8people joined regular meeting held on 30th,July. After self-introduction, we discussed several latest topics as follows:

This is the topic discussed several times in this community. This time, we talked about the Japanese universities intensified effort to educate more and more internationally minded bilingual young people, referring to the newspaper article on Akita International University, which is located outside the major cities but successfully draw the attention of corporate recruiters such as Morgan Stanley. The problem is that the university is an exception rather than a trend. The article also introduces the small percentage of the undergraduates of the prestigious universities who participated in the foreign exchange programs in 2009. Why are Japanese university students not eager to study abroad? We came up with some ideas;
-They are satisfied with the current life.
-Their parents do not have enough money.
-The credits taken in the universities abroad are not properly evaluated by the prospective employer.
We discussed once again the University of Tokyo’s plan to change the start of the academic year from spring to fall, especially about the gap term. Is it acceptable from the viewpoint of high-school student’s mentality? The majority of our opinion were positive to the move.

We have read a story of a very sad incident in Otsu recently. A 13 years old boy killed himself after he had suffered bullying by his schoolmate. Why does bullying never disappear? What advice do you give to boys or girls who are bullied? Some participants revealed their experiences of bullying and being bullied. It’s necessary to develop mental toughness, but it’s difficult to do so. Therefore, we have a long way to go before we’ve reached　the solutions to the problem. We also talked about the differences between violence, bullying, and harassment.

He admitted an extramarital affair with a club hostess. “Heroes are amorous.” Is it true?

The debate session was on the political training schools like Hashimoto’s group Osaka Ishin no Kai. The issue was whether Hashimoto can be a prime minister or not.
Affirmative side:
1. He has strong beliefs and is a persuasive person, and he also has a great charisma, like a previous PM Junichiro Koizumi.
2. He has excellent experiences as a lawyer and a local governor. Indeed, he sometimes takes　an aggressive　attitude toward others, but he does so intentionally for another hidden purpose, and this proves that he is an efficient strategist and eligible to deal with various kinds of political issues.
3. We can’t find other suitable candidates for PM both in ruling DPJ and opposition LDP.
Negative side:
1. He is not so matured as to be a PM. That is shown by his excessively aggressive negotiation style. He is not so reliable to deal with an issue of foreign affairs, he does not have any experiences for this issue, if he is a candidate of mayor or governor that is no problem, however, if PM that it an essential qualification.
2. He has no sense of economic issues. He is not so reliable to manage an issue of economy at the moment, he doesn’t have enough experiences to stimulate economy, incentive program and so on.
3. He has no experience in communicating with a wide community. That may endanger the foreign affairs. He needs to have an experience of nation-wide politics beforehand. He has some experiences to manage a community that Osaka prefecture and Osaka city, however that’s not enough to be a PM.

In conclusion, this time, affirmative side seems to win because all the 5 members spoke out evenly.