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Archive-name: japan/faq/part1
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: Mar 5, 2000
URL: <http://www2.gol.com/users/shimpei/scjfaq/>
Subject: (1.0) Table of Contents
(1.0) Table of Contents
(2.0) Copyright and Redistribution
(2.1) Credits
(2.2) Any mailing list for soc.culture.japan?
(2.3) How to obtain the latest version of this FAQ
(2.4) Format of this document
(3.0) About soc.culture.japan
(3.1) History of the groups
(3.2) What topics are appropriate for discussion here?
(3.2.1) Binary posts
(3.2.2) Commercial posts
(3.2.3) Spamming
(3.2.4) soc.culture.japan.moderated
(3.3) What to do before posting
(3.4) How to use kill files
(3.5) Some frequently argued topics
(3.5.1) Japan's involvement in World War II
(3.5.2) Is "Gaijin" a derogatory term?
(3.6) Why are there so few Japanese posters in SCJ?
(4.0) Bibliography
(5.0) Japanese culture and customs
(5.1) Japanese Films and TV Programs
(5.1.1) Japanese pop music
(5.2) Language
(6.0) Traveling and living in Japan
(6.1) Finding a job (for non-Japanese)
(6.1.1) JET
(6.1.2) Other English teaching jobs
(6.2) Travel Info
(6.3) Gifts to and from Japan
(6.4) Taking electronics to Japan
(6.5) Lodging
(6.5.1) Home stays
(6.6) Money
(6.6.1) Bank accounts and services for foreigners
(6.6.2) Credit cards for foreigners
(6.6.3) Currency exchange; sending cash to/from Japan
(6.7) What are the laws for Japanese citizenship at birth?
(7.0) Japanese information processing
(7.1) How to get Internet access in Japan
+ (7.2) Finding an email address for XXX in Japan
(7.3) How can I read or write Japanese on my computer?
(7.3.1) Japanese on the Macintosh
(7.3.2) Japanese on MS-DOS and Windows
(7.3.3) Japanese on UNIX, X-Windows
(7.4) Internet resources on Japan
(7.4.1) FTP/gopher sites
(7.4.2) WWW sites
(7.4.3) Newsgroups
(7.4.4) Mailing lists
(8.0) Japanese media
(8.1) Japanese short-wave radio
(8.2) Overseas subscriptions to Japan Times
(99.0) Miscellaneous topics
[+] revised entry
[!] new entry
This list is maintained by
Shimpei Yamashita <shimpei+scjfaq@gol.com>
Subject: (2.0) Copyright and Redistribution
Last update: 5/98
This document copyright (c) 1994-1998 by Shimpei Yamashita
<shimpei@socrates.caltech.edu>. Portions copyright (c) 1987 through
1995 by Jerry Blanton, Norman Diamond, Mike Fester, KASEGAWA Masataka,
Satoru Miyazaki, Mike Rosenlof, and Michiaki Masuda. All rights
reserved.
This document may be quoted freely for non-commercial purposes; please
make appropriate acknowledgment when doing so. "From the soc.culture.
japan FAQ" will be sufficient.
This document may be freely redistributed by electronic or printed
means provided that no money is charged for its distribution and that
this copyright and redistribution notice remains attached. Any
modification to the original text must be explicitly documented. This
document may not be redistributed commercially (e.g., on a CD-ROM)
without an explicit written permission from the copyright owner. Any
distributor that does obtain a permission will be required to keep
this entire document intact, and explicitly notify its customers that
the newest revisions of this document may be freely obtained from
other sources.
This document carries no guarantee of accuracy whatsoever. No mention
of a product in this document constitutes a recommendation or an
endorsement for its use by the authors. Some efforts have been made to
provide varying degrees of accuracy of the information presented here,
but some estimates have not been verified or updated with time. Should
you find any mistakes, please contact the maintainer.
Subject: (2.1) Credits
Last update: 7/97
As the editor, I have attempted to credit original authors wherever
possible. Please inform me if you see any errors in the credits.
Subject: (2.2) Is there any mailing list for soc.culture.japan?
