Forbes reported that the immigration case involving Noriko Calderon is making Japan uneasy. I'm not sure if the reporter has any clue.

The facts of the case are very clear and cut-and-dried:

• The Calderons entered Japan illegally using forged passports.
• They stayed in Japan illegally, again without any proper documentation. They never made any effort to get visas or anything.
• They had a child (Noriko) in Japan.
• Japan does not automatically grant citizenship to people born in Japan. So as far as the Immigration Bureau is concerned, Noriko is not a Japanese citizen, despite her Japanese first name.
• Once the family got caught, the laws had to be applied to be fair to all law-abiding citizens and immigrants in Japan.

The Japanese immigration officials made several concessions and gave the family two options:

Choice A — the entire family returns to their home country.

Choice B — Noriko can stay in Japan and finish her education. She has a relative in Japan. But her parents must return to their home country. Usually deportees cannot return to Japan for five years, but the Ministry of Justice will waive the no-entry-for-five-years rule so that they can visit their daughter.

Some people seem to think that it's totally unfair that the family gets deported. But the Japanese immigration laws are very clear on the consequences of entering the country illegally and/or overstaying your visa. I'm not sure why people, esp. foreigners, think that the government should let the entire family stay just because the couple had a child in Japan. The last thing Japan wants is a flood of illegal aliens entering Japan on forged passports and having kids so that they can all live in Japan.

Besides, the consequences of allowing the couple to stay and the implication of the decision would be felt everywhere in Japan, esp. for immigrants like me. Japan will most likely increase random ID checks for foreigners so that they can identify and deport illegal aliens as efficiently as possible. I may not even be able to deliver a baby in Japan unless I can prove to my doctors that I'm a lawful immigrant. Furthermore, since the Calderons came to Japan on fake passports, etc. it may take longer to pass through immigration & customs at the international airports and seaports. And the Immigration Bureau will take longer to issue visa renewals, etc. to legitimate immigrants because it may need to check every passport's authenticity, etc.

All these things will increase the administrative cost, which will be passed on to Japanese citizens and legal immigrants via higher taxes and visa processing fees. The family was able to petition through numerous courts and legal due processes in Japan. Isn't it about time they accept that they need to pay the price for their actions?

Last night, Hero Material and I were surfing channels until we saw something so strange that we had to stop and watch: Men's Premium Bra.

At first, I thought it was a joke, but none of the people on the show was a comedian, which meant it probably wasn't.

The panel featured a company called WishRoom, which designs and manufactures bra for heterosexual men. You'd think that the company would've gone bankrupt within a week, but no. It turned out that men actually like wearing bras in three beautiful colors:

According to the male panelists on the show, the bra promoted “a sense of security”. I'm not sure what kind of security they were talking about since the word they used was “anshin” — peace of mind. Can you imagine the kind of customer testimonials?

Before I discovered WishRoom Men's Premium Bra, I dreaded the day my manly breasts would plunge to my knees. Now with the extra wire support, I can wear my dress shirt with confidence.

Thank you, WishRoom Men's Premium Bra!

Now, the company sells matching lacy bikinis and thongs. So you can buy a set for about $50 / each.

Although Aso cabinet is incredibly unpopular, it's good for one thing: providing lots of humor. Every night Aso or member(s) of his cabinet issues some kind of explanation or retraction of previous remarks that others have “misunderstood”. Sometimes I wonder if they're really Japanese since none of them seem to be able to speak Japanese language that the citizens can understand. Aso is so bad that he makes Bush sound eloquent by comparison.

So what is the recent “typical” screw-up?

Japan's Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa appeared drunk and incoherent during the G7 meeting in Rome. He denied the allegation, but the Japanese media played the tape and analyzed everything he did (and said) and declared that he must have been intoxicated, esp. since several people pointed out that Nakagawa is fond of drinking and that some call him Nakagawa Sake.

Here's Nakagawa's Q&A. You don't need to speak Japanese to know that he's totally wasted on the tape. (BTW — his Japanese was so slurred and weird that nobody really understood what he was trying to say.)

Now…you'd think that the Finance Minister from the #2 economy in the world (in terms of GDP) would display more sobriety. Japanese economy shrank by over 12%, and unemployment rate along with suicide rate is rising rapidly right now.

BTW — the latest poll showed that Aso cabinet approval rating is currently at 9.7%. Maybe it's time for Prime Minister Aso to resign. Aso's been in charge for less than six months, but still…

P.S. Nakagawa said he'd only resign if Aso asked. He also declared that his performance in Rome didn't do anything to harm Japan's standing. The opposition disagreed and demanded his immediate removal. We'll see how Aso responds. (Aso and Nakagawa are close friends.)

mood: stuffed…! Hero Material and I had three days of gluttony starting Friday
eureka of the week: figured out two important world building / plot elements in All the King's Women; must incorporate them into the current draft

Happy belated V-Day! :)

Hero Material and I ate tons of food. On Friday, I made cheese fondue — very very good! — and on Saturday, we had Italian and on Sunday, I made beef stew and a ton of garlic bread.

I still feel stuffed.

We also went to a local jewelry store on Saturday to look at some custom made rings and design diagrams (pics). I do like diamonds, but for our engagement and wedding, we decided to go for sapphires. Hero Material has six loose gems, and I love their deep blue color. The issue, of course, is the right setting.

