigation shows that child abuse tends to come down from generation to generation, and parents reproduce what they received as abused experience from the previous-generation, that is to say their parents. The way of reproducing it is different from individual to individual. First, they recognize that the love between parents and child is beset with violence, and at last they strike their children. Second, they believe that their children are angry by projecting their feelings upon them, and strike them. Third, they abuse children because they assume that abusing is good for children’s disciplines from their abused or struck experience in their childhood, when they were impotent. Besides, they identify themselves with their parents as attackers and abusers of children. From these, we can think that parents who were abused cannot interrupt things normally, so they get things wrong. I think that the causes are their negative feelings towards their parents such as fears, sorrows and anguish. A lot of parents do not cure their inner scar from their own childhood and that lead to child abuse. Parents make children go through the same feeling as they did.
Third, parents discord is one of the most influential causes of abusing. The situation in these cases is similar to the one in a single parent home. If husband and wife are not friendly with each other, a quarrel often happens between them. Some couples can let their stress out or make themselves feel better by quarrels, and the others cannot. Perhaps it happens that husband can dissipate stress, but wife cannot. Of course, we can well imagine the reverse. At that time, some parents turn to child abuse. Parents discord has a great influence on not only child abuse but also nonattendance at school. Parents discord makes stress build to children, and they are bullied in their school because the parents discord is known to their classmates and develop psychosomatic disease because of it. If children do not often go to school, parents’ relations become worse and worse, and that will affect children and their nonattendance will continue longer and longer. Eventually, this is a vicious circle.
Besides, according to the investigation by Educational Forums, it seems that some mothers tend to abuse their children because of mental burdens caused by tiredness from child raising, if they are a single parental household or not. In some households, fathers leave child raising to mothers and do not relate with them at all. However, when something bad happens to children, or they cause problems, the fathers blame the mothers for their bad disciplines and the fathers conduct violence to the mothers. Stress builds up together with tiredness, and mothers abuse children in order to keep their balance of feelings.
Thus, these three causes have a great influence on child abuse, but these are only the main causes, not all. If we particularize other causes in minute details, there must be innumerable causes. As I described in the first paragraph, various kinds of causes tangle and these lead to child abuse. Today large numbers of child abuse cases are reported to many public institutions every day, but the number of children who are protected in such institutions is very small. Besides, some parents cannot realize the clear reason why they abused their children, but others do not admit abusing. From these, I think that we should save not only children but also abusing parents in order to decrease the number of child abuse cases. Children must be shocked by physical and mental damage. Some children might not be able to get over their shock. Other might shut their heart or withdraw into their own world. Parents hold deep troubles because of damage they reserved from abuse. I think that parents have some reasons why they do not admit abusing. Child abuse is so bad a thing that we cannot permit abusing parents, but we should try to understand their feelings. Perhaps it will connect with decreasing child abuse. We should relieve both children and parents from their pangs, and find out how we can do that. I wish that the day will come as soon as possible when all children can lead a happy life with their parents in perfect union.

Bibliography:
Tokyo public welfare office website
?http://www.fukushi.metro.tokyo.jp/index.html?

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology website
?http://www.mext.go.jp/?

Educational Forums website
?http://tgm1.pta-koho.jp/index.htm?

Unknown // 12:26 AM

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What’s Anorexia?

11303016?Yukari Ishikawa
Recently, there are many women who are willing to take extreme measures to become slim. The society tends to prefer a woman who is thin, and people are becoming conscious of diet. Consumption Problems start for the same reasons as diet. Generally, consumption problems tend to occur between the latter half of teenage years and the low twenties. There are two types of consumption problems; anorexia in which people refuses foods, and overeating. Anorexia is a form of continuation of diet. Once you fall into anorexia, it is very hard to get rid of it. According to the internet site of anorexia?http://www2.wind.ne.jp/Akagi-kohgen-HP/ED.htm), anorexia has become a problem in the society since the 1970’s, though the mechanism, the risk, the patients’ feeling and the treatments are not well known.
First we should understand about the mechanism of anorexia. Anorexia begins with the strong resolution not to eat because of the fear of gaining weight, and stress. When this situation continues for a while, their body recognizes that they do not need food, and starts to refuse it, in spite of their mind which want food. The trigger is various; diet, failure and problems connected with love. However, there is not a cause which we can profess in assurance. It might depend on the patient’s background, personality and what they had experienced. After eating some foods, they take laxative, and vomit to empty their stomach from a sense of guilt. Anorexia begins from collapsing the balance of feeling. Overeating happens with the same mechanism.
Second we should know how the patients are feeling toward the problem. It is said that anorexia often happens on perfectionists. They want to attract people attention to themselves. Since they want to attract people’s attention to themselves, they slim down and make people to worry about their health. In front of people, they act as if they are in good health, and seem very positive. But actually, they are feeling lonesome, impatient, anxiety and despair. They do not want to accept that they have consumption problems, so they are not passive about going to a clinic. Because they refuse to go to a clinic, the symptoms and seriousness continues, and a vicious circle begins. They are entirely hiding their fear toward eating, however, they are really wishing for someone’s help.
There are many effects to health, for instance, low temperature, low blood pressure and effects to entrails and bones. At the worst, it might affect our life.?First, the patients realize that something abnormal is happening inside the body. Because their emotions are unstable, they get irritated at a trivial thing, and what’s more, their strength becomes weaker and just going up stairs tires them. It is said in , “Trauma, such as bully, stresses from the study for the examination and the new surroundings might be the background of the disorder.”(http://ww2.wind.ne.jp/Akagi-kohgen–?HP/ED.htm#symptom) Though the appearance is very slim, inside the body is worn out.
At last we should know about the treatment. There is no exact way to heal completely at once. Of course the best way is going to a clinic and talk with a counselor. However forcing them is the worst way to treat them. Some patients would not like to meet a counselor. In such a situation, internet will avail for peer counseling. Peer counseling is one of the ways of treatment, which is a communication means to shares their bitterness with their fellows who have the same trouble. Being forced to eat something is also a bad way. Suggestions of eating to the patients seem to be difficult for them. They say that people who suggest eating seems like devils. It is not a good way to start eating normal meal suddenly, so it is important to eat gradually when the condition is good. Another way of treatment is aromatherapy. It is said that some kinds of fragrance has an effect to calm our mind. Since anorexia is an inward illness, it should be good to take in fragrance for the support of mental healing (http://www010.upp.so-net.ne.jp/ed-kokufuku/). Yet we must not take it in at ease. We should consult an expert for advice.
However, the most important thing is changing your mind and opening your heart toward surroundings. Moreover, fastening our love on them will be a good aid for them. Patients want someone to admit their value of existence. Consumption problems are not a hopeless illness. The important thing is not to be hasty, and not to think to heal perfectly. Not only the patients are experiencing a hard time, but also their families are feeling bitter too. The patients’ family must not demand, charge and show contempt toward them about the problem. Patients are always willing for someone to take off their stress, anxiety and fear. The family should endure and give love to patients.
There are a few marketing cures on the Internet for anorexia patients, for example peer counseling and a site that introduce a good clinic. In fact, there is also a dangerous site which takes advantage of the patients’ feelings. It says that they will counsel for nothing, but afterwards they demand plenty of money. I think such thoughtless actions are very sad. There are no anorexia patients around myself, but we cannot think ahead to what might happen in the future. It might happen on me, on my friends or on my family. Our trivial utterance has a possibility to become a trigger for someone’s start of anorexia. If it happens, we should understand about the problem and manage with it correctly. The patients need love.


