Communication with Children

                                  (Speech to parents by a psychologist)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a real pleasure to be here to talk to you today.  I know that some teachers and health care professionals are in the audience.  Please forgive me if I ignore you.  I’m going to speak directly to the parents.

The first thing I want to say to the parents is that you are the experts.  You are the individuals who know your child best.  You must be confident of this.

One of the basic assumptions in psychology is that it is much better to talk with someone about a problem than it is to keep it inside.  This is something that human beings have done for centuries.  This is also the same thing as when you have a burden and you share that burden with someone else, somehow the burden becomes lighter.

It is necessary to have someone you can talk to about your concern of how to treat your children.  Of course a husband and a wife should speak and listen to each other.  However in addition to this, having a network of supportive parents is very important.

Please keep in mind that there is a difference between men and women in the way they communicate.  Not all women but the majority of women prefer to talk to another person for an hour or two or more about the issue.  However not all men but the majority of men prefer to talk just a little. They prefer to go out somewhere and think about an issue rather continue talking and talking.

Both ways of communication are good ways of coping.  But the difficulty comes when the wife tries to insist on using her approach with her husband, wanting him to talk more, or when the husband tells the wife she is talking too much and to leave him alone. 

Each must give the other time and space.  The wife must be given the time and space by her husband to go out with her woman friends and talk: the husband must be given the time and space by his wife to go out alone and think things through.

We think that our role as parents is to protect our children from harm.  That’s a false notion.  Protecting our children from harm is not our job as parents.  Our job as parents is to hold our children’s hands and walk them through the harm. 

It’s our job to teach them how to face the harm.  And if we can do this for our children with the little things when they are young, then they can learn how to face the bigger things as they get older.

When as an adult you try to communicate with another adult, you say “let’s talk” and then you sit down and you talk.  That style of communication does not work very well with children.  With children, you must open the door to communicate slowly, and let them know you are willing to talk.  But it is the children who have to enter your door, and they will do so only when they are ready.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Ladies & Gentlemen,

I would like to share with you today the history, the present situation, and the future prospects of the European Union.

So, let me start with a brief overview of the history of European integration.

Dating back to as early as 1946, although Europe was still under the chaotic condituations of WWⅡ, Winston Churchill, then Prime Minister of the UK, argued the necessity for creating a sort of United States of Europe.

The first event occurred in 1957.  Six countries, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Luxembourg and, Belgium signed the Treaty of Rome.  Those countries had common values such as freedom, democracy, and welfare for all citizens; and thus decided to seek common polices in Europe.

We have already done a lot in the areas of foreign policy and security.  Joint measures have been taken, for instance, to curb organized crime and illegal migration, and the introduction of a single European currency has become the basis of the European internal market. 

In traveling through Europe now, you will no longer see immigration checks among the Member States.  After January 1, 2002, money exchange became unnecessary within the Euro-zone of the12 countries.

This common currency ensures a completely free movement of goods, people, services and capital within the European Union. And this creates an open and barrier-free market of some 370 million people, which is about 20% of the world's GDP. Europe is now more competitive, dynamic and attractive in our current period of globalization.  In the future the number of Member States may increase to 27 or 28 with a poplutaion of over 500 million people.  As a result, this is expected to expand further Europe’s global role.  But bearing in mind that the EU is a collection of different countries, histories, cultures, and languages; there have been many difficulties and there is still much to be done in this endeavor.

I will like to talk a little about how things work in the EU.  The European Union is not a supranational State but rather an intergovernmental institution formed by sovereign states.  This means that all the decisions made by the Council of Ministers, consisting of the government representatives of each of the 15 Member States, must complete the process of national ratification before their implementation.  So the British, for example, made the decision not to participate in the Euro, but to maintain their currency, the Pound Sterling – for the time being.

The biggest challenge facing the Union is, of course, its enlargement.  The EU has completed its biggest enlargement in terms of scope and diversity.  The former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe have become new EU members.

These Central and Eastern European nations have experienced a big transformation since the collapse of the Berlin Wall and then the fall of the communist regimes in the eastern region.  The new and prospective members from this area have now established democratic governments while having abandoned the planned economic system and adopted instead, the market system.  The last ten years have witnessed a substantial increase in the volume of trade between the EU and the Central and Eastern European nations.  However, there are still big differences caused by half a century of political, economic and cultural separation between the two sides.

The second major issue is about economic and social gaps.  Income levels between the new and candidate countries are, on average, significantly below those of the existing Member States.  Per capita income in those prospective nations stood at merely 42.5% of the EU average at the end of the second quarter of 2002.  The same is true in the wage levels of candidate countries which are far below those of the EU.  So it is certain that people will move from the future to the present Member states, in order to get a job.

I have said a number of problems and difficulties, but I must further describe that many of these are not new and are not directly caused by the enlargement.  We need to be realistic and accept the fact that we cannot thwart the economic development and the aspirations of our neighboring countries.  We have to admit that we are not able to survive in complete isolation.  The benefits from European integration surely exceed its adverse effects.

