Sumo is the national sport in Japan, however, like in India where field hockey is the national sport and cricket is the most popular sport, baseball would arguably be the most popular sport. 20 years ago I wouldn't have used the word arguably but the professional baseball game has lost some of it's popularity with many of the best players in Japan going stateside to try their luck in Major League Baseball with carrying degrees of success,
Since Hideo Nomo blazed a trail to Major League Baseball immortality, many Japanese players have followed. Names like Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui have become household names in the United States. Ichiro has in fact beaten a few records and just recently posted his 4000th professional baseball hit. For cricket fans, I think that is probably the equivalent of 35 test centuries.
The role of the foreign player in Japanese professional baseball hasn't been so glorious with the odd exception. Until today the record in NPB for home runs in a season was 55. This is one of the most revered records in the Japanese game. It was set in 1964 by the Japanese batting legend Sadaharu Oh. It was always thought that a Japanese player would break the record. In fact when Hideki Matsu signed with the Yomiuri Giants, he was given the number 55 jersey. American Randy Bass threatened in 1985 but was walked every time he came to plate when he got to 54. Two other foreign players, Tuffy Rhodes and Alex Cabrera hit 55 home runs in the 2001 and 2002 seasons respectively but were also walked or not challenged when they came up against the Fukuoka Hawks who were ironically managed by Sadaharu Oh.
The above situation was dramatized in the movie starring Tom Selleck called Mr.Baseball in which Tom's character gets to 54 and then is thrown garbage. Once again for cricket fans, think the leg spinner bowling into the rough from around the wicket all day or the fast bowler bowling it down leg all day out of reach of the batsman but not to be called a wide.
However, today the record was finally broken and it was broken by a guy from the the tiny Caribbean island of Curacao. Wladimir Balentien hit two home runs to get to 57 home runs and break the 49 year old record. The fact that he did it with 18 games left in the season means that he could quite possibly smash the record and become a legend of the game.
The whole idea of a foreign smashing the record may be unpalatable to some diehard fans but it would be as bad if it happened 10 years ago. What is the reason for this? I think it is the fact that many Japanese players have done well in the United States and they are treated with respect that a quality professional baseball player deserves. Quite possibly the Japanese fans have seen this and realized that this is global sport, it is global market place and unlike beforehand it is easier to apply your trade in another country and to contribute. Quite possibly they are realizing that because of the success of the aforementioned Suzuki and Matsui, that they are watching some world class athletes on their back door step and that they can go and represent themselves and their country in another land and break their records and not be considered a foreign but another quality player.
I think what has happened today is a great thing for Japanese baseball and for society in general and I hope that this kind of tolerance continues. With the Olympics coming up tolerance of foreign culture will be high on the agenda but I think that is the topic for another post along the line.
Congratulations Wladimir, well done. And to Mr. Oh, just because you have lost your record to a Netherlands Antillean doesn't make your record or achievements any less special.
Monday 16 September 2013
Sunday 8 September 2013
Tokyo Olympics 2020
At about 5am this morning, Japan time, the city of Tokyo was awarded the hosting rights for the Olympic Games of 2020. As you would expect the only thing that the television stations could talk about this morning was the announcement and why not. The Olympic Games is a huge event, the biggest sporting event in the world and I am wondering if I will still be here in 2020 and to accept guests from around the world who may want to stay at my place during that time. Also with the Rugby World Cup on in Japan in 2019 it looks like it is going to be a bumper six months of sport in the Japanese capital.
That's the good news but I'm staying to wonder if the Olympics in Japan is a good thing for the country and the economy as a whole. I'm not sure. I was thinking this morning that the billions of dollars that are going to be spent on this sporting event could be used more productively in the areas where the 2011 earthquake and tsunami wrecked havoc. I mean if I was living in that area and I was still homeless and my government is celebrating the fact that they are going to host a sporting event I would start to wonder about what their priorities were. It is all very well saying that they are trying to bring happiness to the people which is noble but surely there are other ways.
Anyway, the hosting rights have been awarded to Tokyo and the Olympics will be held in the Japanese capital in July and August of 2020 and it will be one hell of a party.
From a foreigner's perspective, what will Japan and Tokyoites need to prepare for, for that time and what advice can I give them? The reason I write this is before the 2002 Football World Cup some people were almost scared that the harmony of the country would be disrupted when in fact the opposite happened. I think that that kind of feeling may happen again. So that it doesn't, what can we do? Here are five things:
1. Hotels are going to have to change their policy of charging per person. It is a real nuisance for people looking for good quality accommodation and I still don't understand how one space can suddenly become double the cost because there is another set of arms and legs in the room.
