TsukuBlog

Some changes have been been made to the Traffic Law which will come into effect on June 1, 2008. Here is an overview of the changes (from what I understand).

1. Changes to the rules regarding bicycles driving on the sidewalk

You may ride your bicycle on the sidewalk under the following conditions.
- If there is a sign that specifically permits riding bicycles on the sidewalk.
- If you are under 13 or over 70 years of age.
- When you have to because of road or traffic conditions.

Cyclists must ride slowly on the part of the sidewalk that is designated for bicycles. However, if there are no pedestrians on the part of the sidewalk that is designated for bicycles, or if there are no pedestrians who are trying to walk on that part of the sidewalk, then cyclists can go at a safe speed using proper and safe riding techniques. Pedestrians must also make an effort to avoid the part of the sidewalk that is designated for bicycles.

2. Children must wear helmets when riding bicycles or when being carried on a bicycle that is being driven by someone else.

3. All passengers must wear seatbelts, including those in the back seat. If the driver or any of the passengers are not wearing a seatbelt in a car that is driving on the toll highways, the driver will be punished.

4. Elderly drivers (above 75 years of age) must display an “elderly driver” mark on their cars. People between the ages of 70 to 75 years of age “should” display the mark. (The elderly driver symbol is in the shape of a tear drop. It is cut down the middle and the left half is orange and the right half is yellow.)

5. People who are hard of hearing are now able to get a driver’s license if they use a special wide mirror. They must display a “hard of hearing mark” on their cars. Other drivers are forbidden from cutting off or aggressively passing cars with such marks. (The “hard of hearing” symbol is a green circle with a yellow butterfly inside.)

More Information

• Ibaraki Prefectural Police Website (Japanese)
• Topics on Traffic and Safety on the Police Website (Japanese)
• Amendments to Traffic Laws (Effective June 2008, Japanese)
• Amendments to Traffic Laws (Effective September 2007, English)
• Basic Traffic Safety Instructions (English)

The Clean Tsukuba By-Law came into effect yesterday (November 1, 2007). Here are some of the rules that we now have to follow.

1. Littering
It is forbidden to litter anywhere within the city. Punishment: official warning.

2. Pet Droppings
It is forbidden to leave pet droppings anywhere within the city. Punishment: official warning.

3. Graffiti
It is forbidden to deface anything within the city with graffiti. Punishment: official warning, possible misdemeanor.

4. Printed Matter
It is forbidden to distribute printed matter and not clean up the area where it was distributed. Punishment: official warning to the person who distributed the printed matter, or the person who ordered the distribution.

5. Smoking While Walking
It is forbidden to smoke while walking in designated areas (anywhere within the area enclosed by Kita Odori, Minami Odori, Nishi Odori, and Higashi Odori, anywhere near the Tsukuba Express stations [Tsukuba Station, Kenkyu Gakuen Station, Banpaku Kinen Koen Station, Midorino Station], the road on Mt. Tsukuba starting from the big, red gate).

6. Outdoor Advertising
Outdoor advertising is subject to laws and regulations.

7. Bicycles
Bicycles must not be abandoned within the city. Abandoned bicycles may be removed in accordance with the Tsukuba Abandoned Bicycles By-Law.

8. Land Management
Land must be managed in accordance with the by-law.

In addition, companies that operate vending machines must provide litter bins, attach reflective stickers, and assign someone to be responsible for dealing with litter.

Source: Tsukuba City Newsletter, November 1, 2007

Does anyone have any more information about this new (I think) development? What do they mean by long-term residents? Anyone who is not a tourist? Does it include permanent residents?

New Long Term Residency Requirements: Japan recently modified its Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act. The law now requires that long-term residents provide satisfactory evidence that they do not have a criminal record in their home country when renewing their resident card. To obtain such proof, U.S. citizens with long-term resident status in Japan need to contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and provide it with a copy of their fingerprints. To request such service, please follow the guidance listed here. For more details about the Japanese requirements, check with the nearest immigration office in Japan.

