By Hiroaki Konno

Japanese caused incidents inside and outside of Japan two months in a row. Neither of these incidents would have happened if they used common sense. This lack of common sense in Japan is a symptom of the current Japanese society.

On May 1, the luggage of Hiroki Gomi, a photo journalist with Mainichi Shinbun, exploded at Queen Aria international airport in Jordan. The explosion involved five people; one guardsman was killed, another one was heavily injured, and the others were lightly wounded. Gomi was about to bring back a cluster bomb he found in Iraq to Japan. It was shocking behavior for a professional journalist to cause this incident. He entered Iraq in February as a Human-shield, and had been engaging in photo journalism. In addition, he once had been a member of the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) in Jordan for two years. That a journalist who is familiar with war did such a thing is very regrettable. This raises a question in the minds people throughout the world whether Japanese are as committed to peace as they say they are.

On May 13, Asahi Shinbun was criticized by Hitomi Soga, one of the Japanese nationals who was a victim of abduction by North Korea, because one of the reporter for the paper stole a glance at the data file for the abducted families support section in Niigata Prefecture in order to get her address, and the paper printed it without her approval. The following day the paper printed an apology, but this would have never happened if they had used common sense. This could pose a potential danger to her, such as threats. The paper is guilding of infringing upon her privacy. It is a very serious problem to have the Press report such a sensitive matter. Not only the individuals in the company, but also the company system must be reviewed. The Press must confirm everything before printing.

Also recentry, an unbelievable thing occurred in domestic politics. On April 21, Kenshirou Matsunami, a member of the House of Representatives and a New Conservative Party member, disclosed in the national assembly that he had received money from the head of a gangster group for the allowance of his private secretary. After that, he refused to resign. Instead, he schemed to put the matter right by cutting off his trademark topknot. This is not the action of an adult. He doesnﾕt understand what taking responsibility means. His apology in the Ethics Committee in the House of Councilors on May 21 was a repeat of, ”Iﾕm sorry,” and, ”It was imprudent.” If he really acknowledged what he had done, it is natural that he must take responsibility, not just make an apology. This is not just a problem as a member of the Diet, but as a human. He seems to have lost his moral compass.

How is it that we have leaders who have no morals or principals? All bad influences seem to come from the decline of the quality of Japanese society. If our bad behavior influences society, it will boomerang on us. Consequently, we are now losing of our common sense. Part of this problem is caused by the weakening of relationships among friends, family, and teachers.

According to the Koizumi administration, the unemployment rate is now 5.4 percent, which amounts to 3.85 million unemployed people. There is no possibility to recover from the long recession through his economic and employment package yet. Also, as a peace loving nation, Japan should act more like Germany and France and state its own opinion about the war in Iraq without worrying about what the U.S. thinks. The Koizumi administration is not doing what they must do, such as work on the economic recovery or reflect peopleﾕs true opinion. This senseless political system should be reviewed.

We ought to live in a society with morals, principles and common sense. This means we need to have an understanding of what is bad and good in order to realize our ideal for the future, and we must learn to acknowledge our own faults. Though these things seem very easy to do, the number of Japanese who canﾕt do them are increasing. Japanese society already seems rotten, but individual Japanese are more sound than society appears. If the government reflects the majority of peopleﾕs opinion, Japan will create a strong nation in both the domestic and the international society of the future.