Last update: 7/97
I get a fair number of emails asking me if there is any way to
"subscribe" to soc.culture.japan and soc.culture.japan.moderated
through mailing lists. To the best of my knowledge, no such mailing
list exists (the fact that the group gets 200 posts a day doesn't
really help). If there is one, I'd love to hear about it. Meanwhile,
the only suggestion I can give to these people is to get an account
with an Internet provider that gives access to Usenet. If you can
telnet from another account, nyx.net will give you a free account
(albeit a severely limited one in terms of resources and capability)
that can be used to read news. zippo.com also gives out Usenet reading
accounts, accessible over the web.
There is, however, an ftp archive of posts to scj maintained at
<ftp://kuso.shef.ac.uk/pub/News/soc/culture/japan/>.
If you are looking for specific articles, though, it may be easier to
useUsenet search engines like the one at <http://www.deja.com/>, which
not only has a friendlier interface but also keeps articles far
longer than kuso (to the best of my knowledge).
Subject: (2.3) How to obtain the latest version of this FAQ
Last update: 7/97
This FAQ is posted on the 4th of every month to soc.culture.japan,
soc.culture.japan.moderated, news.answers and soc.answers.It is
available via anonymous FTP from
<ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/soc.culture.japan/>
and via the World Wide Web from
<http://www2.gol.com/users/shimpei/scjfaq/>
and
<http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/japan/faq/>
In addition, many Japanese-oriented Web pages have links to the
FAQ.
Subject: (2.4) Format of this document
Last update: <11/95
This document is typeset in minimal digest format for easy navigation
in newsreaders like trn. See
<ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/faqs/>
for specifications of this format.
Subject: (3.0) About soc.culture.japan
Subject: (3.1) History of the groups
Last update: 7/97
Soc.culture.japan started out as a BITNET mailing list that was
administered from one of the machines at MIT. Sometime in or around
1987, the newsgroup soc.culture.japan was created, and the articles
between scj and the mailing list were gated back and forth for quite
a while. The mailing list apparently no longer exists, and the audience
for scj has grown much wider since.
In June 1996, a group of scj readers unhappy with the high noise level
in scj created soc.culture.japan.moderated as an alternative to scj.
The group's aim was to have a relatively low-noise forum for free
The full version of scjm's history may be found in the scjm FAQ mentioned
in section 3.2.4.
Subject: (3.2) What topics are appropriate for discussion here?
Last update: 7/97
(This section mostly applies to s.c.j.moderated as well; the chief
difference is that the moderators can and will enforce some of these
policies, whereas s.c.j. relies on the honor system. Please read the
s.c.j.m FAQ described in 3.2.4 for details.)
At my site, s.c.j. is described as "Everything Japanese, except the
Japanese language." What is meant by "Everything Japanese" is not entirely
clear. Please use your judgment when posting.
Like most other big newsgroups, s.c.j. has its share of regular flame
fodders. These are discussed in more detail in section 3.4. If you would
like to voice your opinion on these subjects, you would do well to lurk
for a while to hear what others have to say about it. (This is a sound
advice for any topic in any newsgroup, but people tend to forget it.)
Customarily, posts to s.c.j. are in English. Many readers outside Japan
have trouble reading posts written in kana (in fact, some readers have
complained because their terminals go crazy when dealing with 8-bit
characters), so it is advisable to post strictly with ASCII characters
if you want everyone to read what your wrote. Many Japanese-literate
posters circumvent this problem by writing in romaji when necessary.
If you do not understand Japanese and would like to know what a particular
post was saying, most posters would be happy to translate the passage for
you if you email them and ask.
Lastly, remember that many of the posts to s.c.j. are written by people
who use English as their second language. As such, misunderstandings due
to language difficulties are very likely. If you feel compelled to fix
grammatical mistakes, please email the poster and save the rest of the
net the agony of reading cheap grammar flames.
Subject: (3.2.1) Binary posts
Last update: <11/95
In interest of people with small news spools, please refrain from posting
binaries to this group. If you feel you have binaries worth sharing with
us, please post them to alt.binaries.pictures.misc and post a pointer
to scj.
Subject: (3.2.2) Commercial posts
Last update: <11/95
Commercial posts are generally discouraged unless it has specifically to do
with Japan and there is no other newsgroup more appropriate for the subject.