Source:
U.S. Department of State
Consular Information Sheet: Japan

I am getting really annoyed at being treated like a criminal suspect just because I am foreign. What is it with all this action against foreigners these days? We seemed to be moving nicely away from that trend in recent years with the fingerprints being removed from our Alien Registration Cards. I am feeling distinctly unwelcome, these days, in the country I have called home for ten of the past twelve years…

Correction

It seems that this law has something to do with people of Japanese descent (Nikkei) who immigrate to Japan. I don’t understand the particulars, but people who are not of Japanese descent should not have to do this. If I can find more information about this, I will post it here. In the meantime, it seems that the page above on the Department of State website is misleading.

A poem by Ellen Talleon, resident of Tsukuba, in honour of Barack Obama’s election to the presidency of the United States
November 5, 2008

History rewrites itself …

What a historic, epic moment
There will never be a time
Captured for all eternity
That will thrill and dazzle
As today.

When a Man of Color
Stands in the threshold
Of a portal so long
Open only, so it seemed
To the Whites in color and race.

When a Man of two races
As diverse as black and white
Origins as divergent
As East, West and North
Comes to the pinnacle
Of ultimate power in the
Western world.

Will such defining moment
Help redeem the world as
It stands on such turmoil
Material as well as spiritual
That it needs a country
As huge and overpowering
Led by a certain kind of Man
To turn it right again?

And will the Man of Color
Stand true to his promise
To make a difference
To serve the world
Even outside borders
And heal all rifts and
Bridge all divides
Of color and faith.

Will such an event
Be a momentous
Triumph of the human spirit
As it strives to redefine
Itself into what is right
And Fair and destined by Fate?

Ask me later, not today
For who can foretell
What will transpire
Beyond the glory and sheer greatness
of today’s special moment in history.

I am a member of the International Relations Subcommittee of the Tsukuba Science City Network. The committee exists to promote international exchange in Tsukuba, especially as it pertains to science and technology, and it includes various people from research and educational institutes around Tsukuba and representatives of the city and prefectural governments.

The committee has just completed one project and is looking for suggestions about where to focus its energy next. If you have any ideas about how to improve international relations in Tsukuba, please feel free to get in touch with me. Your ideas could include:

• ways to make Tsukuba a more international city
• ways to make Tsukuba more appealing to foreign researchers who are invited here
• ways to make it easier to live in Tsukuba
• ways to increase the profile of Tsukuba in the world

Feel free to “think big” and brainstorm, as well as coming up with ideas that just need a little bit of work to implement. Your ideas can be in point form, or you can write out a full proposal — anything is fine. I cannot promise that your ideas will be implemented, but I will promise to pass your thoughts on to the committee so they can get an idea of Tsukuba looks like from our perspective and how we might like to improve things.

I am not sure yet when the next committee meeting will be held, but it will probably be in about one month or so. If you come up with any ideas in the meantime, please feel get in touch with me (through TsukuBlog).

Jon Heese, a long-term resident of Tsukuba who now has Japanese citizenship, is hoping to become the first foreign-born City Councillor (つくば市議会議員) in Tsukuba (and the third one in Japan). He was born in Saskatchewan, Canada and he came to Tsukuba in 1991.

The election will be held on October 26 and he is officially allowed to start campaigning on the 19th. Have a look at his website and get in touch with him at jon@aishiterutsukuba.com if you want to help him with his campaign.

Jon Heese, who ran for City Council this past week, has amazed and impressed his supporters (and possibly even himself!) by coming in second!

Tatsuro Igarashi (LDP) came first with 4,463 votes and Jon (no party) came second with 4,011 votes. Forty people ran in the election with 33 people being voted in. A total of 89,364 effective votes were cast. The full record is available on the City Hall website.

Jon says that his first order of business will be “to try and get Joyo and Kanto banks to make their machines bilingual. Ideally they will also allow their customers to withdraw money 24 hours a day, if only from the Seven 11 machines.”

The Tsukuba community congratulates Jon on his impressive win! We look forward to hearing about his adventures in politics!

If you have to renew your visa or get a re-entry permit, you might find the Immigration Procedures Handbook from the Immigration Bureau of Japan useful. Also, the list of necessary documents will help you know what you need to bring in order to apply for various permits and extensions.

The Ministry of Justice has decided that all foreigners (including permanent residents) entering Japan must be fingerprinted and photographed. The Ministry’s excuse for this is a long list of terrorist acts, none of which happened in Japan.

See the peppy video: Landing Examination Procedures for Japan are Changing!

