HEADQUARTERS
12TH MINI-SYMPOSIUM OF SCIENTIFIC WORKERS' RIGHTS
The research committee "Scientific workers' rights" is to publish "Ethical code for scientific workers" and "Declaration of scientific workers" in order to establish the scientific workers' rights in every working place. The committee's drafts have openly been discussed in the Association, which is to polish and refine them in the presence of membership. The above symposium was held on September 3 in Osaka, where the committee's organizer explained the draft's contents, which was followed by five invaluable comments to the ethical code and declaration.
3RD EXCUTIVE COUNCIL (EC) MEETING HELD IN TOKYO
It was held on September 4, where councilors formulated the plan of activity that had been designed at the 2nd EC meeting, which included the subject of how to manage the 40th anniversary's celebration of the Association, e.g. an international meeting entitled "Exchange and cooperation of science and technology in Asia".
28TH NATIONAL SYMPOSIUM OF NUCLEAR POWER GENERATION PROBLEMS
On September 10 and 11, the above symposium was held in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture, under the title "Nuclear power generation at the turning point and Ishikawa-Prefecture's 40 years for operating generators ? Shiga and Suzu generators', those generators' deterioration, and measures against earthquake." Dr. Iida (Ishikawa branch) gave a keynote speech entitled "Movements against the reactors' construction in Ishikawa Prefecture and their generators at the turning point", which was followed by three scientific sessions: (1) earthquake and generators, (2) generators at the turning point, and (3) newly occurred problem and discussion related to generators.
SYMPOSIUM "REGISTRATION OF eIWAMI GIN-ZAN' ON THE LIST OF WORLD HERITAGE"
On the occasion of registration of "Iwami Gin-zan (Iwami silver mine)" on the list of the world heritage, they discussed its historical value and the importance of preserving its historic relics on September 11 in Ota City, Shimane Prefecture, where there were four scientific reports: (1) mine relics in the world, (2) registration of "Iwami Gin-zan" with the world heritage, (3) development and history of the mine, and 4) proposal of "Iwami Gin-zan" trust movement, which was followed by a number of comments and discussions.
LOCAL ACTIVITIES IN SEPTEMBER
1. TOHOKU DISTRICT SYMPOSIUM
Last November the Koizumi cabinet disclosed so-called "Trinitarian reform" (named by the cabinet), which is composed of: (1) transfer of a revenue source (basically controlled by the central government) to the local governments so that they can utilize a revenue collected as tax without paying to the central government, (2) drastic reduction of the governmental subsidy, and (3) reform of a grant-in-aide system. The Trinitarian reform links to a chain of the governmental reform plan, but it would strongly affect the educational system, the social security and the public works, especially in local governments.
The Tohoku district therefore organized a meeting entitled "The Trinitarian reform and Tohoku region" on September 3 and 4 in Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture. On the first day, Prof. Shimizu (Fukushima Univ.) gave a keynote speech on the title "The Trinitarian reform and local self-organization", which was followed by panelists' reports: (1) compulsory education in the relation between the local and central governments, (2) the Trinitarian reform and social security system, and (3) the Trinitarian reform and public works. On the second day, there were two scientific sessions, where they discussed: (4) the Trinitarian reform and Tohoku region, and (5) present university situation - one year after transformation [on April 1, 2004, all the national universities were transformed to "university agency" (or independently managed agency)].
1) On September 15, the study group Contemporary capitalism organized a meeting, where Prof. Iwahashi (Han-nan Univ.) gave a lecture on Japanese capitalism and extraordinarily monetary shuffling.
2) The branch's summer school was held on September 18 and 19 in Tan-nowa, Osaka Prefecture, where they discussed: (1) Japanese democracy before and after the pacific war, (2) Japanese constitutional pacifism and Okinawa Prefecture, and (3) constitutional revision and international law in relation to Iraq war.
2. YAMAGATA BRANCH
The latest Korean-Japanese cooperative movie "Annyong Sayonara" (documentarily reports making clear why the Yasukuni Shrine's question must be solved to "peacefully say good bye" to the past terrible history) was screened on January 30 at Yamagata University in the presence of its film director.