Those posting about job opportunities in Japan are encouraged to add the
string "Jobs offered" in the title so that those who are not looking for
jobs can run kill files on them.
Subject: (3.2.3) Spamming
Last update: <11/95
Two words: NO SPAMMING! (See the FAQ for alt.current-events.net-abuse for
the definition of spamming.) It is a highly disliked activity on the Usenet,
as well as an effective way to lose your account really fast.
Subject: (3.2.4) soc.culture.japan.moderated
Last update: 11/96
soc.culture.japan.moderated is a moderated alternative to
soc.culture.japan. A FAQ on the group's moderation policy is to be
posted regularly to the group; the current maintainer is Akira Ijuin
<aijuin@best.com>. The most important restriction is that the group
allows no external cross-posting except to soc.culture.japan; the
moderators do watch for off-topic posts but tend to be fairly generous
in approving articles.
Properly configured news servers will automatically forward any posts
to moderated newsgroups to the appropriate moderators; if this is not
the case at your site, you may submit posts by mailing them to
<scjm@eyrie.org>. The moderators can be contacted at
<scjmmod@eyrie.org>.
Subject: (3.3) What to do before posting
Last update: 7/97
Read news.announce.newusers.
Read the rest of this FAQ.
Read up on Japan, and the issue you wish to discuss, before posting.
Nothing kills a good discussion faster than ignorant generalizations
by someone who has strong opinions about an issue with no facts behind
them. Keep an open mind when reading the sources. Do the same when
reading this newsgroup. The bibliography included in this FAQ should
get you started.
None of us like political correctness more than you do, but you should
nevertheless refrain from using derogatory terms. "Jap" is a very
strong derogatory term for "Japanese," and using "Gaijin" for "foreigner"
is offensive to many foreigners. I included a short discussion about
this in section 3.5.
Is soc.culture.japan and/or soc.culture.japan.moderated the most
appropriate group for posting? Below is a list of other newsgroups
that may better fit what you want to talk about:
soc.culture.asian.american
soc.culture.korean
soc.culture.china
soc.culture.taiwan
soc.culture.hongkong
soc.culture.usa
soc.culture.europe
...
soc.history.world-war-ii
sci.lang.japan
rec.arts.manga
rec.arts.anime
comp.research.japan
alt.japanese.text
The fj hierarchy comes to some sites outside Japan, but you need to have
a Japanese-capable terminal to read it. See section 8 for details. An
exception is fj.life.in-japan, which is mainly in English.
Should you post to soc.culture.japan or soc.culture.japan.moderated?
The latter has much better signal-to-noise ratio and a more manageable
traffic level, but the former allows crossposting to other groups and
is unmoderated, which prevents moderators from rejecting your
posts. If you feel that your post should be visible in both groups,
you may crosspost between scj and scjm.
Lastly, read all of section 3 one more time. This group represents a
cross section of many different cultures with different attitudes
toward Usenet. Remembering that not everyone is like you will go a
long way toward preventing unnecessary quibbles.
Subject: (3.4) Kill files
Last update: <11/95
Kill files are great for shutting out posts you do not wish to read in
a high-noise group like s.c.j. This instruction is for rn(1) and
trn(1) only. If you use another newsreader, check the manuals for
instructions.
In all of the examples below, strings for searches, those inside
slash (/) characters may be regular expressions like those used in
ed(1). Searches are generally NOT case sensitive.
When reading articles from any newsgroup, control-K allows you to
edit the KILL file for that newsgroup (note: that's control-SHIFT-k.)
To discard articles with subject lines matching a string, add a line
like
/unwanted topic/:j
the string within the slash characters is searched for on all article
subject lines, and when found, the command 'j' (junk the article) is
executed. If you add a ':=' to the end of the command it will
print that subject line so you can go back and read it anyway if you
like.
/unwanted topic/:j:=
To discard articles cross posted to a particular newsgroup, add a line like
/Newsgroups:.*bad.group.name/h:j:=
to be strictly correct, you would add a backslash (\) before
the dots in the group name, but this is usually OK.
To discard articles from a particular author, add a line like
/From:.*Author Name/h:j:=
or this works in my version of trn
/Author Name/f:j:=
This looks for the author's name as it's reported in the article header.