Personally, I don’t like the idea of being treated as a criminal just because I am foreign. If they want to implement draconian measures like this, they should apply to everyone entering Japan, not just foreigners. If they could get the Japanese public to agree to this kind of treatment, then I wouldn’t be as upset about it.

More information on Debito Arudou’s site.

(Thanks to Melissa N. for the information.)

The law covering lost items changed this Monday (December 10). Here is an overview of the new rules (as I understand from watching the news).

1. Items that are not returned to their owners will be (1) given to the person who found them, (2) sold, or (3) destroyed after three months. (This used to be six months.) The choice of which action will be taken depends on the item. For example, items that involve personal data (mobile phones, computers, USB sticks, credit cards, etc.) will be destroyed.

2. Certain items will only be kept for two weeks and then sold. Items in this category include umbrellas, clothing, and bicycles. Exceptions to this rule are brand-name umbrellas, top-of-the-line bicycles, and clothing that has a person’s name on it. The decision about whether to apply the two-week rule or not will be left up to the individual police officers.

3. Animals used to be kept by police departments for one or two weeks and then sent to the pound (where there are destroyed if the owner cannot be found within a certain amount of time). It is now possible to skip the police department and send the animal directly to the pound. However, in this case, the length of time the animal stays alive is shortened.

Also, the police will make it possible to search for lost items via the internet. Here is the website for searching for lost items in Ibaraki. The search function is also available on the mobile site of the Ibaraki Police.

If you are in a store or a train station and you find something that seems like a lost item, please hand it to an employee of the store or station. If you find something on the road or in a park, please hand it in to the police.

The Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare recently made it illegal to put age restrictions on jobs. I am relieved to learn this, as it always bothered me to see age limits such as “under 35″ on job descriptions in Japan. I can’t prove that there is a direct connection, but it seems like specifying that you want a younger employee means that you can justify keeping the salary low, and that makes it easier to keep salaries low for women in contract positions. Anyway, I think this new law is a good step towards making hiring practices more fair. I’m not sure whether it is still okay to specify whether you want a male or a female employee, as I have also seen a lot of ads like that here. Hopefully that will be outlawed soon too, if it hasn’t already been.

Information in Japanese about the new law

Some of you may have received bills for your pension payments this past week. If this is the first time you received such a bill, perhaps you don’t know that when (if?) you return to your home country, you can apply to get some of the money that you contribute to the Japanese Pension Fund refunded.

This is known as a “Lump Sum Withdrawal Payment”.

Please see: Social Insurance Agency: Lump-Sum Withdrawal Payments and this one too

Once you get a refund of the lump sum (a few months after applying for it), you can then apply to get a refund on the tax you paid on your pension. However, this entails having someone with a bank account in Japan to receive the money on your behalf and then send it to you, so you will have to ask someone who is going to remain in Japan to help you with that part.

You will need to do some preparation before you leave Japan in order to receive this refund, so keep this information in a safe place and remember to start working on it at least one month before you leave.

From BAD IMPRESSIONS: Japan’s new policy of fingerprinting foreigners is cack-handed and callous by Arudou Debito, Metropolis Magazine, October 26, 2007, Issue #709

If you haven’t heard about the new immigration procedure coming into effect next month, it’s time you did. It will affect not only tourists and frequently traveling businesspeople, but also long-term residents. You will be targeted by a useless and xenophobic system, treated as fresh off the boat no matter how long you’ve lived here.

From November 20, 2007, all foreigners crossing the border into Japan will have their fingerprints and mug shots taken. Their biometric data will be stored for 70 years, and shared with other governments just in case of—well, just in case.

>> Read the rest

What can you do?

Sign the petition. (There is also a Facebook cause page.)

Print bilingual protest letters and hand them in as you clear Customs.

Any other ideas?

If you want to talk to someone at the Board of Education, you have to go to the Toyosato Branch Office of Tsukuba City Hall. If you want to update the details on your Alien Registration card, you have to go to the Sakura Branch Office of Tsukuba City Hall. If you want to talk to the mayor, you have to go to the Yatabe Branch Office of Tsukuba City Hall.

Confusing? Yep, it sure is. The reason there are so many city government buildings in Tsukuba is because Tsukuba was originally made up of separate towns and villages that had their own local governments. When the towns and villages merged to make what is now Tsukuba City, the old local government offices were taken over by the new city government and each given a slightly different task.

