7 members came to join the regular meeting held on January 18.
After the self-introduction and short presentation of what we did on the year-end and new-year holidays, we discussed some latest topics.

1.Lucky bags (Fukubukuro) filled with emergency goods and survival foods
Why did so many people line up to buy lucky bags? Some department stores filled the bags with useful goods for emergency early in the new-year. However, it is a little difficult to understand those shoppers’ enthusiasm to buy the bags of which contents they did not know until they open their bags.

2.New year travel exodus
As usual at the year-end, TV news show reported the rush of travelers heading abroad at Narita Airport. One of the members came back from travel in France and another lamented on short periods of the holidays.
It is a good opportunity for the Japanese to enjoy traveling overseas by making the most of strong yen.

3.Divorce of Ayumi Hamasaki
Some doubtful comments were made on the reason Ayu gave for her divorce. She said “After the Great East Japan Earthquake, I began to have a strong feeling that I don’t want to leave Japan.” Does this indicate her honest feeling? Definitely that story is a tale which may be a good real reason that Ayu left her husband alone in US and came back to Japan.

4.Luxury cruise ship accident in Italy
It is certain that the accident was caused by the human error and the poor conduct of the captain is to be blamed. On the other hand, some members made sympathetic comments on the cause of the accident. The scenery of the area, the sea shore of Tuscan, was so beautiful that the ship operator made efforts to come close as much as possible to the coast of the island to show the splendid lighted-up villages to the passengers.

5.The trouble of nation’s unified college entrance exam
More than 4500 applicants were affected by the mismanagements of the test administrators. Is the number small compared to the whole number of the applicants?

Affirmative side
1. Foreign students have cultivated the multi-cultural sense which can stimulate the Japanese employees.
2. With the shrinking domestic markets and population, Japanese companies have no other choice but to do business overseas.
3. Japanese homogeneous culture can have a new dimension by the impact foreign students will bring.

Negative side
1. Foreign students’ job hunting makes the job market more severe for Japanese students. That will also lower the employment ratio of the Japanese.
2. Foreign students generally don’t keep loyalty to the company.
3. The management of the Japanese company can’t understand foreign employees’ feelings easily. That will entangle the daily operation of the company.

The argument of affirmative side was really persuasive. The participants of the affirmative side also posed some sharp questions at the cross exam session. The debate match ended in victory of the affirmative team.