Nevertheless, the EU will continue further with its integration.  And Europe will offer a large market with its large surface area and big population to the world.  And it will be a functioning Union, unless the Europeans forget their original intentions and their set of common values. 

Meanwhile, European companies have to undergo a phase of major restructuring.  A wave of mergers and acquisitions has already occurred.  But structural reforms are equally necessary for the governments: Europe has to implement common measures to reduce its high level of unemployment, it must scrupulously review public expenditure and taxation systems, and it urgently needs to reform its welfare state. 

All of these important issues cannot be dealt with unless there are well-functioning European institutions to support them.  So, EU institutions definitely require to be reformed to ensure efficient policy-making, and we are all anxious to see much progress in that direction. I sincerely appreciate your attention.

According to Alvin Toffler, in his book The Third Wave, there are three stages, or waves, of social development that coutries move through.  The First is the agricultural wave, the second is the industrial wave, and last but not least, is the knowledge and information wave. It is this third wave that people regard as leading to globalization. 

At the end of the Tokugawa period, Japan was the most advanced agricultural societies in the world.  Duing this long period of isolation Japan attained its own highly developed culture in a peaceful and harmonized society that had plenty of food.  The daily life of  the average Japanese person was then among the best in the world.

However, in 1853 the American Black Ships led by Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Japan. This event forced Japan to confront the industrial age.  It took Japan almost 50 years to catch up with other industrialized countries.  By the time of the Sino-Japanese war and Russo-Japanese wars at the turn of the 20th century, Japan had successfully become an industrial country. 

In the period from 1905 to 1990, the people ofvJapan underwent a lot of ups and downs with industrialization.  But again Japan was successful by 1990 in becoming one of the most industrialized societies in the world.  It had achieved a very high standard of living for most of its people.  Everyone enjoyed a high level of culture, and Japanese society took very good care of its people.

In 1990s Japan had collided with the third wave of globalization.  And more than ten years have past since this collision and the country is still drifting.  However, Japan will find its own way and it will be one of the leading countries in globalization in another ten years.

　　　　　Organizing yourself

Part 1    When to study

Many new students find it hard to do all the study that has to be done; they find themselves putting off required reading, jumping from one subject go to another and rarely being quite certain what they are trying to do during a particular study session. The best way to overcome these difficulties and to start efficiently is to plan your time and organize your work.

Let us assume that you have 15 hours per week of classes (lectures and tutorials) and that you decide to allow yourself a 40-hour working week, (a reasonable figure, leaving you 70 waking hours for other activities).

You now have to decide how to allocate and occupy the remaining 25 hours of private study. Naturally the decisions you make will vary from week to week according to what essays have to be written and what reading has to be done. Many people find it helpful to draw up each week a seven-day timetable showing the occasions on which they will be working privately and the particular subjects that they will be studying on each occasion. By checking such a plan at times during the week, you can see what work you have done and what you have still to do: the whole enterprise becomes more manageable.

Part 2   Where to study

There are a number of places where you can study-college library, public library, lodgings, home, vacant classrooms, on bus or train-and each has several obvious advantages and disadvantages. The college library is least busy in the evenings, on Wednesday afternoons, and all day Friday and Saturday.When you are deciding where to study keep the following suggestions in mind:

(a) Try to study always in the same place. After a while the familiar surroundings will help you to switch into the right frame of mind as soon as you sit down.

(b)Find somewhere with as few distractions as possible.

Smoking and Health

 This is a talk between a patient and a doctor on the issue of smoking and health.

Patient:　I suffer from such respiratory diseases as bronchitis, laryngitis and pharyngitis. So I myself don’t smoke and fear others might smoke in my presence. Could you please tell me what harm smoking does to human health?

Doctor:　Tobacco contains such harmful substances as nicotine. To inhale tobacco smoke will give rise to diseases found in the heart, lungs or blood vessels. Tobacco smoking is harmful to the smokers themselves and also to other people.

P:　What measures have been taken against smoking in various countries all over the world?

D:　In face of various kinds of harm done by smoking, the World Health Organization has set aside a World No-Tobacco Day, advising people to give up smoking.

In Canada, apart from the promulgation of the law concerning the ban on tobacco smoking, they have organized a special police force in charge of the ban on tobacco smoking, whose job is to ensure the enforcement of the law.

In the Federal Republic of Germany, they have launched a large-scale movement against tobacco smoking, urging the government to set aside a National No-Tobacco Day, and to forbid people to smoke in offices, reception rooms, restaurants or cafes.

In Italy, the departments concerning environmental protection have started a campaign against tobacco smoking on a nationwide scale, declaring the ban on tobacco smoking in such public places as offices, conference rooms, military barracks, schools, workshops, railway stations and wharfs. In Iceland and Japan, they have set up signs of ‘No Tobacco Smoking’ in public places.