The name can be either the real name or e-mail address.
More detailed information can be found in the man page on rn(1) or trn(1).
Subject: (3.5) Some frequently argued topics
Last update: <11/95
There is a document covering the Frequently Argued Topics (FAT)
currently in the works. Contact Mike Fester <mfester@iisc.com>
for details.
Subject: (3.5.1) Japan's involvement in World War II
Last update: <11/95
This is a sticky issue that pops up periodically in this newsgroup and
inevitably causes considerable flamage. I have attempted several times to
write an objective overview of the issue, but it is simply too hard to
write anything substantial on the issue without offending somebody.
If you wish to discuss this topic, please make an effort to maintain
constructive discussions (as opposed to finger-pointing and blanket
accusations, which is prone to happen during heated debates). If you
want a more controlled atmosphere, you may also want to try
<news:soc.history.world-war-ii>, a moderated newsgroup.
Subject: (3.5.2) Is "Gaijin" a derogatory term?
Last update: <11/95
This issue crops up occasionally as a heated debate in this newsgroup.
Gaijin is a contraction of the word gaikokujin, and literally means
"foreigner". The Japanese language has several cases of using "gai"
(outside) with a noun to indicate one of <noun> from another country.
Gaisha for foreign cars, gaijin for foreign people, gaika for foreign
currencies.
Some people are deeply offended by the word, saying that "gaijin" refers
to outsiders rife with undesirable characteristics. There is no doubt that
is one meaning of the word.
"Gaijin" is also used in many cases where it is probably not intended
as a negative statement. Consider that it is common in the Japanese
language to address people whose names are not known, or even if names
are known, by titles: omawari san, Mr. Policeman; sushiya san, Mr.
Sushi Shop. It is not unusual for a Japanese speaker to call a non
Japanese who is otherwise not known, "gaijin san".
It should be noted that:
The language also has much stronger words for cases where a speaker
wants to discriminate or insult.
and
Non-Asian foreigners _will_ be called "gaijin" by many Japanese.
Subject: (3.6) Why are there so few Japanese posters in SCJ?
Last update: 11/95
From: Michiaki Masuda (masuda@ncifcrf.gov)
Some netters visit SCJ expecting that they may be able to find a
number of Japanese netters to communicate with. However, they
usually find that their expectation is rather betrayed. It would be
safe to say that Japanese netters have never been a majority in this
group despite its name. In 1991, when I started to read this group, there
were only a couple of Japanese netters who post articles once in a while.
Even though the number of Japanese SCJers has apparently increased since
then, their number would be still too small for the group to live up to some
netters' expectation.
Since SCJ appears to have been initiated by some netters in the US as a
mailing list for them to exchange information on Japan, its existence might
not be known to many Japanese at first. However, this should no longer be
the case. Today, a significantly large number of Japanese have USENET
access, and quite a few of them are said to read SCJ. A number of Japanese
are also actively communicating with each other in Japanese domestic
groups, such as those under the "fj" hierarchy.
There are probably three major reasons why they are not interested in
actively speaking up in SCJ.
[1] English problem
Most of Japanese netters, like other netters, are under the impression that
they have to use English in SCJ although there is no such restriction. In
general, Japanese feel uncomfortable when they have to express themselves in
English whether their English skills are actually passable or not.
[2] Uninteresting topics
Some of the topics often discussed in SCJ are not major interests or
concerns of the Japanese netters, especially those living in Japan. They
can find somewhere else to go to (e.g., fj groups) to talk about current
issues more closely related to their life. It seems also true that some
netters use SCJ to deliver their anti-Japan(ense) sentiment in a rather
revealing manner. Whether those pieces of message are to the point or not,
many Japanese may feel like staying away from them as a natural response.
[3] Different argument styles
Due to the larger number of American or European netters, it appears
that the Western style of debate or argument is accepted as a general standard
in SCJ. Although the Western style has its own virtue and merits, it may
come out as something too straightforward, too explicit, too aggressive, or
even too impolite to the eyes of Japanese netters. Obvioulsy, not many
Japanese netters are willing to adapt themselves to a different standard.
