Month: January 2016

Gamba’s Patric considering Japanese citizenship

【Summary】

The Japanese soccer team Gamba Osaka’s Brazilian striker Patric was faced racial discrimination. He is considering taking Japanese citizenship to play for Japan at the 2018 world cup finals. But on Twitter, one of the Urawa supporter criticized him as black. Patric said, “I was very disappointed. I’m proud to be black, and I really like Japan. Japan is the most well-mannered country, so I’ve never dreamt to be received racial discrimination in this country.”

 

【Opinion】

I’m very sad to hear this news. As Japan is an island country, it doesn’t have a lot of races from ancient times. So maybe it was difficult to recognize as a “Japanese” when they saw the parson whose skin color is different from theirs.  However, now the world globalization is increasing and it is natural for various people to live in Japan. Many people work in Japan and contribute for Japan. Like this article, there are lots of foreigners who wanted to play in Japan as Japanese. Though It is hard how to consider to a person as a Japanese, I think if they have their mind to play for Japan, make a contribution to Japan and like this country, they are Japanese.

The new plan for Tokyo Olympic stadium

Summary

 

In the last class, we talked about plans of a new national stadium renewed for 2020 Tokyo Olympic. At first, a plan by Zaha Hadid, renowned architect won the competition. But the estimated costs of building this new stadium was spiraling up to 252 billion yen and that plan was abolished. This incident caused a dispute and led to the resignation of the Ministers of Education and Sports. The new plan made by Kengo Kuma that won the new competition, costs 149 billion that is far cheaper than Ms. Hadid’s one. Supporters of this plan say it’s also fit better to the immediate environment and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe highly evaluated the new plan.

 

Opinion

 

I could not completely agree with the decision of cancelling the Hadid’s plan to be honest because I think Japan might lose its credit by this incident. After this, architects especially in foreign countries would hesitate to apply to other competitions held by Japanese official bodies because they might think even if he/she win, their plan could be abolished. Certainly the original Ms. Hadid’s plan costs too much and is also not acceptable to many people who pay taxes. But the treatment to Ms. Hadid’s plan by Japanese bodies including government and JOC, cancelling her plan one-sidedly seems rough and even impolite. I think the Japanese bodies should have been more careful and have to apologize to her.

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child announces lead cast

1.Summary
The two-part play Harry Potter and the cursed child has cast its lead characters. Surprisingly, black actress called Noma Dumenzweni will star as Hermione Granger, one of the main characters of the story that Emma Watson co-stared as in the movie. Some people responded negatively toward this casting. However, the author of the original story JK Rowling commented that she never mentioned about the color of the skin of Hermione and she was looking forward to seeing la k Hermione in the play. A lot of people eagerly anticipate the play.

2. Opinion
I myself got used to watch Emma Watson staring as Hermione in one of my favorite fantasy movies called Harry Potter. However, I personally think this casting in the play was plausible. Harry Potter story is based on the birding school in the UK which cost too much money for ordinary citizens. If the 3 main characters are stated by white actors and actress, it possibly emphasizes the image of the privileged class and the racism. Recently, the new movie of the Star Wars series was released and the black actor stared as one of the main characters. I think It is important to pay attention to such point of view when casting someone for movies nowadays.

Star Wars on course to land US box office record

This article is about the biggest box office record of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in North America. Ticket sales of previous record by Jurassic World are estimated to have made 238 million dollars. The Force Awakens has taken an estimated 517 million dollars globally in three days. In addition, the new Star Wars film also set a new opening night record in the US and Canada. The previous opening night record by Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is 43.5 million dollars but The Force Awakens made 57 million dollars on opening night. The new Star Wars film made a variety of new records in short period of time.

After I read this article, I surprised at the new Star Wars film’s record and I think the new title of a series is easy to get big number of people who go to the theater to watch this movie. As the record for the biggest box office debut weekend and anew opening night record show, their record’s top is held by the new one of a series. I think it’s because they have a trust about interesting and the fans become increasing with the series increase. Given that reason, I think the new title of a series is easy to make record.