What is the next Gengo?

Reiji Nakano(B3)

Happy New Year!! This winter is the last winter of Heisei. Heisei ends in this April and next Gengo starts from May 2019. Do you know the meaning of Gengo? It is the first time to change Gengo in my life, so I’d like to think about Gengo in this essay.

According to Tokoro, Kure and Yoshino (2018), Gengo is one of the chronology method which comes from China. In China, people counted years by naming the year when Emperor succeeded to the throne. The name of Gengo relates auspicious things, so the Kanji which was used in Gengo has good meaning, for example, 永(ei=eternity),　建(ken=build), and 和(wa=peace). This system was established by Han dynasty (BC202~AD8, AD25~220). While Korea, Vietnam and Japan introduced Gengo in addition to China, Japan is the only state still uses Gengo.

The first Japanese original Gengo is 大化(taika) in 645. After that 247 Gengoes were used in Japan. Gengo was frequently changed when unlucky things happened such as earthquake, famine and fire. Since 1868, Gengo has been used by one emperor (一世一元の制). The emperor abdicates the throne at the end of April, so Heisei ends and new Gengo starts in May 2019.

Then, what is the next Gengo? According to Gengo law, Gengo is created by some experts commissioned by the prime minister and decided by a cabinet meeting. Gengo has some conditions. For example, Gengo has good meaning, is constituted by two Kanjis, can easily read and write. Gengo was based on Chinese classic. By the way, Heisei(平成) is the abbreviation for 内平外成or地平天成. It means domestic(内) and foreign(外) become(成) peaceful(平). I can’t imagine next Gengo, but I wish next era became peaceful and happy time.

P.S

These days I’m absorbed in a novel. The title is Tenno Kumiai which means emperor union in English. It’s the story of self-proclaimed emperors in Japan right after World War Ⅱ. They make union and insist on abdication of Emperor Hirohito to become emperor themselves. This is a very funny novel. If you have a free time, please read it.

Reference

Tokoro. Kure. Yoshino. (2018). Gengo. Tokyo, Japan: Bunngeisyunnjyuu.

NHK News Web (https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/web_tokushu/2018_0207.html) 2019/02/09.

[イベント]国際シンポジウム「新たな政治経済地図」

私も司会を務めさせていただく国際シンポジウムが宇都宮大学にて開催されます。皆さん是非ご参加ください。

＊詳細は以下のリンクにアクセスください。

　http://www.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp/topics/2019/01/007215.php

【日　時】　平成３１年２月６日（水）

１３：００ ~ １６：３０

【会　場】　宇都宮大学 峰キャンパス 峰ヶ丘講堂

言　語：英語・日本語（同時通訳有）

【講　演】

「エネルギー移行における炭素資源の役割」  ジャコモ・ルキアーニ教授（ジュネーヴ国際開発高等研究所）

「移民が果たす政治的機能：中東の事例から」  松尾 昌樹 准教授（宇都宮大学）　

「エネルギーと政治経済的地域統合：東南アジアを事例に」  石戸 光 教授（千葉大学）　

Whether Customers Are Gods or Not?

Yu MUKAI（B3）

I saw the news that the number of “customer harassment” will increase in December and January. “Customer harassment” means an excessive complaint and an annoying behavior to service providers by customers. For example, these customers tend to shout abusive words, demand kneel down on the ground (we call this behavior “dogeza” in Japanese) and post real name on SNS. According to the questionnaire by the labor union in Japan, about 70% of the 80,000 respondents answered that they experienced excessive complaints. Furtheremore, there were about 600 people who became mental illness due to customer harassment.

I took up this topic because I have a part-time job at a restaurant and I also experienced the customer harassment. Here are two most unfogottable experiences. The first is a drunken person was loudly singing and uttered harsh words. Moreover, the person angrily useed violence with clerks because the dish ordered was out of stock. In the end, we called the police. In another example, when I asked an elderly man, “When should I bring desert to you?” (Some customers eat desert before meals so clerks always ask this question), he said “desert is after meals is a matter of course. Are you stupid?” and demand an apology.

According to a TV program “Close-up Gendai（NHK）”, there are two main reasons why such “customer harassment” often happens in the modern society. The first reason is that the excessive service inJapan makes customers expect too much. Another reason is that the disparity in income levels has expanded. Probably, some people who are dissatisfied with their social position release their stress by expressing complaints to clerks. Besides, “Customer harassment” particulally increases in December and January, because many people enjoy Christmas, year-end parties and New Year holidays, but some peopleare more likely to feel the gap from these events.

As mentioned above, some Japanese tend to look down on clerks. However, what I wanted to tell you the most is customers are not Gods and clerks are not servants or slaves, and vice versa.Clerks stand on equal footing with customers. In my experience, it is important to have the courage to not individually respond to excessive complaints and companies should protect clerks from these situations. The ILO(International Labour Organization) and The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Japan recently move to take measures against “customer harassment.” I will work with courage to make a good workiplace without customer harassment.

P.S.

A Fujii seminar year-end party was held at a Japanese style bar in the end of December. This was my first time to sit and talk to the third grade seminar students and a professor Fujii. I was nervous at first, but it was a lot of fun and the time flew by. We became lively over love stories the whole time. The second grade seminar students who participate this seminar as observers unfortunately didn’t take part in this party, but I would like to talk with them a lot the next time. Of course, these was no customer harassment during this party!!