Bibliography
http://www2.wind.ne.jp/Akagi-kohgen-HP/ED.htm
http://ww2.wind.ne.jp/Akagi-kohgen–?HP/ED.htm#symptom
http://www010.upp.so-net.ne.jp/ed-kokufuku/

Unknown // 12:19 AM

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DIET 11303143 Mami Sasaki
???
Recently, a lot of people from young to adult are increasingly to?have the urge to be slim. In fact, there are so many advertisements in the paper or magazine, or lately, on TV programs, so we can see the word “diet” with frequency. Moreover, information about the way to lose weight became complicated. Is this situation just a trend? It is said that people of late have a high sense of beauty; however, it seems as if it was their complex. Then, what makes us drive into diet?
Presently, in Japan, a slim person is thought as an attractive person, and, more and more young people especially young girls and women having the threatening thought such as ” to be a plump or fat person is a mean thing.” Then, they often say “I want to be slim. I don’t want to put on weight!” In fact, it is shown by research on the internet site that the rate of Japanese people who feel the necessity of doing a diet is almost 93 percent and also, about 63 percent of people have experienced diet before for several times. It is amazing result.
(“Diet Statistics”http://homepage1.nifty.com/asoking/diet_data.htm#hituyou)
This is because so many advertisements kindle with our consciousness for body, and insinuate the idea such as “Diet is good thing” into our mind. Actually, I often catch sight of a TV program about “The food good for health and diet”. I think there is too much emphasis on food. Because of this, people tend to think that “It is good for diet to have a piece of food which is said to be good for health and diet.” More over, we can have the wrong idea that we can be slim if we have only such food. It seems that we, Japanese, are too managed by the media. On the other hand, people of other countries tend to regard plump woman as beautiful people. Therefore, they don’t worry so about their figure as compared with Japanese people. In fact, I recently heard news; there is a contest which chooses a beautiful woman among fat women in Europe. I think there is a difference of their sense of value between Japanese and people of other countries. In a sense, there is no country like Japan around the world, in that so many people are drive into diets, though there are no need for doing so. Now, what kinds of diet are done in Japan, and what kinds of side effect can occur by going on a diet?
Now, referring to the way of diet, there are a lot of types of diet. First, one of the major ways of diet is called as “Carbohydrate diet”. It is also called “Atkin’s diet”. This is a diet which has a concept such as having high protein and low carbohydrate foods. Lately, I often hear and see the word “Low insulin diet”. It is also same type of diet. The one is the diet named “Fasting diet”. It is a diet which has nothing but water, or it seems that there are different types of them, and in that case, you can drink a fruits juice once a day. One is the “National Hospital diet” which is a common diet but a special diet and hospital’s cure for overweighed people and diabetics. This cure imposes a hard restriction of meals on a patient, therefore, it can do damage to patients, so patients have to enter the hospital for treatment. This diet is also called “Super-low-calorie diet”. All of them are well-known diets; however, it is attended by many risks, that is, side effects.
Diet and side effects always join together. Then, what kinds of side effects will happen on our bodies? According to the homepage called “Doctor’s one minutes diet” (http://web-doctors.jp/c_warning/c20011024.html) there are five main symptoms. First one is the frequency of neurosis. Second is decline of muscles and third one is the stop of menstruation in women, and the other two are loss of hair, and the body becomes swollen. All of them are awful symptoms and very much a hindrance to our daily life as well as our health.??Therefore, there are strong possibilities that diet can be productive of disease. However, there is an exceptional instance.
It is a diet for people who are under the necessity of going on a diet for their health. Overweighed people are in a fair way to benefit when they go on a diet. In view of our health, obesity is not a mean thing but a dangerous thing, and at the same time, to be overly thin is not a good thing but unhealthy for our bodies.
In conclusion, sometimes diet can threaten not only our health but also our lives. People tend to think of their figures as “fashion”statements, so they have never give the fact any thought that diet has a close relation to our health. Surely, it also has good points such as to have consciousness for beauty and to keep healthy for some people. However, we sometimes have to pay an all too high a price for that. I think the most important thing is to take good care of ourselves and to have good health. It is the time to think about whether to go on a diet or not for our healthy lives. No one knows about your condition, so we should control our health by ourselves. I believe, to have good health is necessary to be happy.



Unknown // 12:17 AM

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Global Warming
a1303279 2-I-31 Kentaro Fujishiro
Global warming is beginning to be a big problem all over the world. We can live comfortable lives now through the development of technology. Technology has developed to make our lives more pleasant. However, it has led to some bad effects on the world. Global warming is one of the results of industrialization. In the future, there is a possibility that life will be much harder than ever. People in the world need to think about it seriously. Causes and bad effects of the global warming exist, and there is something that we can do to stop global warming.
First, there are causes of global warming. IPCC, Inter governmental Panel on Climatic Change, which is an international organization composed of scientists says, “The global warming is obviously the result of human activities.” The gas of green house effect which has a function to keep the average temperature of the earth 15 degrees centigrade mainly includes carbon dioxide. If carbon dioxide increased, global warming would increase. The comment of IPCC means that we are producing carbon dioxide in our lives. Carbon dioxide largely comes from combustion of fossil fuel. In the developed countries like America, China and Japan, people keep on burning fossil fuel unconsciously by machines close to our lives like cars and gas heating. Japan has the fourth largest discharge of carbon dioxide in the world. We are giving birth to global warming by ourselves.
Second, global warming has bad effects on us. According to the report of IPCC, if carbon dioxide continued to increase, the average temperature of the earth might be 5.8 degrees centigrade higher than now by the end of the 21st century. In Japan, the yield of rice decreases. This is a serious problem for us who eat rice as a staple food. In addition, there is a danger that we would be inflected with malaria in the south part of Japan, and insect pests would increase in Hokkaido. From the point of view of the world, the rise of sea level will sink a lot of islands. It is expected that sea level will rise at least 9 centimeters by 2100. Much damage can be seen especially in the Marshall Islands and Bangladesh which has lowland areas. Global warming also invites unusual weather, and it does harm to crops of farm products in the world. The influence on Japan which depends on food imports from abroad is of much concern. It is just like killing ourselves by activities which we have done. In the future, situations which we can not imagine now might be waiting for us.
Third, we can stop global warming by our efforts. Although the industrial world is starting measures to stop global warming, each one on the earth must consider it severely. The most important thing is to change our living styles. We need not buy needless things and must try to use products longer, and we have to exert ourselves by recycling. For example, the way we use cars which produces much carbon dioxide leads us to stop of the global warming. If we idled an engine, the discharge of carbon dioxide from cars could decrease. Other ways to stop global warming is to use public transport if possible and go to our destinations by bicycle or on foot on account of not producing carbon dioxide. Such actions may be hard for us who live in a modern age, but it is us who can stop global warming. We produced global warming by ourselves, so this is our task to stop it.
In conclusion, global warming has causes and bad effects on the world, and we can stop it. We have produced global warming by industrialization. There exist bad effects on the world, and it is hard for us to get over them. It can be said that we distress ourselves. We would not live happily in the future if the situations at present continued. Each one in the world must think about global warming seriously, and it can encourage us to stop it.