While this system is commendable, in that it made good use of buildings that were already there, it is outrageously confusing to people who have just arrived in Tsukuba, and not a little bit frustrating to anyone who has had to visit several different buildings in different corners of the city in order to complete some official business.

This is all set to change. Plans are afoot to build a new, integrated city hall building 500m to the west of Kenkyu Gakuen Station. The building is going to be 7 storeys (34m) tall and 20,385m2 in total floor space, set on a 66,000m2 campus. It is set to be completed in the Spring of 2010 (although after all the waiting we had to do for the Tsukuba Express to start operation, I am not holding my breath).

Here are some pdf files that will give you an idea of what it is supposed to look like.
View of Exterior
View of Interior
Assembly Hall
Design Plan (in Japanese)

Source: Tsukuba City Hall Website

When you are living in Japan, but you cannot read Japanese very fluently, it may seem like it is impossible to find out about things that are going on. To be honest, even if you can read Japanese, it can be hard to find things out — like the schedule for the events at Tsukuba Capio and Nova Hall. These events used to be listed in the city hall newsletter, but for some reason, the city government decided to stop publishing the information when they went to once-per month distribution of the newsletter. (It used to be published twice per month.)

I don’t always have time to translate the information that I find around Tsukuba, but I think that it is important to at least let people know about it so they can find out more if they are interested. The latest Tsukuba City Hall Newsletter was published today, so I made a list of some of the topics you might be interested in finding more about. The links below all go to pages in the latest newsletter, so the information is all in Japanese. However, if you want to find out more about a particular topic, print out the relevant page or get a copy of the newsletter from somewhere around Tsukuba and find someone to translate the information for you. (Or, you could use it as a reading exercise if you are studying kanji!)

Tsukuba Industrial Fair
October 10-12, 2008
See: Page 1

Tsukuba Culture Festival
November 1-9, 2008
See: Page 2 and Page 3

Rabies Shots for Dogs
See: Page 6

Tsukuba Citizen’s Day
November 30, 2008
See: Page 7

Health Checkup for Students who will Enter Elementary School in 2009
(Children born between April 2, 2002 and April 1, 2003)
See: Page 8

How to Start Receiving Digital Broadcasting
See: Page 8

City-run Kindergartens Accepting Students for 2009
See: Page 9

Nursery Schools Accepting Students for 2009
See: Page 9

October is Ibaraki Tree Month
See: Page 9

Tsukuba City Hall has published a 144-page document with various statistics related to the city. The document is only available in Japanese, but it is a treasure trove of information about the city.

For example, there is a diagram on page 15 (of the pdf file, page 5 of the paper document) that outlines the history of merges that created the city. I knew that Tsukuba was created out of Toyosato Town, Oho Town, Sakura Village, Yatabe Town, Tsukuba Town, and Kukizaki Town, but I did not know that Toyosato was originally Kamigo Town, which itself was originally Kamigo Village.

Page 25 (page 15 of the paper document) lists statistics on the weather from 1998 to 2007, including annual average temperatures, annual high and low temperatures, annual average humidity, annual average wind speed, annual precipitation, and hours of sunlight. It also lists the monthly amounts of the above variables for 2007.

Page 26 (16), says that the area of Tsukuba is 284 km2 with a population of 206,661 (as of October 1, 2007). The population density is 727.5 people per square kilometer. The average household had 2.5 people. There were 5.7 births per day and 3.5 deaths per day. 37.2 people moved into the city per day, and 30.3 people moved out of the city per day. 3.6 couples got married per day and 1.0 couples got divorced per day. As of October 1, 2007, there were 7154 foreigners living in the city, representing 127 countries.