Since we cannot really hear from those Japanese netters who decide not to
speak up in SCJ, we can only speculate about the reasons. However, those
listed above seem to give us the most plausible explanation. Whether SCJ
should encourage more Japanese netters to participate or not may be a
controversial issue. If it should, however, netters -- both Japanese and
non-Japanse -- may want to keep these factors in mind when they post an
article or respond to others.
Subject: (4.0) Bibliography
Last update: 2/97
There is a lot of material written about many aspects of Japanese
culture, and available from many more authoritative sources than a
computer news group. This bibliography lists a few widely available
titles that are aimed toward general readers, not sociologists. Some
of the books listed have their own bibliographies for further study. A
search of any good library's catalog will list many more.
Note: for sake of consistency, all Japanese names in this FAQ are written
given names first.
Japanese Society and Culture:
The Japanese Mind; Robert C. Christopher
A general introduction to Japanese society. Widely available. Includes
a bibliography.
Learning to Bow; Bruce Feiler
An American teaching English at public jr. high schools in rural
Japan. Describes the educational system, relations between Japanese
and foreigners, and other aspects of current culture.
Japanese Things; Basil Hall Chamberlain
Describes Japan at the beginning of the Meiji era (from 1868). Some
parts are dated, and therefore more of a historical reference, others
still apply.
The Book of Tea; Kakuzo (Tenshin) Okakura
The book that made tea ceremony famous around the world. The book
itself is rather old, but it is an overview of the tea culture that
is insightful even to native Japanese.
History:
Japan; Edwin O. Reischauer
A brief introduction to the long history of Japan. Not great, but
widely available.
History of Japan; Sir George B. Sansom
A considerably more extensive history. 3 volumes.
Literature:
Yasunari Kawabata
Snow Country
Thousand Cranes
_Snow_Country_ is one of the most famous novels in Japan. It
describes the relationship of a teacher from Tokyo and a geisha
at a small hot spring resort.
Soseki Natsume
Botchan
Kokoro
Sorekara (published in English as _And Then_)
Soseki is considered by many to be Japan's greatest author, and
_Kokoro_ is often considered his most important novel. Botchan
is earlier in his career, a much more lighthearted story.
Yukio Mishima
Temple of the Golden Pavillion
Mishima is perhaps, as famous for his 1970 storming of the Japan Self
Defense Forces headquarters and subsequent suicide as for his writing.
Many of his novels have been translated to English. Mishima is probably
more popular outside Japan than at home.
Junichiro Tanizaki
The Makioka Sisters
The Key
Some Prefer Nettles
Tanizaki lived through approximately the same time as Mishima, but
was much more popular in Japan than Mishima. "The Makioka Sisters"
and "Some Prefer Nettles" have the transition from traditional to
modern (westernized) Japan. Widely available in English.
Ryunosuke Akutagawa
Rashomon
The Hell Screen (Jigokuhen)
Words of a Fool (Shuju no Kotoba)
Akutagawa was active in the early 1900's. His short stories
are often inspired by _Konjaku Monogatari_, a collection of
stories from the Heian era. Akira Kurosawa's movie _Rashomon_
was inspired by his short story of the same name. His stories
are available in English in the collections "Kappa," "Tales
Grotesque and Curious," and "Rashomon and other stories."
The following authors and collections represent modern Japan. They may
never reach the stature as the authors listed above, but some are popular
and all represent to some degree what's happening in Japan now.
Kobo Abe
The Woman of the Dunes
Beyond the Curve (short stories)
Abe is sometimes called the Edgar Allen Poe of Japan. Similar
macabre or twisted type stories. Died in January 1993.
Kenzaburo Oe
Man-en Gannen no Futtoboru (English title: The Silent Cry)
Kojinteki na Taiken (English title: A Personal Matter)
Winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize in literature, Oe is said to
be heavily influenced by Western writings; his bold style contrasts
with the sensitive style pursued by Kawabata and others.
Haruki Murakami
A Wild Sheep Chase
The Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Murakami is a current best selling author in Japan. These
two novels are (sometimes wild) fantasy adventures.
Shuusaku Endo
Silence
The Sea and the Poison
Endo passed away in 1996. A devout Roman Catholic, Endo explored
the problem of morality (and lack thereof) in contemporary
Japanese society. He was also an excellent humorist, although
few--if any--of his humorous works have been translated into English.