Unknown // 12:10 AM

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IE Writing
11303153
Rina Sato
08/06/04

Why are Late Marriages Increasing in Japan?
Recently, the birth rate is dropping in Japan. It is because every couple has fewer children. One of the causes is late marriage. According to the investigation by the Ministry of Public Management, in 1945, the average of first marriage age is 25.1 years old for men, and 22.2 years old for women. But in 2002, the averagely man got married at 28.5 years old, and women got married at 26.8 years old. The rate of unmarried under 30 was 65.8% in 1940, and 83.8% in 2000. As the late marriage is increasing, their parents get old, so they increasingly can’t marry because of their care. Besides, the average time to stay with the parents lengthens. As the result, children rely for the parents on the economic and mental support, so eagerness for marriage decreases and the Oedipus complex is increasing. Why are late marriages increasing? Let’s consider it in the social aspect.
Firstly, late marriage tendency is deeply related to the changes of thought. People are becoming more individual and liberal. Individualism and liberalism about marriage are that they are free to decide whether to get married or not getting married. In 1992, those who agree with this opinion were 58% of men and 66% of women. But, in 1997, 66% of men and 74% of women agree with this idea. At the same time, since parents are also getting more generous toward their children’s love, marriage is more dependent on couples’ will. Besides, the number of people who want to marry for love is increasing. Therefore, if ideal marriage partner doesn’t appear, people will not get married. It is also true that the ideal of matches become higher and higher. Because of this, the thought that it is natural to get married weakens, and individualism continually strengthens. Therefore, more than ever the tendency will continue. Moreover, some people say that they don’t feel like getting married because they don’t like to be interfered with by anyone, so they want to stay alone. The number of people thinking so is increasing. If it is considered that getting married is based on liberalism, marriage is thought of as one part of a lifestyle, and people are apt to compare single life and marital life. If they think that single life is more beneficial than marital life, consequently, marriage will be later. Men tend to feel the burden that they have to support their family. Women tend to think about the difficulty of working and the burden of keeping house. Especially,?in case of having children. Also, the major opinion of advantage of single life is that it is free in how one spends their time and money. Once you get married, you have to spend your time and money for your family, particularly for children. I investigated personally the reasons why people don’t want to marry on the Internet (http://www.enquete.ne.jp/hundred/). Some people said that they can’t afford to marry and lead married life in this depression time. The other person said that there were too many reports of defects of married life. For example; problem of daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, divorce court and husband ruled by his wife. Also, the number of unmarried women who think that it is profitable for them now to get married was about 70% both in 1987 and 1997. But, the number of unmarried men who think the same was 69% in 1987, and it rather decreased to 65% in 1997. In addition, the number of people who think that marriage is not profitable increased from 25% to 30%. The inconvenience of marriage life may come from gender gap and practical surroundings. Next, as the cause of late marriage, working women are still increasing. In this recession society, women won’t expect husbands’ earnings. If there is a woman who wants to marry, she may not be able to do so because of economic problems. Wedding and marriage life will need some money. In 1997, for single women, ideal way of life is mainly getting work after child raising (34%). Next voice is that they want to raise children while they work (27%). Being a housewife is not so popular compared to previous opinions (21%). On the other hand, men are apt to want women to stay home even now. Like this, there is difference of thought on women’s life between men and women. It is possible that this difference causes late marriage. Thus, the difference between realities and their senses of value become one of the causes of late marriages. Then, there is difference about women’s life between men and women. It is also a cause of late marriage. To recover from the decrease in the birth rate, it is desirable not to marry late, but it will continue for some time. There are some good points in the late marriage. For instance, the society may pick up because many people work for a longer time, human resources may increase by the late marriage and people’s wealth may also increase. But if the declining birth rate and aging go on, there will be so many old people all over the place, and recent pension problem will be more serious. I worried mostly that the national existence will be full of uncertain by the decrease of the population, Japan may be annexed to the United States or China. As the concrete solution, I can give you some example; to correct the fixed division of labor by sex, to review climate of company priority, to lessen the costs for child rearing and so on. As individual equality is achieved and as social security for working women is completed, late marriages may be eased.

Unknown // 12:09 AM

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11303027 Yuka Inoue
June 8, 2004
Public Manners
It is often said that young people’s public manners are getting worse in Japan and I wonder how feel Japanese people about public manners and people who give trouble to others. I think there are increasing amounts of people who do not pay attention to other’s bad manners and it is difficult on how to feel about public manners for such people. I read some investigations relating to public manners and found that there were some characteristics in each different generation as well as gender and region. [http://takatan.mods.jp][http://www.pref.nara.jp/jido/index.html][http://www.bbs.bun-chan.net]
Especially male teenagers seem not to have public manners compared with the other age people. They seem to feel less hesitation and they take more hesitate behaviors than female teenagers feel and take. That Japanese male people tend to have bad public manners indicates the difference between European and American males who were taught manners to be gentlemen by their parents when they were children. Once there was a “samurai spirit” in Japan and it might help Japanese men to have politeness at that time. Nowadays it has disappeared like old Japanese family style. However I think the old spirit reminds with Japanese women now and in general the world is stricter on women’s manners and expectations for women to have politeness. Because women who grew up in old family style that was strict on women’s manners has brought their daughters up with the same old style.
Why grandmothers and mothers have not taught good manners strictly to their sons as well as their daughters? Maybe they judged their boys that they should be just active and aggressive. Their difference expectation for their sons or daughters would have influenced the lack of Japanese men at present. However I think recently most parents expect their daughters to be active and aggressive, so they tend not to pay so much attention to the girls. Public manners of teenaged girls are getting worse like the same generation boys but the girls seems to have better public manners than the boys in general. In the case of the girls, their manners are going to improve when they grow up to adult. On the other hand, it seems slowly to improve in the case of the boys and when they are in their twenties or thirties they often display bad public manners. In fact men in their forties and women in their twenties are almost equal level about public manners.
?I think gender is the most important key point about present Japanese public problems. A solute will be needed for these problems that are often said as the problem of consciousness or standard about good behaviors in public. We should recognize the problem about some lags in public manners that are happening with the difference of gender. Japanese men who insist on the level of Japanese people’s consciousness to public manners decreasing should review just themselves. I wonder that they criticize only Japanese women who behave badly in public. The problem exists with Japanese men as well. Also Japanese women need to pay so much attention to Japanese men’s bad public manners. Women should not pass some problems made by men. I do not think that men should be able to sit on the seats in the train squaring their legs, to throw away their cigarettes on the road and to do uncomfortable behavior to other people because of drinking. In public space, it is impossible that both men and women can spend comfortably term if there is a difference about public manners between them. It is necessary for men and women to get angry communicate with each other their uncomfortable feelings and stand with same level toward each other.
Another important thing is to teach about public manners to young children. Especially I want most grandfathers and fathers to pay attention to their sons or grandchildren strictly. I think it is good way to be taught manners from old men to young men. This way had better be done frequently. Of course grandmothers and mothers should teach more the basic manners to their children or grandchildren whether they are boys or girls.
According to the research I found that there was a tendency about manners which young people’s manners have improved with their consciousness and actions when people are growing up. However it is difficult to judge which ages or generation give more influence for the progress of people’s public manners. Probably people who are teenagers now will be able to improve their public manners when they work in society and become fathers or mothers with responsibilities as adults. But I wonder whether young people who are under thirty years old now could have better public manners with the same level which now fifties or sixties people have when they become adults. I do not think this thing should be looked at optimistically because people cannot pass on the influences that were given as education by their parents when they were young.
I think people who are over fifty years old at present have been educated with public manners and basic politeness more strictly by their parents and school teachers at least than young people nowadays. Both the hesitate feelings and the consideration to others might be influenced whether people were taught good manners by someone when they were children. I wonder how to change Japanese people’s manners when young people become fifty or sixty years old. Maybe there will be many old people who eat something walking outside and talk sitting down on the road. At the times, I wonder how young people’s behavior in public was. In public space, some consideration and effort of each persons and society are needed as people are of different generations, gender, position and nationalities can spend time comfortably. When I was investigating about the theme my recognition about Japanese public manners changed and I began thinking about the matter more seriously. Also I took notice of myself and whether I had usually kept good public manners, politeness and consideration to other people or not. I think that most people recognize they have good manners however they might behave to others with bad manners in public unconsciously, so I will recommend that all people watch some behaviors of other people around themselves and after that to ascertain their own behaviors in public.

