The Hokuriku Shinkansen launched

The Hokuriku Shinkansen has just been launched today. The first trains from both terminals of Tokyo station and Kanazawa station has departed.

It was a dearest wish for both Ishikawa and Toyama prefectures. They are looking forward to having many tourists coming. On the other hand, Nagano and Niigata prefectures are not necessarily welcome mode. For Nagano, the name “Nagano Shinkansen” was vanished as of today. For Niigata, some of the local railways will be transferred to the private sector train. The rapid train “Kagayaki” does not stop at a station in Niigata.

Toyota becomes the top Olympic sponsor

Toyota Motor Corp. announced that they would become a top-ranked Olympic sponsor as the world’s first automaker. The sum of the contract is estimated as \100 billion. The contract will continue from this year to 2024.

Toyota has been well known that it backed up the FIFA Club World Championship (it used to be “TOYOTA CUP.”

It’s a joke but I expected Audi would be the sponsor of Olympic because the logo is very close to Olympic logo :-).

Hatoyama’sbehavior unacceptable

Yukio Hatoyama, former PM of Japan is visiting Crimea, which Russia annexed in March last year. He did not follow the government’s request to cancel the trip and visited Crimea area with a Russia-issued visa, which implies legitimacy of Russia’s annexation of Crima. In addition, he reportedly argued that his country is now dominated by Western views of the Crimea issue.Hatoyama repeated the same problems on the Senkaku island 2 years ago.

His behavior is totally unacceptable. Though he used to belong to the DPJ, the DPJ should condemn him on its matter otherwise the DPJ might be regarded to back up the Russian point of view.

4 years after the great earthquake

Today is the fourth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake. I remember that day clearly. I was at the members’ office of the Diet at the time. I felt a sudden shake then the shake became stronger and continued for about 4 or 5 minutes.

I switched on the TV. Eventually, the Tsunami hit the coasts of Tohoku area, which was disastrous and could not help shouting.  About 229,000 people are still away from their hometown and having inconvenient life.

Journalists gather for dismissal of top of NHK

NHK, the Japan broadcasting corporation, is in trouble. Mr. Katsuto Momii is the top of NHK and he incurs lots of criticisms by his mouth. Especially, he makes ultra nationalistic comments several times and is very skeptical on neutrality.

About 140 Journalists gathered yesterday for his dismissal. In the event, a participant reported that the number of signatures for his dismissal reached over 74,000.

He should resign or dismissed as soon as possible.

Abe Non Stop Train

The LDP held the annual convention yesterday. Abe strengthened to win the unified local elections and at the same time, he strongly implied his intention to revise the Constitution. His goal is clear. However, this would be a disastrous scenario for Japan.

Organization’s political donation should be abolished

The DPJ should submit a bill which abolish organization’s political donation to the Diet. The JCP (Japan Communist Party) and the JIP (Japan Innovation Party) has each submitted the bill.

The DPJ should co-operate with the JIP on this matter and should address people for supporting them.  Actually, it is no likely that an organization donates to a party or a politician without any request or demand. Political donation has been used for the purpose.