I'm participating in the ranking.Please click and cheer for me.
Will the issue of separate surnames for married couples change the concept of family in Japan?The issue is not gender equality but the concept of ``home'' that is unique to Japan.
The issue of selective marital separation has recently become a hot topic in Japan. Japan is the only country in the world that has a family registration system that stipulates husband and wife status by law.
A growing number of people are arguing that this is gender discrimination and that it is acceptable for couples to have different surnames. The origin of the problem is that when a woman gets married, she usually takes the man's surname, so it is difficult to use her maiden name at work, or to change information in social procedures, banking, and various other contracts.
However, it is logically incorrect to view this as gender discrimination. This is because under the current law, equality is guaranteed because the surname must be chosen from either a man or a woman. The question becomes what it means for a husband and wife to use the same surname.
In Japan, the concept of family has been around since ancient times, and when you get married, you move into a family. A married woman moves into a man's house and becomes part of his family. There is a cultural background that makes her a member of the family, including her ancestors. The child born there will take the family name of that family. Uji means belonging to the same group, and dates back to the surname system in ancient times.
Japanese people are taught to respect the concept of home and to act in a way that lives up to the name of home. A family crest is a symbol of a family.
In the West, the idea seems to be a little different. Children seem to think that they belong to both the father's and mother's families. In this case, there are four grandfathers and grandmothers, and they belong to the four people. I wonder if the next idea will be to belong to eight people. If you go back in time, you will belong to 100 people.
In other words, the way of thinking about Japanese houses is completely different. In Japan, people search for their ancestors by tracing one family line. In this respect, the opinion that we should refer to Western countries seems to be a rather wild opinion.
Japan has the imperial family as a symbol of the family. The issue of separate family names for married couples and the issue of male lineage inheritance seem to be unrelated, but they are closely related.
The imperial family has stubbornly protected the traditional Japanese concept of home. Joining the imperial family means joining the imperial family. As a unique entity, the imperial family does not have a clan. When a male member of the imperial family marries, the woman he marries loses his family name.
This is stipulated in the Imperial House Law, but when a female member of the imperial family marries and becomes a commoner, like Her Imperial Highness Princess Mako, or a former female member of the imperial family says she does not want to take her husband's name, she is considered a commoner. If current laws are followed, will women remain members of the imperial family? Or will they live a normal life without having a surname?
The Liberal Democratic Party is reluctant to promote separate marriages. This is also because we see it as a problem not with gender equality, but with Japan's unique cultural background and the concept of the Japanese home, which is the foundation of society. Japan has an imperial family that has been connected uninterrupted since recorded history, unlike any other country in the world. Japan has a history of following this model of inheritance.
In Japan, there is a ``misunderstanding'' that the inclusion of the ``Kojiki'' in school education violates the constitution, which prohibits religious education.
When asked about the idea of teaching the Kojiki in compulsory education, I was surprised to find that even self-proclaimed conservatives became so passionate about counterarguing it. When I asked the basis for this objection, I was told that the ban on religious education is written into the Constitution. And it seems that there are many people who are poisoned by the self-deprecating historical view that Shinto led to the Greater East Asia War. These people have no understanding of religious education.
Legal opinions have already been issued regarding religious education under the Constitution, and education should not promote a specific religion or exclude or deny a specific religion. Alternatively, the view is that it is education that recommends one to take refuge in some kind of religion, or that it is education that says one should not devote oneself to some kind of religion. Simply put, it's just that education that propagates or excludes religion is no good.
I wonder if Christianity comes up when explaining Michelangelo's murals. If you look at The Last Supper, would you explain who the person in the center is and what kind of circumstances the painting depicts? Why do we know that the founder of Islam was Muhammad and that the founder of Buddhism was Buddha? In other words, in Japan, we firmly believe that such things should not be taught only in Japanese Shinto.
Japanese people know the story of Golgotha Hill and the story of Adam and Eve, but they do not know what kind of being Amaterasu Omikami is or what kind of being Qiong Qiong-no-Mikoto is. It is said that there are more than 80,000 shrines across Japan, which are said to be the most religious facilities in any country in the world, but these should not be explained.
In other words, the interpretation of Japan's ban on religious education is that only Japanese Shinto should not be mentioned. Or there are teachers of the Japan Teachers' Union who are poisoned by a self-deprecating view of history and give off-the-record lessons as if Shinto led to war, showing the children a sense of justice that does not advocate Kimigayo. This is Japanese religious education. Far from being dangerous, there is no other religion as peaceful and tolerant of other religions as Japanese Shinto. On the contrary, GHQ feared the Japanese's familial view of the nation and their unbelievable power of integration, and simply eliminated the Shinto religion at its core.
Isn't Japanese Shinto necessary to teach Japanese culture? Because they are not taught, they cannot learn deeply about Japanese culture. There is no law that prohibits explaining the religious background that is a prerequisite for studying a culture.