Unknown // 12:08 AM

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11303088
Ai Kawauchi
Four function of T-shirts

It’s getting warmer today. More and more people are wearing T-shirts regardless of age and sex. They are wearing various T-shirts with different colors, different designs and different styles. A T-shirts is one of the most popular clothes in the world as well as jeans because a T-shirt is easy to wear, to get and to fit. However, the reasons for the popularity of T-shirts are not only these ones. In addition to the function of it as wear, T-shirts have three other interesting functions as symbols, as an encouragement for sense of unity and a communication tool.
T-shirts first appeared during the WW? American soldiers envied the French soldiers’ cotton underwear because they looked very comfortable even in the hot summer in Europe. In 1920s, the word “T-shirt” was put in the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary. Since then, “T-shirt” was recognized as an official language in American English. In WW?, American army brought in cotton 100% T-shirts as the standard underwear. In the battle field, soldiers found them useful because they could be a towel, a dustproof mask, a hat and even a white flag if it was needed. T-shirts were considered as a symbol of the army and after the war, a symbol of freedom. Then, T-shirts were popular as underwear. In 1948, the standard short-sleeves T-shirts which we are familiar with today come out for sports and leisure. They were just white without designs. However, the cotton 100% T-shirts were the most comfortable wear they ever had and quickly became popular. In 1950s, T-shirts were pushed up the casual fashion level by movies. Marlon Brando was wearing ragged T-shirt showing his young body in “A Street Car Named Desire (1951)” James Dean was wearing T-shirt in “Rebel without A Cause (1955)” and expressed revolts against oppression, the adult and the society. They were cool and young. Because of these movies, T-shirts became a symbol of youth and resistance. After this, T-shirts culture spread among the young people.
From 1960s, people had started to use silk-screen printing for T-shirts to put their original design and messages. In history, T-shirts had a various message on it. In addition to above movies, a lot of famous stars, artist and musicians loved T-shirts and influenced the popularity in various scenes. For example, The Rolling Stones, the famous rock band, produced their original T-shirts and made up the sense of unity with their fans. Like this, a lot of rock bands and sports teams have their original T-shirts. This is because the original T-shirts remind people of being fans. T-shirts have a power to make the bond more firmly between, to encourage people’s mind and it shows their community. Many companies, museums schools and sports teams made their original T-shirts. They realized that they could make a profit on the T-shirts. Licensed products became hot items rapidly. After 1980s, more and more various T-shirts printed with designs were produced and increased in popularity. T-shirts became a main item of the appeal industry.
One of the important reasons for the popularity of the T-shirts is that T-shirts sometimes express people’s minds. This means T-shirts are not only clothes but also a kind of message board. In certain community’s T-shirts show their minds, beliefs and where they belong to. Therefore, it is not too much to say that T-shirts became the media which has a great influence on the culture and beliefs. Against the background of the power of T-shirts, they became indispensable tool for gross-roots movements such as antiwar movement and stop H.I.V. movement. During the movement they are wearing the same T-shirts with a certain message like “NO WAR” or “STOP HIV” and insist on their opinions by their cloth, too. The message or design on the T-shirt talks without an utterance. For example, the T-shirt with “I(love)NY” was designed by Milton Grazer who was a graphic designer to spread the image of “Big Apple”. The simple logo designed in 1976 quickly became a symbol of the U.S. and influenced souvenir T-shirts around the world. It is needled to say that when 9.11 happened, the symbol of New York and American flag encouraged the people. The message on T-shirts helps us to understand the opinion or preference of the person who wears it. That is to say, a T-shirt works as a kind of communication tool. T-shirts are reasonable, easy to wear and easy to put message on. Therefore, they are often used as the media to express one’s opinion or preference. People who wear a T-shirt should know about the message. For us, the T-shirt is a tool to appeal to ourselves. A T-shirt is one of the most useful tools to send message with.
T-shirts speared in the beginning of the 20th century, and still popular now, in the 21st century, the popularity has never decline. This is because they are very flexible to change the style. It means that the designs on T-shirts are full of variety. We can choose as we like. In addition to these surface reasons, T-shirts have a power to symbolize, encourage the sense of unity and send messages. T-shirts also have a mental power. Today, T-shirts market is getting larger even in the cyber space. We can ask internet companies to make original T-shirts designed by ourselves. This does not cost too much. The art of designed T-shirts are symbols of our era and society. Thanks to the development of the technology, a T-shirts which can perceive the heartbeat, breathing and the temperature of the person who wear it. Not only as a digital technology, it is clear that T-shirts are the clothes which are trying to develop further as the material of art expression, as a people’s casual fashion as a communication tool in the future.

Unknown // 12:06 AM

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11303079 2?G?10?Yu Kato
Eating Disorders
Many men and women suffer from Eating Disorders in the world. It is said that Morton, a practitioner in Rome, mentioned about Anorexia medically for the first time in 1689. It was Gull, a doctor of internal medicine who adopted the word “Anorexia” for the first time in 1873. Women’s extreme depression of appetite and skinny state has been reported since the latter half of the seventeenth century. After World War ?, especially from 1960, cases increase rapidly. Eating disorders are almost always women’s problems. The proportion of men to women is one to ten. The rate that women have Bulimia from youth to young adult is about 3%. In Japan, numbers of Eating Disorders patient have been increasing from 1.8 people against 100,000 populations in 1980 to 18.5 people in 1998. It increased by ten times in about twenty years. It is said that Eating Disorders have increased since the 1960 when TV became popular; especially Bulimia has increased since 1975 when convenience stores became popular. Now, Eating Disorders are becoming close to a disease for Japanese, especially young people.
There are three different trends of late years for the people who have Eating Disorders in Japan. First tendency is increase of the cases that change over from Anorexia to Bulimia; Anorexia is a mental illness that makes people, especially young women, stop eating because they believe that they are fat and want to be thin. Bulimia is also an illness in which people cannot stop themselves from eating too much, and then, in serious cases, vomit in order to control their weight. It is a characteristic in this case that the term of Anorexia appears in teenager and one of Bulimia appears in twenty?year?olds. The next tendency is increase of the case which become Bulimia abruptly without becoming Anorexia. Many younger people tend to go for this case. The third one is increase of Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified. It is the type which is difficult to conclude whether the symptoms indicate Anorexia or Bulimia. These three tendencies are known in recent years.
Notwithstanding, there have been a shortage of technical institutions and professors which deal with these problems in Japan. According to an investigation which the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry indicated for 1,231 junior high schools and high schools of eight prefectures of the country, 45% junior high schools and 54% high schools answered, “Students who have Eating Disorders are increasing.” In addition, about 60% of schools answered, “There are not correct medical institutions near.” It emerged that there is a shortage of medical systems which can manage Eating Disorders. Imperfection of the medical system was pointed out along with rapid increase of patients.
The Minister of Health and Welfare (MHW) in Japan set up the cure of Eating Disorders as the medical object of the country. It decided to place medical institutions nationally for exact treatment and study, and the education of technical doctors and to plan to network. In 2002, a guide line was drawn up for specialists who manage the medical treatment of Eating Disorders by the group of study in MHW; the manager is Nobuo Kiriike, a professor of Osaka City Univ. In addition, another group of study (the manager is Toshio Ishikawa, a directorate of National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Japan) is going to be ready to draw up a guide line of treatment with the aim of finding the disease early. Toshio Ishikawa says, “It is for general clinicians and nurse?teachers. Its contents will be easy to understand for patients and their families.”
Eating Disorders have a close relation to diet. The rate of women’s Eating Disorders is high because of two phenomenon concerning diet. One is that almost all women want to lose weight. Watching pop idols on TV, they assume themselves to be fat. They are wishful for a well?knit frame or a delicately constituted figure of pop idols on TV. The other is that there are a lot of social pressures concerning figure. Many men like women who are slender in Japan. This general idea makes women go on diets. For two reasons, desire to lose weight evolves into Eating Disorders.
Japan’s Eating Disorders are in the spotlight. As a result of research, we can see that this problem is difficult to solve. We must understand that it is necessary to change the minds of people who think “it is better to be thin!” and to take administrative provision against Eating Disorders. We should have more concern for Eating Disorders more. Everyone have possibility of sliding into Eating Disorders. It is a disease which is very close to us today.


http://www2.wind.ne.jp/Akagi-kohgen-HP/ED.htm

Unknown // 12:06 AM

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Monday, June 14, 2004:

IE Writing May 11, 2004
11303225 2-I-25 Hana Tominaga

Marriage

Marriage is one of the most important things for people.

