HEADQUARTERS
4th EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEETING
On December 10, the above meeting was held at Waseda University, Tokyo, where they summarized the previous discussion in the council meeting and reviewed the Association's activity, which was followed by proposing the coming activity inside the Association and out.
3RD INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM "EXCHANGE AND COOPERATION OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN ASIA"
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Association's establishment, the above meeting was held on December 11 at Waseda University, where there were three scientific sessions; 1) For realizing a sustainable society, 2) thinking of Asia in the world, and 3) Poster session. In the first session, presented were: (1) environmental issues in China and its strategy of sustainable development (Prof. Yan, Keio Univ.), (2) discussion on the concept "sustainable society" (Prof. Tateno, Chuo Univ.), and (3) the incompatibility of biocentrism and multiculturalism (Prof. Minami, Mie City Col.). In the second session, Prof. Irfan Habib (Muslim Univ., India) was invited to give a lecture entitled "Colonialism, modernization and the Asian identity", and Prof. Miyachi (Natl. Historical and Ethnic Museum) also gave a seminar on the theme "Asia and Japan", which was followed by enthusiastic discussion. In the poster session, two excited presentations were made: "Cooperative observation of Asian dust from the ground and satellite in northern Asia" (Kinoshita et al., Kagoshima Univ., Wang et al., Northeast Normal Univ., China, and Dulam et al., Inst. Metrology and Hydrology, Mongolia) and "Bioremediation of oil contaminated soil by means of the microbiological phenomena" (Sakon et al., Akita Univ.). At the end of the meeting, Prof. Kitamura (Emeritus Prof. of Waseda Univ. and chair of the Symposium) gave a synthetic discussion, which was followed by a closing remark (Prof. Hamabayashi, Emeritus Prof. of Hitotsu-bashi Univ.).
PEACE SYMPOSIUM
On December 17, in Tokyo, the research committee of peace question and the liaison conference for studying peace and democracy jointly organized a symposium on the title "Which way should we choose: either the way guided by the present Constitution or the way of so-called "structural reform" conducted by the Koizumi cabinet?" Dr. Kawai (chair of the committee) gave an opening lecture, which was followed by four invaluable presentations; (1) What does the Constitution aim at for developing the nation? ? Strong pressure in Japan and abroad against reforming the Constitution (Prof. Kaneko, Rissho Univ.). (2) Globalization of the Japan-US Security Treaty and the US military bases' reshuffling in Japan (Dr. Kameyama, head of the Okinawa branch). (3) What is the basic point of so-called Mr. Koizumi's reform? (Prof. Hamabayashi, a representative member of the liaison conference, and Prof. Emeritus of Hitotsu-bashi Univ.). (4) the nation's spiritual reform, controlled education, commercialistic mass media and obscurantist policy.
ARTICLE 9 OF thE CONSTITUTION DISCUSSED ACROSS thE COUNTRY
As described in JSANOW (#173), the JSA's branch has been conducting a meeting against the Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) draft "new Constitution", in which the LDP intends to adversely revise the present Constitution.
On November 24, the Yamagata branch organized a gathering entitled "Let's freely talk Article 9 of the Constitution", where they had a lecture "the movement towards reforming the Constitution", which was followed by a number of discussions on the Constitution. the Miyagi branch also organized a forum for Article 9 of the Constitution on November 26 at Tohoku University, where they had two sessions: (1) discussion of what the constitution is, and (2) panel discussion on the Constitution. In the first part, Prof. Kawai (Prof. Emeritus of Tohoku Univ.) gave a keynote report entitled "Article 9 of the Constitution, and academic and thought freedom", which was followed by speeches "Towards realization of true male-female equality" (Ms. Sato, lawyer), and "thinking of peace on the occasion of participating in the world conference against A and H ? bombs" (Ms. Ike, Tohoku Univ. Graduate Student). In the second part, Prof. Yoshida (Tohoku Univ.) coordinated the session in the presence of the speakers in the first session.
The Hokkaido branch held a forum for Article 9 of the Constitution at Sapporo Gakuin University in Sapporo on December 1, where Prof. Okuno (Muroran Inst. Tech.) gave a lecture on the title "thinking of the LDP's draft of a so-called "New Constitution", which was followed by a synthetic discussion. the Kyushu district held its district symposium on December 3 and 4 in Miyazaki City. On the first day, they had a lecture meeting "Forum of Article 9 of the Constitution", which was opened to the public. Prof. Oguri (Kagoshima Univ.) gave a keynote report entitled "the governmental real intention of aiming at reforming the Constitution and our movement of observing the Constitution", which was followed by a panel discussion in the presence of many eminent participants.
On December 3 and 4, the Tokyo branch organized the 13th Tokyo science symposium in Tokyo, which was to think of freedom, human rights and peace in participation of citizens. The theme was "the present situation of freedom, human rights and peace ? Ideal and actuality of the Constitution", in which they had four themes and seven scientific sessions: (1) peace ? "Way of realizing peace" "thinking of war responsibility", (2) labor ? "workers' fundamental human rights and labor laws" "Japanese workers under the condition in the absence of human rights", (3) Education ? "Neo-liberalism" "Present status of educational circle", and (4) society ? "What our society should be", respectively.
the Fukui branch held a forum for the Constitution at Fukui University on December 8, which was supported by the Fukui University labor union. After viewing the movie "the Constitution of Japan", they made an enthusiastic discussion on the Constitution. Also, the Kanagawa branch organized the 2nd Kanagawa forum for thinking of Article 9 of the Constitution on December 17 in Yokohama City, where Prof. Kaneko (Rissho Univ.) was invited to give a lecture entitled "How was the Constitution of Japan established?" the participants enjoyed his talk and exchanged their views on observing the Constitution.
LOCAL ACTIVITIES IN NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER
1. HOKKAIDO BRANCH
1) On November 12 and 13, the membership of three universities located at the northern area of Hokkaido gathered at Wakkanai Hokusei Gakuen University, where they discussed university education.
2) The branch organized a lecture meeting for citizens, which was on the title "thinking of easbestos' problems" on December 7 in Sapporo, where Dr. Sato (Sapporo Hp.) gave a lecture on the relation between health and asbestos.
2. HYOGO BRANC
The branch held a lecture meeting on November 18 under the theme "Many types of games (TV, video and computer) check the children's mental development", where Prof. Kataoka (Kawasaki Med. Col.) was invited to give a lecture on the theme.
3. OSAKA BRANCH
1) The study group Philosophy organized a meeting on November 25, where Dr. Sugano (Osaka branch.) gave a lecture entitled "Dr. Maki's view of science", where he pointed out his scientific consideration, the theory of elementary particles and observation of particle kinetics.
2) The meeting of the study group Energy problems was held on November 26, where Prof. Hiroshige (Hannan Univ.) gave an invaluable report on ethics and economics, where he touched upon the relation between forest and pollution.
3) The Kansai-area's colloquium for scientific workers in private enterprises was organized on December 4, where Dr. Nakano (Osaka branch) gave a seminar on the commercialized news media, especially NHK's news-broadcasting concept.
4. KYUSHU DISTRICT
On December 3 and 4, the Kyushu district meeting was held in Miyazaki City, where the first part was to discuss Article 9 of the Constitution as described above, and the second part was to review the present situation of university agencies (started April of 2004) in Kyushu.
5. MIYAGI BRANCH
The branch organized the 3rd branch lecture meeting on December 10 at Tohoku University, where Dr. Mamoru (Miyagi branch) gave a seminar on the research of the Capital (Das Kapital) and its analysis related to industry and Dr. Watabe (Miyagi branch) discussed the local agriculture in the participation of citizens.