P:　In recent years, newspapers have carried quite a lot of articles of appeal for the giving up of tobacco smoking and for the ban on tobacco smoking in public places. Smokers all know well the harm of smoking. But what do some of them still smoke in public places?

D:　This is because some smokers have two ‘quite convincing' reason for their continuing to smoke. The first reason is the ‘freedom of smoking’. They say if smoking is forbidden in public places, it will interfere with some people’s freedom. However, with this kind of freedom they force the non-smokers around them to inhale the tobacco smoke that is harmful to their health.

The smoker’s freedom to smoke will certainly infringe upon the non-smoker’s freedom to inhale clean and fresh air in public places. In essence, the smokers are imposing their bad habits on other people. They base their addiction on the injury of other people’s health. Smoking is a kind of uncivilized behavior that is against common morality.

The second reason is that since the state allows the production and sale of cigarettes, people are entitled to smoke at will in any places. This is another wrong idea. True that the state permits the production and sale of cigarettes.

However, it doesn’t advocate smoking. Nor does it permit smokers to smoke in any places, regardless of the health of other people. I advise those smokers to give up smoking immediately for both their own health and other’s health.

Why does a male bird have brighter colors than the female?

To understand this, we must first understand why birds have colors at all.  Many explanations have been given for the coloring of birds, but science still doesn’t understand this subject fully.

You see, the reason why it is hard to explain is that some birds are brilliantly colored, others dully. Some birds stand out like bright banners; others are difficult to see.All we can do is try to find a few rules that hold true for most birds. One rule is that birds with brighter colors spend most of their time in treetops, in the air, or on the water. Birds with duller colors live mostly on or near the ground. Another rule--with many exceptions--is that the upper-parts of birds are darker in color than the under parts.

Facts like these make science believe that the reason birds have colors  is for protection, so that they can’t easily be seen by their enemies. This is called “protective coloration.” A snipe’s colors, for instance, blend perfectly with the grasses of marshes where it lives. A woodcock’s colors look exactly like fallen leaves.

Now if the colors are meant to protect birds, which bird needs the most protection, the male or the female? The female, because she has to sit on the nest and hatch the eggs, so nature gives her duller colors to keep her better hidden from enemies. Another reason for the brighter colors of the male birds is that they help attract the female during the breeding season.This is usually the time when the male bird’s colors are brightest of all. Even among birds, you see, there can be love at first sight!

Message of Her Excellency Yoriko Kawaguchi,
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan on the occasion of
the Informal Meeting on Further Actions against Climate Change
July 2, 2003

Good morning distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, It gives me a great pleasure to host the Informal Meeting on Further Actions against Climate Change co-chaired by Japan and Brazil with the participation of officials from various parts of the world who are dealing with climate change. I believe that the discussions will benefit very much from your participation. I would also like to welcome observers from international and non-governmental organizations.
　Global warming is a serious threat to humankind that urgently requires our reinforced actions. The Kyoto Protocol is a significant first step in strengthening international actions against global warming, but it is only the beginning of our efforts towards the long-term objective of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere as provided for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In order to ensure the effectiveness of actions against global warming, all countries need to endeavor to limit and reduce greenhouse gas emissions under a common rule. It is important that we begin now the consideration of our actions after 2012.
　The Delhi Ministerial Declaration adopted last year at the eighth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP8) includes a paragraph to the effect that Parties should promote informal exchange of information to develop effective and appropriate responses to climate change. With a view to establishing a more comprehensive international rule in the future, it is important to facilitate substantive exchange of views among key countries. It is for this reason that Japan has taken a initiative to convene this meeting.
　I may remind us of the fact that the countries represented at this meeting account for nearly 80 % of total greenhouse gas emissions. While national positions and circumstances vary considerably from country to country, I am convinced that participants have gathered in Tokyo united by a common wish to contribute to the combat against climate change. Personally, I continue to have a special commitment to climate change and the Kyoto Protocol because I, as Minister of the Environment, participated in the all night sessions at COP6, its resumed session, and COP7 that led to the Marrakech Accords.

Thank you, Chair, for your introduction. Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen. 

  My name is Dan Cavanough, Vice Director of the Institute of International Politics in our university.  On behalf of the Institute of International Politics which is co-sponsoring this symposium with Maicho Newspaper Company. I want to thank, the speaker and panelists participating in this symposium from here and outside of Japan and those who are gathering on this floor from different fields.

  In this symposium, there are a number of researchers from the UK, Germany, Sweden, the US, China, South Korea, and Japan. Again, I would like to extend my special appreciation to those participants taking  valuable time from their busy schedules. 

  I hope that after attending these discussions among the people from the different countries in this symposium, the participants today will be active in disseminating the outcome of this conference on the settings of academics, media, politics, and civil movements.  Of course, we don’t regard this symposium as a closure but as a renewed starting point, and then we want to create a variety of occasions for discussions in the future.  We hope for your cooperation in this endeavor.

  Last but not least, my appreciation to Maicho-Newspaper Company, a cosponsor of this symposium sharing the same awareness of issues as we do for making this conference possible.