Especially, whether you meet a good match or not is very important.

I have sent out a questionnaire to four men and four women in every

generation. I asked them about a match, job, children, and affair. It

is important to choosing the best match, because a match has to be a

person who you love and continue being, even if you are together

throughout life. In addition, finding a good match will also affect your

work and child greatly. Moreover, various problems may arise, after

getting married. Then, according to the survey, I find out the

differences of their ideas about marriage.

First, I asked about a match. There are some differences betwe

en single and married. On the one hand, single teens and twenties

girls want their matches be handsome, cheerful and have moderate

income. On the other hand, married thirties and forties want

sincerity, kindness and tolerance. The young girls want their

matches as a boy friend, but married women want husband as a

guard of not only themselves, but also their children. Most single

women want to marry in their twenties, because they want to be a

young mother, and most men want to marry in their late twenties or

thirties, because they think that they need a moderate income, and

high position in society to be a householder, and help their families.

These effects show us that people change their ideas about marriage

by their sex and age.

Second, I asked about job. Most examinees have the same

opinions. Most women want to work if they marry. They do not

think arriage is a reason for which they retire from their job. Only

one twenties women thinks that she retires when she marries,

because she wants to do a lot of housework. All single men want

their wives to retire works when they marry, because if they go back

to their house, they want their wives to be at home and prepare

dinner. One married women retired because of her husband’s request.

Generally, men think that they have to support their family.

However, in fact, a married twenties men’s wife has been working

after marriage. He wants her to retire and devote housework,

however only his own income is not enough. Moreover, when they

have a child, both men and women think that wives have to retire

from their work and devote to take care of their child. Then, couples

have to save money for their children. This is common thought of

them all.

The third question is about children. They think about

children as important as marriage. Having children affects your life

very much. All women and men want two or three children, because

an only child will feel loneliness. However, they think that it is very

hard to bring up over four children because it needs much money, and

many women want to return to work after child rising, if they can.

Although they like children very much and want to cherish children,

they think that to take care of them is very hard and they have to

take responsibility for children.

The last question is about affairs. I had been interested in

their answers for question about affairs. I asked them

(1) If your wife or husband fools with other men or women, how do

you feel?

(2) If you love other men or women, what do you do?

About these problems, the examinees have different ideas. The

answers of (1), there are quite differences between single men and

women, especially, single people and people who are parents. Single

people in teen and twenties will try to recapture their husband or

wife in any way. However, people who are parents, in thirties and

forties will try to talk with and understand their partners’ thought.

Young people tend to think about only themselves, however adult

married adult people do not think only themselves, and they try to

understand other people’s thought. The answers of (2) are very

interesting. On the one hand, single people try to give up their love

and do not want their partners to be testified at their selfishness. A

woman in twenties said that she will never love other man, so she

will not have problem of affair. One the other hand, married people

think that they cannot help loving other men or women. If they some

to love other people, they think well, and if they cannot forget them,

they tell the partners their thought, and make the partners

understand. There are interesting opinions and these results are

contrary to my expectations about affairs.

Marriage is a very significant event for their life. According to

this survey, I saw that people think about marriage quite earnestly,

and they have own ideas. For example, there are women who want to

continue their jobs after marriage, and want to quite or return to

work after rising children. Then, if you want to lead fortunate

married life, you have to talk about your thought of marriage with

your boyfriend or girlfriend. Besides, marriage concerned with not

only your own life, but also families and children. Then, we not better

not make light of marriage.

Unknown // 11:59 PM

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Is homosexual marriage legal or illegal?
11303044
Rie Ohgami

Recently, autonomy of San Francisco in America accepted that homosexual marriage is legal and 56 couples got married on Feb 12. To the surprise of many, 2600 couple got married after five days. On the other hand, on Nov 19, The Supreme Court in Massachusetts banned gay marriage for the reason that gay marriage violates the state constitution. Can people who have the same gender get married or not? Now that it is a big issue of law that people all over America and the world pay attention to. Gay marriage is even connected with the presidential election of USA. This paper will investigate this controversy.
First of all, I will tell you the actuality of gay people in America and all over the world. At present, there are only four countries which approve marriage between gays: Canada, Holland, Belgium and Taiwan (though Taiwan is not exactly a country). The number of same-sex couples married in USA, Canada and Europe except Taiwan is 29955. (From Statistics of Human Rights Campaign) Gay people can marry and ensured their life in these countries. For example, Canada changed statement of the constitution, “marriage can be made up between one man and one woman” into “two persons”. On the other hand, there are some states that approve gay marriage out of 51 states in USA, each state has original law. It is independent and vague. However, people in the USA are becoming generous to gay people. According to poll of L.A. times on April 10, six out of ten in USA people accept the homosexual community. There are many demonstrations against prohibition of gay marriage and rainbow bars where gay people meet. Rainbow is metaphor that stands for gay and comes from a movie. When you find a shop displaying a rainbow flag, you can know that shop is mainly for gay people. However, it is also true that most of the Americans objected to gay marriage and there is a wall of prejudice in some rural areas in USA. For instance, there was a case that gay man was killed, because of reason that he was just gay in Wyoming in 1998.
Then, what is marriage? According to a famous sentence of the wedding ceremony in the bible, “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part”. Christ defines that marriage must consist of a man and a woman. That is to say, Christianity doesn’t approve of gay marriage. It is said that one of reason that Christians ban homosexual is for survival. Not only Christians, but also Islamic and Hebrew societies that occur in Arabia peninsula ban homosexuality. These people lived in desert in the old days. Living in desert is severe and hard. It was important for them to have children for their future. They protected their nation by having children. Gay people couldn’t have a child, therefore gay marriage was banned. However, it also shows that homosexuality has existed when those religions were born.
As you know, America is mainly a Christian country. According to The Pew Research Center, one of main poll organization, 82% of American is Christian. More or less, American people believe in God. President Bush who also believes in Christ said “I believe in the sanctity of marriage. I believe a marriage is between a man and a woman. And I think we ought to codify that one way or another.” (Quoted from article on Gay.com) This statement caused a lot of controversies.
However, a marriage license in just paper. If they want to live together, they can do it and it’s legal. Of course it is regarded as a friend or a person who share room, not partner. Why do gay people want a marriage license? Though there are a lot of reasons, I will show you main three reasons. One of the reasons is because gay people must pay higher taxes than married people. When a couple gets married, tax on incomes becomes less than when they were single. In addition, despite they pay a lot of taxes, they can’t receive basic protection under the law.
Second reason is inheritance. When a partner dies, another one has no right of inheritance. Also their children who most of them is adoption doesn’t have. There are one million children being raised by same sex couples in America, according to Human Rights Campaign. If it were not for establishing a legal relationship to both parents, children of same-sex couples are left without important protections, such as Social Security survivor benefits. These children should not be bothered their life, because their parents are gay.
Third reason is legal title that is the name of family. When one of the partners has an accident and sustains a slight or terrible injury, one will have to go to the hospital. With a legal marriage, their partner is allowed to visit hospital. If the one needs emergency operation, their partner can make decisions in a medical emergency and enter to intensive care unit, where only legal partner and family can come in. in other words, same-sex couples can’t see their partner when the partner dies, if they don’t marry legally.
The Deceleration of Independence states “we hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”. However, State laws in USA don’t give gay equal right on marriage, despite they properly pay taxes, don’t commit a crime and are healthy American. John Lewis, US. Republican said in testimony against the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment before the Senate Judiciary Committee, March 23, 2004 "Some say let's choose another route and give the gay and lesbian community certain legal rights but call it something other than marriage. We have been down this road before in this country. Separate is not equal. The right to liberty and happiness belong to each of us and on the same terms, without regard to either skin color or sexual orientation." America has been changing since they had won independence and changed impossible into possible. For example, it has been found in acquisition of women’s suffrage, the Emancipation Proclamation, the civil rights movement of the 60’s. What they thought impossible in those days doesn’t give us no wonder now. There are not so much occasions that we can see gay people in the street in Japan, because it’s harder for gay to open in Japan than in America on account of severe circumstance. However, Japan also have the Constitution that tells “every Japanese have an equal rights”( the fourteenth article of the Japanese Constitution). Although Japan falls behind other countries on gay issues, Japan should think of giving gay people who live in Japan equal rights for their happiness. ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????(1148words)











