The regular meeting of English Chatting Society was held on October 26. As four people have come to join our chatting society for the first time, I started our discussion with some general topics to make them feel at ease. I get the impression that the proficiency of English of each participant has recently become heightened.

First, we discussed the issue of English as a common language in corporate culture of Japan. I cited the case of Rakuten and Uniqlo that adopted English as an official language to make the employees internationally minded. Many people seemed to make much of the contents they have to speak in the companies, though they would like to improve their skills of the language. It is generally admitted that the Japanese do not have a good command of English compared with other Asians who are good at communicating with other foreigners in English. It is appropriate to say that speaking English in companies doesn’t have much to do with the globalization of the corporate culture of Japan. As a matter of course, we should first deepen our knowledge.

Second, I picked the topic of “Fukushima joke” on French TV that brought about much criticism all over Europe as well as in Japan. The story is that a French TV host showed a composite picture of Japanese goalkeeper, Eiji Kawashima with four arms in order to imply the “Fukushima effect.” The host seems to have only wanted to praise Kawashima’s wonderful performance in a recent match. One might say that French jokes sound cynical even from the viewpoint of other westerners. However, common sense tells us that such a joke sounds malicious in every society. As a matter of fact, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius offered an apology over the joke. It can be said that “Fukushima joke” caused an offense both the Japanese public and those affected by the nuclear accidents in Fukushima. People who work in the mass media have to be very careful about their remark in public.

Third, we talked about the violent incident in the city of Okinawa. Two suspects allegedly spoke to a woman in her 20s to attack her. Okinawans really got upset by such an incident, because they have often heard such a news in the past. The U. S. military promised the government of Japan to impose such preventive measures as curfew and retraining programs for American soldiers. Do Japanese people feel entirely happy about such preventive measures by the U.S. military ? Not at all. Many of us don’t forget about the incident of the rape by the U.S. sailors in 1995. We strongly hope that the government would be more independent as a true democratic country.

Finally, we discussed U.S. gun control efforts. The reason why we chose this topic is that Hattori’s mother delivered a speech calling for stricter gun control in the U.S. on October 20. Some T.V. commentators reiterated that Americans never give up holding guns to protect themselves. The culture of possessing guns has been their tradition since the epoch of pioneers. However, a small number of Americans have come to realize that possessing weapons at home never means deterrence for the crimes.
There is a long way to go before realizing the complete abolition of holding guns in America. However, we Japanese should not stop making efforts to appeal for U.S, gun control effort.
The title of the debate was whether the removal of guns in U.S. is possible or not. Those who think removing guns is possible argued that holding a gun has already been a part of American culture. It is very difficult for Americans to change such a cultural legacy. However, the opponents insisted that Americans could rely on policemen to protect ordinary citizens from the crimes, because they are not living in the eighteenth century. The opponents also argued that Americans can put into practice the removal of guns, since they were able to go dry in the past. There is a long way to go before giving up possessing weapons at home. However, making much efforts to realize an ideal society is what politicians have to do in the Congress. I got the impression that those who supported the idea of removal of guns were more persuasive than those who opposed such an idea in the debate match.
Participants’ strong sense of commitment into the debate was really wonderful. I would like to express a sense of my gratitude to all the participants at that day.