Page 27 (17):
4388 books borrowed from the library per day
1452 people used community centers per day
1.5 cars per household
19 ambulances sent out per day
0.3 fires per day
4.1 traffic accidents per day
207.5 tonnes of garbage produced per day
177,910 yen of municipal tax paid per person
108.3 city hall staff members per person in Tsukuba (1878 staff members in total)

Page 28 (18) has a chart that puts Tsukuba in perspective in Ibaraki.
4th in Ibaraki for size, but 1st for residential land
2nd in Ibaraki for population
14th for population density
7th for youth population
2nd for working-age population
43rd for senior age population
6th for births
51st for deaths
4th for incomes (3.7 million per person)
21st for number of hospitals per person
3rd for number of medical clinics per person
1st for number of doctors per person
10th for number of nurses per person
4th for number of traffic accidents per person
4th for number of traffic fatalities per person

Page 31 (19): Population
More men than women
Drop in population every March, influx every April
More people in the city in the daytime than the night
Page 48 (36) has a breakdown of the foreign population

Page 51 (38): Industry

Page 72 (57): Land

Page 79 (60): Residential

Page 85 (63): Parks

Page 89 (65): Water and Sewage

Page 93 (67): Security
1489 traffic accidents in 2007, 15 fatalities, 1955 injuries, 6505 instances of damage to property

Page 99 (71): Environment and Sanitation

Page 105 (74): Consumption

Page 108 (76): Welfare and Social Services

Page 116 (81): Education

Page 122 (85): Elections

Page 126 (86): Finance

Page 134 (91): City Hall Employees

It all started with noble enough intentions. Installing electricity-generating windmills at
elementary and junior-high schools throughout Tsukuba City in order to make them energy independent. Excess energy would be sold to power companies. Greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced. This would stimulate the local economy as well as instill in Tsukuba’s school children environmentally friendly values. It all fit in perfectly well with the progressive image that the Science City has been trying to create for itself.

The city government then forked out millions of dollars to a Waseda University subsidiary company to construct and install the generators. Excitement ran high at Tsukuba’s schools as students planned to gather daily data on power production and the benefits of GREEN ENERGY.

The windmills, which when erected looked like giant eggbeaters stood upright, proved to have one, FATAL flaw. They DIDN’T MOVE! Well sometimes they did when fierce winds picked up in March. But most of the time, it was as if they just not made to rotate. As you can imagine, everybody was disappointed. Especially the kids! Science project plans had to be scrapped. When guests came to visit, the schools, in order to cover up the embarrassing truth, used electricity (LOTS OF IT!) to artificially turn the blades!

As might be expected a political scandal ensued, with various citizens groups accusing (rightfully so!) the city government of WASTING TAXPAYERS’ MONEY. The city responded by suing Waseda University (rightfully so) for selling them useless windmills. The story was reported in the national and international press. This not only brought shame on the government of Tsukuba Science City, but also presented possible ammunition for all the enemies of alternative energy use and GREEN undertakings in general.

The strange thing is that, though completely useless as generators, the windmills were seen by some (including myself) as objets d’art, possessing enough aesthetic and symbolic value to merit letting them stay standing. Their unmoving presence was certainly an everpresent reminder to school children to THINK CAREFULLY before doing any expensive shopping!

Unfortunately, these Waseda designed disasters have proven themselves so poorly designed that they cannot even be left standing as monuments to a failed idea. On April 1, 2008, the blades on one of the windmills at Yatabe Minami Elementary School came to life in a strong wind. Just after noon the blades, which had until then hardly moved at all, broke away from the base and came crashing down! Luckily, there were no injuries (it was spring vacation).

Because of this incident, the city decided that it was necessary to dispose of all the windmill blades. More money to be spent!

For the politicians, making these embarrassing symbols of government incompetence (and possible graft) disappear will come as a great relief.

For those of us who believe that the windmills should stand as a strangely beautiful reminder of this long and absurd episode in Tsukuba history, there is nothing but a feeling of loss.

Recently, the court decided that Waseda had to pay back 70% of the money it received. However, even though Tsukuba City has won in court, there is still no closure. Waseda has vowed to fight on and has appealed the ruling (I cant imagine how they have the nerve to do that since not only did the windmills not work, but they broke, endangering school children!)

When this case finally ends, I hope the lawyers turn their sights to the company that sells the nets to Tsuchiura’s lotus root growers. In that case, not only are the taxpayers being bilked out of millions, but the nets are slowly killing thousands of wild birds as well, while the fields go unprotected.

As of today (November 20, 2007), all foreign residents will have to be fingerprinted and photographed when we enter the country. Here is a little animation that illustrates nicely how this is going to work: Welcome to Japan. (Animation courtesy of Nick Wood, found on Arudou Debito’s blog).