Biobliography

The Pew Research Center (http://people-press.org/reports/print.php3?PageID=390)
Human Rights Campaign
(http://www.hrc.org/Template.cfm?Section=Center&CONTENTID=17420&TEMPLATE=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm)
The article of Los Angels Times on April 10
The wedding ceremony oath in Bible
Gay. com (http://www.gay.com/news/article.html?2003/07/30/1)
Declaration of Independence
The Japanese Constitution

Unknown // 11:57 PM

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Stress
11303206?H 25 Ayako Tanabe
Recently we hear the word “stress” more than the past and people come to note stress. Most people have stress to some extent and some of them suffer from the stress.?Stress always affects us and sometimes threatens our life. We can say that stress is a contemporary disorder, especially in Japan. We may have to struggle with it as long as we live in this society. We hear the word “stress”, but in fact we do not know about stress well. We need to know what stress is, what causes stress and what stress affect us. Then we need to think how we manage or compete with our stresses.
We are always stimulated by something, for we contact with people or things everyday and it affects our feelings. In that stimulus there are good stimulus and bad stimulus. The line between good stimulus and bad stimulus is thin as a knife’s edge and they are related closely. For example the child who hates to take a bus is going to go on a picnic. He is very excited. It is a good stimulus. When he hears that he has to get on a bus, he turns to feel nervous. Good stimulus changes into bad stimulus very easily. Stress is that bad stimulus piles up too much. Today people are always very busy doing their own work everyday and they little have leisure and time for themselves, so people cannot digest their bad stimulus and it has piled up gradually. Then we feel stress.
Stress is caused by psychological, sentimental, environmental and physical stimulus called stressors. The state is like a ball strained by pressure. The pressure is same as stress. Stresses have five types: physical stress, chemical stress, organic stress, social?material stress and psychological stress. Physical stress is caused by outward things, for example, racket and oscillation of train and track and cold or hot weather. Chemical stress is caused by drinking too much coffee and alcohol, too much smoking and taking medicines. It affects us physically. Organic stress is caused by bacteria, mold, pollen and infectious disease. Psychological stress is caused by human relations in life and work. Thus, there five types of stress.
Stresses are caused by many incidents. The American doctor, Holmes, T. H., researched causes of stresses. American people have highest stresses when one’s partner has died. He set partner’s death as 100 points. The same research was carried out in Japan. Partner’s death is criterion of this research. Based on that, divorce is 73 points, separation of husband and wife is 65 points, custody and death of relative is 63 points, one’s illness and injury is 53 points. The high point incidents are related to household, rather than work. If person get less than 150 points, the points are summed within the last year, the risk that the person’s health will be harmed is 30 percent. If he gets from 150 points to 300 points, the risk is 80 percent. People can put up with stresses to some extent, but it is limited. Thus, various incidents cause stresses. When many incidents conspire at one time, stresses affect us greatly.
What do stresses cause? In the first stage, people do not notice their stresses, even if they have them. Then, stresses affect our body gradually. As early symptoms of stress, most of people have a tiredness of eyes, a stiff back, lumbago and poor blood circulation, besides they cannot get up comfortably and feel giddy when they stand up. Those are only some examples. The symptoms are different in each person and they are present in all parts of our bodies, because stress symptoms appear at weak points of our bodies, being affected by stressors. If stresses last, they become chronic. As chronic symptoms appear, people always feel tired and are enable to do anything and are impatient of trivial things. Chronic stresses trespass on our lives. If the stresses last more seriously, they cause various diseases. It is said that redundant stresses may relate to cancer. Therefore, stresses are very remarkable and contemporary disorders.
Thus there are many stresses and causes of stresses on our life and we need to compete with them, because we cannot spend a grate life, feeling stresses. By nature people have faculties against stresses to some extent, and we use the faculties for stresses unconsciously. However, these faculties are limited because in the present day, the causes of stresses exceed our faculties, so we need to dissolve stresses by ourselves. We have four ways. The first way is that we avoid things or persons with which we feel stress. However it is difficult way because there may be situation that you have to contact with it or them. Second way is that we need not to think about things in a bad way. If the person hates to play sports, he feels stress with physical education, but he cannot avoid the class and he needs a thought that it is a good opportunity for his health. Third way is active stress dissolution, for example playing sports, singing songs and dancing. Forth way is that we have time in which you feel happy and do what you like. If you like to eat something, you feel happy when you eat them and your stresses would be reduced by that action. Thus, we are not only affected by stresses, but also we need to compete with them. Keeping the strong mind is the best protection against the stresses, living in this society.



