2. All the train stations in the greater Tokyo area need to have safety barriers in front of the tracks. They will be used by a great number of people who may not be familiar with this kind of public transport and the last thing the organisers want is some drunk sports fan spoiling the event by slipping on to the track in front of an approaching train.
3. Some signage needs to be better. I'm not talking about it being in English or other foreign languages because generally it is quite good in that regard. I'm talking about signs that say to go this way or that way and then when you get to a dead end or a t-juntion, there is no sign to show which way to go after that. This is generally in stations and even for long term residents like myself, it can be incredibly frustrating.
4. Businesses should not freak out about hoards of foreigners descending on them. I'm sure most businesses will welcome the new people showing up but there will be the odd one who won't like it. To these people I say smile, embrace it, most of the people coming to Tokyo want to give you their money so take it and if you don't want to take it just think that it is only for three weeks or so.
5. Have fun. Take a chance to meet people when the Olympics come to Tokyo. One of the great things about living in Tokyo for me is the chance to meet people from all over the world and for two weeks in 2020 Tokyoites will get that opportunity. Don't waste it.
Citiu, Altius, Fortius.
That's the good news but I'm staying to wonder if the Olympics in Japan is a good thing for the country and the economy as a whole. I'm not sure. I was thinking this morning that the billions of dollars that are going to be spent on this sporting event could be used more productively in the areas where the 2011 earthquake and tsunami wrecked havoc. I mean if I was living in that area and I was still homeless and my government is celebrating the fact that they are going to host a sporting event I would start to wonder about what their priorities were. It is all very well saying that they are trying to bring happiness to the people which is noble but surely there are other ways.
Anyway, the hosting rights have been awarded to Tokyo and the Olympics will be held in the Japanese capital in July and August of 2020 and it will be one hell of a party.
From a foreigner's perspective, what will Japan and Tokyoites need to prepare for, for that time and what advice can I give them? The reason I write this is before the 2002 Football World Cup some people were almost scared that the harmony of the country would be disrupted when in fact the opposite happened. I think that that kind of feeling may happen again. So that it doesn't, what can we do? Here are five things:
1. Hotels are going to have to change their policy of charging per person. It is a real nuisance for people looking for good quality accommodation and I still don't understand how one space can suddenly become double the cost because there is another set of arms and legs in the room.
2. All the train stations in the greater Tokyo area need to have safety barriers in front of the tracks. They will be used by a great number of people who may not be familiar with this kind of public transport and the last thing the organisers want is some drunk sports fan spoiling the event by slipping on to the track in front of an approaching train.
3. Some signage needs to be better. I'm not talking about it being in English or other foreign languages because generally it is quite good in that regard. I'm talking about signs that say to go this way or that way and then when you get to a dead end or a t-juntion, there is no sign to show which way to go after that. This is generally in stations and even for long term residents like myself, it can be incredibly frustrating.
4. Businesses should not freak out about hoards of foreigners descending on them. I'm sure most businesses will welcome the new people showing up but there will be the odd one who won't like it. To these people I say smile, embrace it, most of the people coming to Tokyo want to give you their money so take it and if you don't want to take it just think that it is only for three weeks or so.
5. Have fun. Take a chance to meet people when the Olympics come to Tokyo. One of the great things about living in Tokyo for me is the chance to meet people from all over the world and for two weeks in 2020 Tokyoites will get that opportunity. Don't waste it.
Citiu, Altius, Fortius.
Friday 6 September 2013
Making sense of Financial Sense
Financial Sense is a website that is very educational for people interested in investing and learning more on how the financial world works.
I like to listen to the News Hour which is essentially a podcast with a review of the the previous week's market action and then they have various interviews with different authorities on different topics.
Even though they call it the News Hour, the program itself can go on for over two hours and sometime even over three hours, so you get a lot of information and obviously learn a lot. It is usually available every Saturday afternoon (Japan time) and I use iTunes to download it and listen to it.
The August 31st edition of the Financial Sense News Hour was an encore presentation where they replayed three interviews from earlier in the year. Below are some observations and learnings that I got from the program.
The first hour was an interview with a gentleman named Neil Irwin who wrote a book called The Alchemist, http://tinyurl.com/lhzaju5. It talks about the economic crisis between 2007 and 2009. Something that the world hadn't seen since The Great Depression of the 30's. It focuses on the three major central banks in the world, the US, the UK and Europe.
Apparently we were extremely close to the collapse of the world economic system which is quite scary if you think about it because some of these people wield an unbelievable amount of power and can change you life and in instant.