The Showa Anthology; Van C. Gessel * Tomone Matsumoto Ed.
Includes stories by some of Japan's most
respected authors.
New Japanese Voices; Helen Mistios Ed.
More recent than _The_Showa_Anthology_.
Monkey Brain Sushi; Alfred Birnhaum, Ed.
Also very recent. 11 short stories by authors including
Murakami, Masahiko Shimada, and Amy Yamada.
Banana Yoshimoto
Kitchen
A popular female author.
Economics and Business:
Made In Japan ; Akio Morita
Widely available in the U.S. Morita is the founder of Sony. Describes
where Japan went right, and others.
The Political Economy of Japan; K. Yamamura and A. Y. Yasuba, eds.
Covers many aspects of Japanese economics and Politics, easy for
non-specialists to read.
Religion:
On Understanding Japanese Religion; Joseph M. Kitagawa
A collection of essays, on topics ranging from prehistoric background
of Japanese religion, cross-cultural influences, folk religion,
Shinto, Buddhism and Kobo Daishi, Confusiansim, and New Religions.
H. Byron Earhart
_Japanese Religion: Unity and Diversity_, 1982
H. Byron Earhart
_Religions of Japan: Many Traditions within One Sacred Way_, 1984
Ichiro Hori
_Folk Religion in Japan: Continuity and Change_, 1968
Ian Reader
_Religion in Contemporary Japan_, 1991
The following are OK, but not great references.
Shinto, The Kami Way
Tuttle publishing. A brief overview of Shinto organization and practices.
Japanese Pilgrimage; Oliver Statler
Partly historical fiction, partly Statler's writing about walking a
pilgrimage to 88 temples in Shikoku.
Computing:
Understanding Japanese Information Processing; Ken Lunde
The author has been a frequent SCJ contributer in the area of Japanese
text processing. It comes highly recommended from several sources.
Subject: (5.0) Japanese culture and customs
Subject: (5.1) Japanese Films and TV Programs
Last update: <11/95
There are a number of books on Japanese film. The following is an
introduction.
Beverley Bare Buehrer,
Japanese Films: A Filmography and Commentary, 1921-1989
Contains credits, plot synopsis and comments on a number of Japanese
films that are available dubbed or with English subtitles.
Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi are considered by many film critics
to be the greatest of Japan's directors. Kurosawa's "The Seven Samurai"
and Mizoguchi's "Ugetsu Monogatari" along with Yasujiro Ozu's "Tokyo
Story" have at times appeared on the Sight and Sound magazine's once
every ten years poll of film critics.
Kon Ichikawa has directed a few movies that have made it to the U.S. and
Juzo Itami has been popular for "Tampopo" and "A Taxing Woman".
The following companies are sources of Japanese movies, some on film,
some on video.
Sony Video Software, 1700 Broadway, N.Y., NY 10019
Balzac Video, 1253 Tanager Lane, West Chester, PA 19382
Embassy Home Entertainment, 1901 Avenue of the Starts, L.A., CA 90067
Connoisseur Video Collection, 8455 Beverly Blvd., Suite 302, L.A., CA 90048
Video Yesteryear, PO Box C, Sandy Hook, Conn. 06482
New Yorker Films, 16 W. 61 St., N.Y., NY 10023
Historical Films, PO Box 29035, Chicago, IL 60629
Media Home Entertainment, 5730 Buckingham Parkway, Culver City, CA 90230
Pacific Arts, 50 N. La Cienega Blvd., Suite 210, Beverly Hills, CA 90211
Corinth Films, 34 Gransevoort St., N.Y., NY 10014
Republic Pictures Home Video, 12636 Beatrice St., L.A., CA 90066
In many larger cities, especially on the west coast of the United
States, there are Video stores that rent tapes of movies and TV
programs directly from Japan. These tapes are generally NOT subtitled,
and TV programs have commercials and everything. Some of these rental
outlets are in grocery or book stores that carry a lot of Japanese
goods.
Subject: (5.1.1) Japanese pop music
Last update: <11/95
Try
<ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/>
for graphics and other such stuff.
There are two mailing lists available for discussion of Japanese pop music.