Bibliography
- http://www.niki?hp.or.jp/NewsFiles/kokoro/sters.html

Unknown // 11:57 PM

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Mariko Nagashima
11303233 2-H 28
June 8, 2004
Divorces Bring Us What?
Today, many people regard a divorce as not negative but affirmative. In bookstores, there are so many books or magazines which promote divorces for people. By now, the divorce rate is about twenty percent of marriages in Japan. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Labor, about 292,000 couples divorced for a year in 2002. It means one married couple divorces every 2 minutes. Why is there such a large number and increasing? One of the reasons is that women can raise a matter of divorce. In old days in Japan, it was hard for women to ask their husbands for divorce because of a general idea that women have to obey their husbands, so it’s natural that a man had more rights than a woman and a wife had to do her best for her husband. However, as time goes on, people began to cry for an improvement of sex discrimination, and for that, women can begin to talk about divorce. Also, women can last at work outside the home which brings them the possibilities that they can make a living by themselves. Then, why do they want to divorce? You never know how marriage will turn out until you’ve given it a try, so we can’t say that it is simply wrong. Then, let’s see their grounds for divorce.
First of all, we will look at the reasons why people want to marry before the grounds for divorce. The best reason for marriage for 54.1% of people is to live with their beloved partners together. Besides that, 36.3% of people want to make their own home, 16.0% of people think it is natural to get married. However, the more young women who don’t want to marry are increasing fasten than men. The number of men and women, who think they should divorce when they couldn’t be satisfied with their husbands or wives, exceeded 50 percent of the whole. Also, women have a more flexible idea for divorce than men.
Next, what is the reason of divorce in the concrete? There are main reasons, disagreement of character, marital infidelity, mental cruelty, family violence, not to turn over living expenses. In recent years, disagreement of character and mental cruelty are increasing year by year, on the other hand, marital infidelity and not to live with their parents are decreasing. Especially, I wonder that disagreement of character, which account for 54.7%, is the best reason though 90% of them were love marriages. If so, they ought to be together for a certain period of time and make sure that they thought their partners’ personality were attractive. Will human being’s personality change so entirely as time goes on? I couldn’t agree with that, but it may happen that they get tired of each other’s personalities. Whether it is true or not, this is a terribly pity and probably that is why humans of today find it is easy to lose interest and abandon partners. Another thought is a sudden change after the marriage. I don’t know why they change his or her tune suddenly and they must mistake marriage for the one in old days. How dare they do such a thing to their beloved partners? The sudden changing people are surely wrong, but people who chose them are also to blame because they are a bad judge of character. As a result, they are both to blame, so we have to be circumspect in choosing of our marital partners.
To make matters worse, couples who have children take more problems compared with couples who have no children. In the first place, they have to discuss the problem about who can take care of their children. Besides, there are a large number of questions which need a lot of discussion, for instance, the expense of bringing up children, distribution of property, consolation money, how many times parents who lost their parental authority can meet their children. However, it is more important than anything else to keep their children at a distance from unsightly battles between the parents, especially those who are at an impressionable age. Children who are at an impressionable age are easy to be affected by that, and some of them have traumatic effects on their mind throughout their lives, so making children look at their awful battles are really bad influences. For that, it might be better in a sense for children that their parents divorce or live apart immediately. However, parents should not forget that it is necessary for children’s mental health to come in contact with each parent continuously after the divorce. The sense which gives children to be sure that they can see their parents at any time is precious and brings them the stability of mind. With that, children can grow up with less problems being due to their parents’ divorce.
Some people don’t divorce until the end of bringing children up because of the economical problem, and this is the divorce in middle and early old age which is increasing recently. It must be hard to manage the rest of time. There is enough money to live, but cooled down life will be prepared for them.
On the other hand, the remarriage rate is also increasing. However, people who remarry within three years are decreasing because divorce’s problems are too much and extend over a long period of time. Accordingly, the rate of people who remarry after five years or more is rising. Prolonged divorce’s problems are not so good for the rest of their lives.
Battling with each other exhausts them mentally and physically. Moreover, they once loved each other and went as far as to marry, so it is sorrowful that they part with hatreds. At least, they should divorce with shaking hands.

Woks Cited
“Problem of divorce between husband and wife”

“Statistics about divorce”


Unknown // 11:56 PM

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Cosmetic Surgery
Mariko Kojima

These days, more and more people have cosmetic surgery.

Especially in Korea, there are a great many people who have

surgery. Korea is said to be a country of cosmetic surgery. The

civil newspaper says that the surgery is even given as a birthday

present by parents in Korea. In Korea, women are thought that

their promotion for society is very difficult. Therefore, Korean

women think that their happiness is to become beautiful and to

get a good husband.

Also in Japan, medical technique are progressing rapidly. People

can have cosmetic surgery more easily than before. Many people

hope to be more beautiful and get perfect bodies. A sense of

beauty is raising.However, there are some problems, costs, risks,

and ethical problem.

First, it takes a lot of money to have cosmetic

surgery. If you want to change your body from head to foot,

maybe it will totally take more than ten million yen! The cost

depends on the variety of surgery. There are a lot of varieties of

cosmetic surgery. The surgery of becoming double-edged eyelid

and fat aspiration and making nose higher and so on. Lately,

what is called “petit cosmetic surgery” is coming in among young

people. It takes not so much money , so young people can have

surgery more easily. An average of the cost is about three

hundred thousand yen. Therefore, if they do a part-time job and

earn money, they can have petit cosmetic surgery. Surprisingly, it

is said that some students takes this surgery with acceptance of

their parents. Now , cosmetics for students is very popular with

little girl. It is possible to say that even a little girl has a sense of

beauty. Almost every one wants to be more beautiful. If they took

cosmetic surgery for one part of their body once, they think they

want to change another parts of their body again and again. The

desire for beauty lasts long. They may have to make a loan. It is

dangerous.
??
Second, there are a lot of medical mistakes. If they do not

like their new faces that already had operated on , they repeat

the surgery repeatedly. Their faces become uglier than

their original faces. By the failure and regret, it is possible that

they lost their hope for life though they tried to get back hope by

having cosmetic surgery. What is worse, there is a possibility of

death. We see a lot of article of medical mistake of cosmetic

surgery in the newspaper. There are the cases of it; a person took

the surgery of aspirating fat but the operation came to grief. The

person died. Another person took the surgery for double

edged eyelids but the person lost his eyesight.

Like above, there are risks accompanying cosmetic surgery.

We should get correct understanding and choose a good doctor.

We have to consider the risk before the surgery.
??
Third, there are ethical problems that we should consider.

The reasons why many people have cosmetic surgery are vary.

For examples, for their lover, for interview for a job. Takayasu

Suzuki ,who is a professor of Yamaguchi universitydescribes that

“ the main reason why people want to have cosmetic surgery is to

get confidence” on the internet. Some people who were badly

wounded in an accident also have cosmetic surgery. In this case, it

is good for the people who were wounded to have surgery because

it gives them confidence and it soften their hurt heart. It can not

be helped. However , many people have cosmetic surgery only to

become beautiful. Our body and face were inherited from our

parents. Some parts of the face are similar to mother and another

parts are similar to father. If the child says that he or she wants

to have cosmetic surgery, the parents would grieve. Everyone has

not only good parts of the face but also bad parts of it. However,

including all, it is oneself. It is a personality that no one has

except oneself. Some say that he or she can not be confident in

oneself because of the face but we should seek for not the beauty

of appearance but the internal beauty. If we had a cosmetic

surgery and became beautiful, could we say we are happy

genuinely? It is our own responsibility to decide to have the

surgery, but there are a lot of way to get confidence excepting

having surgery. For examples, to find interest or knack and be

proud of them is one of the way to get confidence.


We have to think about the way we live putting

ourselves to good account. We should think all the world of

ourselves and thank our parents who bore and raised us.
?
Of course, cosmetic surgery has good points. It makes us

more beautiful and offers hope. It is natural that we seek for

beauty. However, there are a lot of problems that we should

remember before we decide to have surgery. I think as the

number of people who have cosmetic surgery increase, they lost

something necessary. We should not forget that we are the only

one in the world.