An interesting reminder I got out of this interview was that money is just an idea. For many people that is a very uncomfortable concept. Another interesting reminder was when they spoke of history of the central banks and they linked it to Germans taking wheelbarrows of cash to the local supermarket to do their shopping. I must admit I can't even comprehend that and I can imagine that is what happened and maybe is still happening in Zimbabwe where hyperinflation was rampant.
In the end the consensus was that if they had a choice they would have taken what happened recently to what happened in the 30's and 40's.
As a result I bought the book and look out for a review of that book in upcoming blog posts.
The second hour was an interview with Martin Armstrong and once again there were a few interesting things that I took out of that interview.
The fact that there are $20 trillion in pension funds with the government thinking of taking over all pensions. The reason being that the US is in $17 trillion of debt so they see that as a way out. (On a side note, you can imagine some corrupt countries doing that without batting an eyelid.)
This interview was quite scathing towards our politicians in particular saying that if you or I had some insider information that we would probably get chucked in jail but a Congressman does not have that same problem. So in other words what is good for the goose is definitely not good for the gander. He also said that it is the advisers running the show, not the politicians. The politicians are just the mouth pieces.
Finally he talked about rogue traders and how they are just the fall guys. It is something that I have suspected for a long time as well how the hell do these banks not know that one of their employees is betting billions of dollars. The powers that be, surely must know. It sounds as though they just let the Nick Lessons of this world take the fall.
That reminds me of a Michael J. Fox line in the movie American President in which he basically says he is not going to do something because it is not the president who takes the fall but someone like the adviser who spends six months in jail.
In the end, the host of the show, Jim Puplava says and I agree with him that it is good to listen to guys like Martin because the press is basically run by the government and they only produce what they are allowed.
I recommend that you go to FinancialSense.com and have a listen or read the articles. It is a fantastic website and program. Long may it continue.
I like to listen to the News Hour which is essentially a podcast with a review of the the previous week's market action and then they have various interviews with different authorities on different topics.
Even though they call it the News Hour, the program itself can go on for over two hours and sometime even over three hours, so you get a lot of information and obviously learn a lot. It is usually available every Saturday afternoon (Japan time) and I use iTunes to download it and listen to it.
The August 31st edition of the Financial Sense News Hour was an encore presentation where they replayed three interviews from earlier in the year. Below are some observations and learnings that I got from the program.
The first hour was an interview with a gentleman named Neil Irwin who wrote a book called The Alchemist, http://tinyurl.com/lhzaju5. It talks about the economic crisis between 2007 and 2009. Something that the world hadn't seen since The Great Depression of the 30's. It focuses on the three major central banks in the world, the US, the UK and Europe.
Apparently we were extremely close to the collapse of the world economic system which is quite scary if you think about it because some of these people wield an unbelievable amount of power and can change you life and in instant.
An interesting reminder I got out of this interview was that money is just an idea. For many people that is a very uncomfortable concept. Another interesting reminder was when they spoke of history of the central banks and they linked it to Germans taking wheelbarrows of cash to the local supermarket to do their shopping. I must admit I can't even comprehend that and I can imagine that is what happened and maybe is still happening in Zimbabwe where hyperinflation was rampant.
In the end the consensus was that if they had a choice they would have taken what happened recently to what happened in the 30's and 40's.
As a result I bought the book and look out for a review of that book in upcoming blog posts.
The second hour was an interview with Martin Armstrong and once again there were a few interesting things that I took out of that interview.
The fact that there are $20 trillion in pension funds with the government thinking of taking over all pensions. The reason being that the US is in $17 trillion of debt so they see that as a way out. (On a side note, you can imagine some corrupt countries doing that without batting an eyelid.)
This interview was quite scathing towards our politicians in particular saying that if you or I had some insider information that we would probably get chucked in jail but a Congressman does not have that same problem. So in other words what is good for the goose is definitely not good for the gander. He also said that it is the advisers running the show, not the politicians. The politicians are just the mouth pieces.
Finally he talked about rogue traders and how they are just the fall guys. It is something that I have suspected for a long time as well how the hell do these banks not know that one of their employees is betting billions of dollars. The powers that be, surely must know. It sounds as though they just let the Nick Lessons of this world take the fall.
That reminds me of a Michael J. Fox line in the movie American President in which he basically says he is not going to do something because it is not the president who takes the fall but someone like the adviser who spends six months in jail.
In the end, the host of the show, Jim Puplava says and I agree with him that it is good to listen to guys like Martin because the press is basically run by the government and they only produce what they are allowed.
I recommend that you go to FinancialSense.com and have a listen or read the articles. It is a fantastic website and program. Long may it continue.
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