3. AOMORI BRANCH
The branch organized a symposium "Nuclear power and nuclear fuel problems ? Thinking of the bankrupted governmental policy for nuclear fuel cycle" on September 17. The government had decided to pile up all the nuclear waste for recycle use at Shimo-kita peninsula in Aomori Prefecture, but all the projects were bankrupted and the accumulation of the nuclear fuel waste becomes surprising. They discussed: (1) nuclear recycle policy and its future, (2) nuclear fuel problems ? past, present and future, (3) temporal storage of nuclear waste and citizens' movement, and 4) new nuclear power generator.
4. KANAGAWA BRANCH
The branch held the first "Constitution forum" on September 17 in Yokohama City, where Dr. Kawai (Tokyo branch) gave a seminar entitled "The USA-spearheaded constitutional revision ? Fear of the triple alliance (USA, UK and Japan)."
5. FUKUOKA BRANCH
The 2nd colloquium was held at Kyushu University, where Dr. Hagishima (Fukuoka branch) gave a seminar on a baroque urban art, which was followed by a branch's council meeting.
6. TOKYO BRANCH
1) The Hachi-oji science forum was held on September 29 in Hachi-oji City, where Dr. Osada (Tokyo branch) gave a lecture on the US's new nuclear strategy and information technology.
2) The peace seminar "The Professor Kaneko's peace seminar" was held on September 30, where Prof. Kaneko (Rissho Univ.) comprehensively analyzed the outline of the draft for constitutional revision, which had been written by the Liberal Democratic Party's Research Commission on the Constitution
INTERNATIONAL
The 74th Executive Council Meeting of the World Federation of Scientific Workers (WFSW) was held on September 23 and 24 in Paris, at which Prof. Kitamura (Emeritus Prof. of Waseda Univ., representative council member of JSA) represented the Association, where they discussed the future activity in the WFSW.
STOP CONSTITUTIOANL REVISION
In the last election campaign speech, leaders of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) sidestepped the issue of revising the Constitution, although these parties call for Article 9 to be amended in their manifestos. The LDP sets in motion the establishment of a new constitution to change the basic structure of Japan. The revise of the Constitution is a serious matter that necessarily affects the Japanese peoples' livelihoods, their rights, and the nation's future. Therefore it should have been a major election issue, but by their lodging an in-depth national discussion, voters could not pass judgment on it in the election. In the LDP's first draft of a new Constitution, they propose to totally delete Article 9's provision declaring that Japan will neither possess war potential nor exercise the right of belligerency, stating that Japan maintains self-defense armed forces that are allowed to totally carry out operations abroad to contribute to ensuring international peace and security, and that the Japanese people shall endeavor to actively contribute to these activities. But, we must recognize that "peace and security" never be compatible with any military operation. The Komei Party, the LDP's coalition partner, has supported deploying the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) in Iraq in violation of the Constitution principles of peace. Though its manifesto states that paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 9 of the Constitution should firmly be maintained, it states that adding provisions affirming the existence of the SDF and therewith Japan's international contribution to the Constitution needs to be discussed. Anyhow its basic stance is to join with forces promoting constitutional revision. The DPJ in its manifesto states that the party will present the public with suggestions concerning the Constitution, indicating a clear manifestation of the DPJ's willingness to draft a constitutional revision through its seeking to achieve consensus with the LDP and Komei. On the other hand, the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party called for defense of the Constitution as the most important discussion point in the last election campaign. By cooperating with them in the parliament and outside a grass-roots movement across the country, we must necessarily call for all provisions of the Constitution to be defended and clearly oppose any moves to adversely revise the Constitution to bring Japan into a nation fighting wars abroad, since only by standing firmly for the peace principle of the Constitution can Japan win the trust of Asia and the rest of the world ? this is the absolutely right direction for constructing world peace, as has already been mentioned in the first item of the peace principles (the Hague Peace Citizens Convention held in 1999). (S. YUASA)