Sited work

The civil newspaper

(http//www.mindan.org/shinbun/000531/topic/syugaku.html)

professor Takayasu Suzuki’s lecture

(http//www.suzuki.ypu.jp/2002/elementary2-4/11-14.html)
5

Unknown // 11:56 PM

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11303144
Mika Sasaki
June 8, 2004
Gesture Around the World

Gesture is one of the many ways to communicate with people. R. L. Birdwhistell, who is one of the researches of Non Verbal Communication research, says “In the daily conversation in America, quantity of messages that language tells is only 30~35% and the rest 65~70% is made up of Non Verbal Communication such as tone, expression and gesture.” In some cultures, gesture is acceptable, but in other cultures, it is not. In brief, frequency of using gestures is different from cultures. For example, the Latin people use gestures frequently and the Orientals use less gesture. However it may be common that the proportion of Non Verbal Communication is larger than that of language. Even if the language is different, you can often make yourself understood by using gestures. Gesture is a very useful tool. However, you have to pay attention when you use gestures with foreign people, because some gestures have the same meanings as Japanese ones, but some have different or contrary meanings. Problems may arise because of the misuse of the gestures. Using gestures is an easy way to express your feelings but you should not think lightly of them. I have become interested in four kinds of gestures through watching foreign movies or coming in touch with foreigners.
First, there are gestures that have different meanings. Beckoning sign is a well known gesture. When Japanese beckon someone, they close and open their hand with the back of their hand out like dog paddle. However, if you beckon an American with the Japanese beckoning gesture, an American may think of the gesture as a sign that means go away. In case of an American, the Japanese beckon gesture has opposite meaning. On the other hand, they beckon with their palm out when an American call someone. The American beckon gesture seems to be popular in Europe as well. Then, are there countries that use the Japanese beckon style? In Vietnam, they seem to use the Japanese beckoning style. They use the American beckoning style when they call dogs. The Japanese beckon gesture is used in the cultural circle of dog paddle. As another example, in Japan, we form a ring with forefinger and thumb when we suggest money because a ring means coin’s form. On the other hand, a ring with forefinger and thumb means “OK” in America and European countries and if they want to suggest money, they rub their fingers together.
Second, some gestures are used only in Japan and they sometimes can not be understood. When Japanese introduce themselves, most of them ought not to hesitate to say their names with pointing at their nose. However, this gesture is very unique to Japan and foreigners have mistaken this pointing gesture. If you point at your nose when you say your name as self introduction, foreigners think that nose is your name. In Japan, nose has a meaning of I or me. Kanji that means “self” is said to be a symbol of nose. That is to say, people who use kanji may point at their nose when they express self. In this connection, when American expresses self, they point at their chest with their thumb up. It is often said that Japanese use few gesture, so there are not many gestures which are proper to Japan.
Third, there are gestures that are hardly used in Japan. These gestures seems to be used by American and British subjects. For example, I have often seen actors and actress use this gesture in foreign movies and I have been interested in it. First they make V signs, and then they bend and open their forefingers and middle fingers, which is like a crab. It means quotation marks such as “ ”. When we say that someone said “~”, we can use this gesture. The first time I saw this gesture, my English teacher used it. This gesture was noticeable but I could not understand its meaning at all. I wish I had known its meaning at that time. After I knew its meaning, I can not focus on content of the conversation anyway when someone use this gesture because I notice the gesture. Beside, it is also used frequently to make a fist and put up your thumb. This gesture means approval and acceptance. If Japanese see this gesture, they may get the impression of “American”. It is not familiar to Japan.
Forth, some gestures are common in some countries. How would you act when you want to express “Be quiet”. When I saw Thailand and Hollywood movies, actress and actors of both countries put their forefinger on their lips with the sound of “Shhh”. I was surprised that this gesture was common and the same as Japan. This gesture seems to be used in Vietnam. What is more, it is found that they only say “Sh” and they do not put their forefinger on their lips in Argentina. There are some differences in some degree, but that is a permissible range in Japan. In addition, nodding your head means “yes” and shaking your head means “no”. These gestures are used in most of the country with a common meaning.
Beyond these four kinds of gestures, there are a lot of gestures and there are a lot of gestures that I do not know. Some gestures have opposite meanings and some have same meanings, so it is natural that the misunderstandings or conflicts come up when we communicate with people from foreign countries or cultures. These gestures need to be learned because they are necessary for international understandings or international communications. To tell our own feeling to someone clearly, we need and an ability of understanding Non Verbal Communication messages. In other words, if you are sensitive to Non Verbal Communication messages, your relationship will become abundant and its effect will appear. However, language education today is biased toward grammar and we are hardly taught Non Verbal Communication in spite of the needs that we have to fix our eyes on language including Non Verbal Communication. We can not understand gestures that have different meaning or do not exist in Japan unless we try to learn them. I never say that we must take in unfamiliar gestures and foreign gestures. We just need to know and be interested in them. I rather want not to simplify gestures around the world. As the world became closer, everything seems to be unified. We have to treasure our differences.

















Works Cited
R. L. Birdwhistell, Kinesics and Context, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1970.

Unknown // 11:55 PM

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The Single
Haruka Yui
Now, around 40 percent of single people don’t get married though they have boy friends or girl friends. Reduction of children is one of the big problems in Japan, and it is partly the effect of people who don’t get married. To know citizen’s real intention, and to solve this problem by governmental way, the Ministry of Health and Welfare surveyed about 10000 single people of 18 years old to 50 years old who were chosen at random, and the survey has been carried out every five years. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s website, the number of people who answered that they would never marry has increased, while the number of people who answered they would marry when they want to do has decreased. The single people who have boy friends or girl friends are divided in three groups, the single because of work, of money, and hopelessness of marriage.
First, people who don’t get married because of work are perfectly independent. According to the survey, men in their twenties and thirties dominate more than half of this group. Some of them said they want to devote themselves to their work, and others said they wouldn’t get married until their dream come true. Lately, not only men but also a lot of women belong in this group. The ministry website said “59.7percent of the women want to continue to work after marriage, and they are afraid that they have to quit their work when they marry”. A few decades ago, women generally wanted to become housekeepers, and to get secure life after they get married. However, now, about 60 percent of women don’t marry if they have to quit their jobs. In addition to this, most of the people in this group said that it is hard for them to think of family better than their work, according to the website. They have confidence that they can get happiness by working, and can live totally by themselves.
Second, people who don’t get married because of money problem are the most serious condition of the three. According to the survey, this group is exclusively dominated almost by men. Men have worries about social responsibility much more than women. The website said what the people in this group especially worry about is rearing children, making them live happily, and disagreement of their partner’s parents about the economical difficulty. On the other hand, most of the women belonging in this group worry that their boyfriends like gambling and waste money, though they want marry. By the website, even if the women have jobs, and are independent, they require their partner to have enough money to live. Therefore, men are under pressure to support their family. Money can beat love when people get married.
Finally, people who don’t get married because of hopelessness of marriage are afraid of the changes after marriage. Actually, according to the survey, people who answered, “I don’t want to marry” were only 2.9percent. However, on the other hand, people who answered, “I don’t need to marry” were 29.3percent. That is, most of the single people don’t think of marriage as awful, but as useless. The survey also showed that there were two percent of the people living with their boy friends or girl friends. Although the number doesn’t seem big, it is increasing. They said “ we don’t need to marry, because we are happy without being married, and we can live freely”. Also, the website showed that there were only 30 percent of the people who answered they wanted children in the latest survey, while 50 percent of the people answered they wanted children ten years before. It suggests that this change affects the increase of people who regard marriage as useless. What is more, many women in this group are afraid of a lot of housework after marriage, and losing their free time. Men in this group are also afraid that they will be tied by being married. Thus, they want to stay free forever.
People who don’t get married though they have partners have two types of reason. One is positive reason such as work and being free, and another is negative reason such as money problem and pressure from marriage life. People who have negative reasons are pressured from an old idea of husband’s role and wife’s role in life like that men work hard for their families, and women keep their houses. However, not only men have to support the families, and not only women have to keep the houses. To live happily, they need to understand their partners more individually and independently. For the people who have positive reasons, it is not necessary to change their mind. If they don’t want to lose their freedom by getting married, they don’t have to. It is not a duty to marry but only one way to get happy life.

Reference
? The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s website
(http://www.ipss.go.jp/doukou12_s/single12_p.html)

Unknown // 11:55 PM

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