1) send the command
subscribe jpop
to majordomo@tcp.com
2) send the command
subscribe
to jpop-request@ferkel.ucsb.edu
Subject: (5.2) Language
Last update: <11/95
Language issues come up regularly in this newsgroup. Even though
language and culture are directly linked, the newsgroup sci.lang.japan
is preferred for discussions about the language. The newsgroup is also
linked to the NIHONGO mailing list. The FAQ for sci.lang.japan is posted
from time to time.
To subscribe to the list, send an e-mail message to:
Listserv@mitvma.mit.edu or
Listserv@mitvma.bitnet
with no subject and the line
SUB Nihongo <your REAL name>
Please don't send messages for subscription or unsubscription to
the addresses for posting on the list.
To post an article or question, just send it as normal e-mail to:
Nihongo@mitvma.mit.edu or
Nihongo@mitvma.bitnet
The article will be distributed to all the readers of the list and
posted automatically in the newsgroup sci.lang.japan.
Please don't send articles to the addresses of subscription and
unsubscription.
To do other things, send an e-mail message to:
Listserv@mitvma.mit.edu or
Listserv@mitvma.bitnet
with no subject and the line
HELP
as the message
The FAQ file has info on computer programs for learning Japanese,
other Japanese-study information, and information about text processing
on various computers that may or may not be more up to date than this
FAQ.
The sci.lang.japan FAQ is available at
<http://www.mickey.ai.kyutech.ac.jp/cgi-bin/japanese> (Japan)
or
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Throughout history, we can see how we have been strategically conditioned to come to this point where we are on the verge of a cashless society. Did you know that the Bible foretold of this event almost 2,000 years ago?
In the last book of the Bible, Revelation 13:16-18, it states,
"He (the false prophet who deceives many by his miracles--Revelation 19:20) causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666."
Referring to the last generation, this could only be speaking of a cashless society. Why? Revelation 13:17 states that we cannot buy or sell unless we receive the mark of the beast. If physical money was still in use, we could buy or sell with one another without receiving the mark. This would contradict scripture that states we need the mark to buy or sell!
These verses could not be referring to something purely spiritual as scripture references two physical locations (our right hand or forehead) stating the mark will be on one "OR" the other. If this mark was purely spiritual, it would indicate both places, or one--not one OR the other!
This is where it really starts to come together. It is incredible how accurate the Bible is concerning the implantable RFID microchip. This is information from a man named Carl Sanders who worked with a team of engineers to help develop this RFID chip:
"Carl Sanders sat in seventeen New World Order meetings with heads-of-state officials such as Henry Kissinger and Bob Gates of the C.I.A. to discuss plans on how to bring about this one-world system. The government commissioned Carl Sanders to design a microchip for identifying and controlling the peoples of the world—a microchip that could be inserted under the skin with a hypodermic needle (a quick, convenient method that would be gradually accepted by society).
Carl Sanders, with a team of engineers behind him, with U.S. grant monies supplied by tax dollars, took on this project and designed a microchip that is powered by a lithium battery, rechargeable through the temperature changes in our skin. Without the knowledge of the Bible (Brother Sanders was not a Christian at the time), these engineers spent one-and-a-half-million dollars doing research on the best and most convenient place to have the microchip inserted.
Guess what? These researchers found that the forehead and the back of the hand (the two places the Bible says the mark will go) are not just the most convenient places, but are also the only viable places for rapid, consistent temperature changes in the skin to recharge the lithium battery. The microchip is approximately seven millimeters in length, .75 millimeters in diameter, about the size of a grain of rice. It is capable of storing pages upon pages of information about you. All your general history, work history, criminal record, health history, and financial data can be stored on this chip.
Brother Sanders believes that this microchip, which he regretfully helped design, is the “mark” spoken about in Revelation 13:16–18. The original Greek word for “mark” is “charagma,” which means a “scratch or etching.” It is also interesting to note that the number 666 is actually a word in the original Greek. The word is “chi xi stigma,” with the last part, “stigma,” also meaning “to stick or prick.” Carl believes this is referring to a hypodermic needle when they poke into the skin to inject the microchip."
Mr. Sanders asked a doctor what would happen if the lithium contained within the RFID microchip leaked into the b (...)