I liked some of the designs, but it was much more than I expected to pay. And to be honest, I'm not sure if I want to spend that much money given the current economic condition (recession) and so on. Hero Material thinks that I'm fiscally conservative — meaning I don't like to spend money even during bubble — but we'll have to see. The designer told us that it takes about twenty days, so if we give her a month, she'll have all the rings ready for us.

(My mom was determined to send me hundreds of jewelry store catalogs. I had to ask her to not bother since it's really not necessary.)

Speaking of spending money…

Numerous Japanese news stations reported about U.S. “stimulus” bill's “Buy American” clause. (BTW — it was very amusing to watch it since Japan is incredibly protective of its own domestic firms.) The foreign countries' problem isn't that the U.S. is spending the money it doesn't have, but that it wishes to use that money to buy American-made steel and so on for construction projects, etc.

Now, I'm not a big fan of protectionism — I'll blog more about how it can really hurt consumers later with some examples from Japan — but come on! The bill is supposed to stimulate domestic economy. The American taxpayers are going to be infuriated if the government uses $800 billion of their money and stimulate the economy of some other countries, when American economy is in recession.

I can't help but think that the countries that complain are just looking for “free lunch”. They don't want to spend the money but still get the benefits. If they want to stimulate their own domestic industry, they too can pass a $800 billion stimulus bill.

Hero Material and I've been watching The Closer recently, and who would've thought it would manifest in my subconscious?

A couple of nights ago, I had this weird dream that Kuro committed some kind of crime. I don't even know what he did, but that's not the point of my dream. The poor hamster was arrested, complete with teeny handcuffs. Shiro, with her litter, came to the police station to defend him. I was playing the Brenda Leigh Johnson character (the investigator, if you're not familiar with the series), so of course I asked her lots of difficult questions. The poor hamster squeaked in distress, hopping around on the table, but I didn't believe that she was telling me the truth. Meanwhile the infant hamsters were writhing on the table, blind, deaf and hairless. It was just really surreal. Kuro told Shiro he loved her, and the dream more or less ended.

On the non-weird-dream / hamster front, the weather's been odd. The temperature plunged suddenly, and it's freezing here. The big news here is the “massive” layoffs of maybe 2,000 workers or so by several local corporations. In Japan, there are two tiers of employment: seishain (full-time regular company workers) and contract / temporary workers. The latter category is broken down into two categories: shokutaku shain and hakken shain. Shokutaku shain is someone employed directly by the company on a short-term contractual basis, usually for a year. Hakken shain is what most Americans consider temp workers, meaning the company got them through temp agencies. When companies decide to cut costs, they usually let go of their contract / temp workers first. Currently Japan still clings to lifetime employment, and companies have certain obligations to their seishain. That includes not firing them first, paying for their health and pension insurance premiums, giving perks, bonuses, etc. (Contract / temp workers do not receive any bonuses or pay raises, etc.) Due to all this inequity in employment, a lot of non-seishain have been protesting the recent layoffs, etc. Furthermore, IBM Japan laid off its seishain (gasp!), which created even more drama. Oi.

BTW — The Big Three bailout is a huge conversation topic in Japan. After all, it does affect Japanese firms. Auto suppliers hope for the bailout since many of them have contracts with the Big Three. I enjoy reading financial analyses, etc. but if I read another person write that Japanese firms have a huge cost advantage because they get free health insurance and pension, I'm going to scream. I've been in two countries with nationalized health care. It is not free. Everyone must pay. People pay about $400 or so per month, and if they're seishain, companies pay a big chunk of it. Companies also pay for their pensions. If that's not bad enough, Japanese companies must ensure that their workers aren't overweight or overly rotund around the middle or pay an enormous fine to the Health Ministry for overburdening the national health insurance system. Furthermore, the government had a huge screwup with its pension funds, and since Japan has too many retirees and not enough young workers, it's planning to double the sales tax. So please, stop with all this “free” stuff.

It snowed in Japan. Burr. My city was saved from the horrible white stuff (I really don't like snow), but the temperature's falling rapidly. :( It's going to be colder tomorrow.

On the writing front, I realized that I set up the entire fourth chapter incorrectly. It's a shopping / planning / conflict sharpening chapter, and I know that part is right. It's the setting and how the heroine chooses to shop that are wrong.

BTW — This is something that came up on one of the online forums I lurk. One member questioned my integrity, alluding that I'd blindly defend professional associates I have relationships with (such as literary agents, etc.).

I have no patience for incompetence. If I find someone's performance less than satisfactory, I won't defend them just because. So if you see me say something nice about some industry professional, it means I really think that person's nice.

Finally — since the Big Three begging for $25 billion from the government is a big discussion topic among many (it's huge in Japan too), I'll leave you with something to consider.

The total compensation pool (that includes salaries plus bonuses) for Honda's twenty-seven top executives, including its CEO, is $13 million dollars. That's $13 million for ALL of them, not $13 million per person.

Toyota just announced that it had reduced its directors' salaries. The company stated that it is important for Toyota executives to set good examples for its workers and that the executives must sacrifice first.

On the other hand, Rick Wagoner (GM CEO) gave himself a pay raise in March 2008. He is currently receiving $2.2 million dollars a year in salary alone. Furthermore, all Big Three executives flew in their private jets to beg for $25 billion from the Senate. ABC news reported that the round trip for Wagoner alone probably cost GM $20,000.