What do teachers who refuse to sing the national anthem teach children? Kimigayo is the very essence of Japanese culture that has been passed down since ancient times. ``Kimigayo'' is a tanka poem that appears in the Kokin Wakashu. In the Kokin Wakashu, it begins with ``Waga Kimi wa.'' It was put to music during the Meiji period, and officially became Japan's national anthem in 1999, when the ``Law Concerning the National Flag and Anthem'' was enacted. Until then, it had been handed down from ancient times in Japan.
Does it matter for whom Kimigayo was composed? The main idea is to pray for the eternal prosperity of the other person's life, family, and descendants, and it is important that the concept of eternity is expressed as ``until the rocks turn into rocks and become covered with moss.'' It is included in the anthology of ancient and modern waka poems because its outstanding expressiveness moved people, and it has been passed down from generation to generation. If you were not familiar with the poems in the Heian period, it is clear that they had been written and loved long before that.
It was composed at various celebratory occasions, and it no longer matters who the author wrote it for. Since the Meiji era, songs have been written about You as the Emperor, and if you value His Majesty the Emperor, who is also a symbol of the Meiji Restoration, it is no wonder that people sing it like that.
If this song exists to help us imagine and pass on the spirituality of the ancient Japanese people when they prayed for the happiness of others, what on earth should Japanese educators teach? I wonder if it is.
His Majesty the Emperor, who continued researching fish, discovered 10 new species - two were announced at academic conferences after his abdication.
Most members of the imperial family enroll at Gakushuin University, and their academic majors are not related to politics, economics, or military affairs. The reason is said to be that the Emperor, as a symbol of Japan, is not involved in these activities. Emperor Showa studied biology, and when his attendants said that the grass they cut around the Imperial Palace and Fukiage Palace was ``cutting weeds,'' he said, ``There is no such thing as weeds.''
``Every plant has a name, and each grows in its own favorite place. We shouldn't take a one-sided approach and label it as a weed. Be careful,'' he said. .
In 1964, His Majesty the Emperor Emeritus, then Crown Prince, visited Thailand with Her Imperial Highness Princess Michiko. When he met with King Bhumibol Adulyadej and learned about Thailand's current situation of food shortages, he proposed to King Adulyadej that they try growing tilapia as a protein source. Upon returning to Japan, he donated 50 tilapia raised at the Akasaka imperial estate to Thailand.
When former King Bhumibol Adulyadej bred them in his palace pond, the number of young fish increased to 10,000 in a blink of an eye due to their ease of raising and strong reproductive ability. They were sent to various places through the Fisheries Experiment Station, and became a source of food for the Thai people. Even today, it is a common fish in Thailand under the name Pranin. Pura is an abbreviation for Emperor, and Nin is the kanji for Akihito read aloud.
His Majesty the Emeritus also majored in biology and mainly conducted research on fish. In June 2021, after the Emperor's abdication, two new species of goby were discovered, and His Majesty the Emperor himself named them ``Awayukiftus goby'' and ``Sebosyftus goby'' and announced them at an academic conference. A total of 10 new species of fish have been discovered and announced to the world by His Majesty the Emperor.
The only one in the world? Japan eats raw eggs. Why are raw eggs safe in Japan? Egg rice is a soul food in Japan.
Japan seems to be the only country in the world that eats raw eggs. Japan is known as a country where tap water is drinkable, but you might think it's a similar story, but it's not. In Japan, tap water is drinkable because it is soft and sanitary water is thoroughly controlled, and eggs are only born from chickens, so there is no difference in countries around the world.
Even if you explain it as a food culture, eggs are probably eaten all over the world, so why did Japan come to eat eggs raw? You might think it's a matter of Japanese tastes, but foreigners say that sukiyaki is delicious, and even simple rice with egg is delicious. Could it be that only Japanese people noticed the taste of raw eggs?
If you ask foreigners, they will tell you that raw eggs are dangerous. Then, I wondered why Japanese eggs were so safe, and when I looked into it, I found out that Salmonella bacteria is contained in the parent hens' feces and urine and seems to penetrate through the egg shells. Alternatively, if the parent chicken is infected with Salmonella, eggs infected with Salmonella will be born. Current Japanese poultry farms take thorough measures to prevent Salmonella, which is why they can even be eaten as raw eggs.
Then, when did Japan start eating raw eggs? When I researched it, I found that before the Edo period, food derived from animals was avoided due to the influence of Buddhism, and there seems to be a mention of raw eggs in the Edo period. Later, there was a mention of tamago kakigohan (egg-dried rice) in the Meiji period, and it is said that Ogai Mori also liked eating it.
When I researched Salmonella, I discovered that it was named after Daniel Salmon, a bacteriologist who discovered the type strain of the Salmonella genus, Hog cholera, in the United States in 1885. It became. In the Edo period, there would have been no recognition of Salmonella.
In summary, Japanese people did not have any biological knowledge about Salmonella, but they did know that if parent chickens were kept in an unsanitary environment, the baby eggs would have fatal problems if eaten by humans. On the other hand, they knew that if they thoroughly managed and cleaned the chickens, this problem would not occur.
