Japan's oldest gorilla dies at 53 in Nagoya

The oldest gorilla in Japan died on Thursday at Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Nagoya, the zoo announced. The female, Oki, was 53 years old, the equivalent of over 100 in human years, and was the second-oldest among the non-wild gorillas of the world, according to the zoo.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Glory to God in the highest,
and peace on earth to all men

God’s glory is in the highest heavens,
but his high state is now found in the stable,
what was lowly has now become sublime.
God’s glory is on the earth,
it is the glory of humility and love.
And even more: the glory of God is peace.
Wherever he is, there is peace.
He is present wherever human beings do not attempt,
apart from him, and even violently,
to turn earth into heaven.
He is with those of watchful hearts;
with the humble and those who meet him at the level of his own "height",
the height of humility and love.
To these people he gives his peace,
so that through them, peace can enter this world.

Benedict XVI

Tokyo Dome City sparkles for the Christmas season.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

10 THINGS YOU MUST DO IN TOKYO

10 THINGS THAT WILL

MAKE YOUR EXPERIENCE

 IN TOKYO INCREDIBLE

1- Eat a sushi breakfast at the Tsukiji Fish Market.

2- Take a boat ride on the Sumida River from Asakusa.

3- Lose yourself in the dazzling neon jungle outside major train stations in the evenings. Shibuya and east Shinjuku at night can make Times Square or Piccadilly Circus look rural in comparison — it has to be seen to be believed.

4- Enjoy a soak in a local "sento" or public bath. Or one of the onsen theme parks such as LaQua at the Tokyo Dome (Bunkyo) or Oedo Onsen Monogatari in Odaiba.

5- Go to an amusement park such as Tokyo Disney Resort, which consists of Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea which are the world's most visited and second most visited theme parks respectively, or the more Japanese Sanrio Puroland (in Tama), home to more Hello Kitties than you can imagine.

6- Check out the hip and young crowd at Harajuku's Takeshita-Dori(Takeshita Street) or the more grown up Omotesando.

7- In the spring, take a boatride in Kichijoji's lovely Inokashira Park, and afterwards visit the Ghibli Studios Museum (well-known for their amazing movies, like Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke), but you will need to buy tickets for these in advance at a Lawson convenience store.

8- Take the Yurikamome elevated train across the bay bridge from Shimbashi station to the bayside Odaiba district, and go on the giant ferris wheel — the largest in the world until recently.

9- Watch a baseball game, namely the Yomiuri Giants at the Tokyo Dome, or the Tokyo Yakult Swallows at Jingu Stadium. Nearby Chiba hosts the Chiba Lotte Marines.

10- Take a stroll through the Imperial Palace's East Gardens (open to the public daily at 9AM, except Fridays and Mondays).

Chalmers Johnson dies at 79

OBITUARY

Japan revisionist scholar Chalmers Johnson dies at 79

Monday 22nd November, 07:00 AM JST

LOS ANGELES —

Chalmers Johnson, an international politics scholar known as the original ‘‘Japan revisionist,’’ died Saturday at his home in California aged 79, people close to him said. The cause of his death was not immediately known.

As a revisionist, Johnson considered Japan different from other developed countries and his book ‘‘MITI and the Japanese Miracle’’ on Japanese economic development had a great impact on both Japanese and U.S. authorities. MITI, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, has since been renamed the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

After teaching at institutions including the University of California, Berkeley, between 1962 and 1992, he founded in 1994 the Japan Policy Research Institute, a think tank devoted to public education concerning Japan and international relations in the Pacific, serving as its president.

Born in 1931 in Arizona, Johnson received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. His other works included ‘‘The Sorrows of Empire’’ and ‘‘Nemesis.’‘

In an article that appeared in the online edition of The Los Angeles Times in May, Johnson called on the United States to withdraw its troops from the Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture, the relocation plan for which has sparked local opposition.

‘‘I would strongly suggest that the United States climb off its high horse, move the Futenma Marines back to a base in the United States (such as Camp Pendleton, near where I live) and thank the Okinawans for their 65 years of forbearance,’’ he wrote.

SPECIAL APPLES ON SALE NOW

Tourists to be barred from Tsukiji tuna auctions Dec 1-Jan 22

Thursday 11th November, 05:57 AM JST

TOKYO —

Tsukiji fish market will shut out sightseers from its popular tuna auctioning area from Dec 1 to Jan 22 to ensure that auction activities can be conducted smoothly, the Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market said Wednesday. The auctioning area will be made off-limits to sightseers around the New Year holidays for the third straight year, according to the market run by the Tokyo metropolitan government.

The measure was introduced in 2008 as activities such as flash photography on the part of some tourists disturbed tuna middlemen and since the area will be particularly crowded around New Year due to an upsurge in tuna transactions, according to market officials. The market will continue to give sightseers access to the wholesalers’ area, a zone that accommodates wholesale outlets for some 850 middlemen, after 9 a.m.

Sightseers will also be allowed to visit restaurants, the entity said.

Chinese Trawler Colliding with Japanese Warship/Patrol Vessel

No signs of recession in pet industry

OSAKA - The average amount spent annually on pet-related expenses by households with at least two members rose 4.6% in 2009 from the previous year to 18,323 yen, the highest figure since comparable data become available in 1990, according to a recent government survey.

While family spending as a whole is on the decrease, there are no signs of recession in the pet industry, as high-priced pet food and stylish clothing are selling well, pet cosmetics, insurance and various other services are now available and medical costs for pets are rising as they live longer, according to the survey.

As Japanese society continues to gray with fewer children, and as the number of single-person households expands, more pets are being treated as a child or a spouse, said a researcher commissioned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

‘‘The market will likely continue to expand with owners regarding their pets as family members and sparing no expense,’’ Shimpei Iwama, a member of the Osaka office of research firm Fuji Keizai Co, said.

The firm estimates the value of the pet market at about 1.2 trillion yen in 2009.

The survey shows that pet-related expenditure, which was a little over 10,000 yen in 1993, exceeded 15,000 yen in 2003. Since 2005, expenses have been growing for five consecutive years.

By generation, people in their 50s spent the most on their pets at 28,951 yen on average in the reporting year, which was about 4.7 times the average of people under 30, showing that the middle-aged and above were the main group supporting the market, having finished raising children.

On the other hand, data on single-person households showed that women aged from 35 to 59 spent the most on their pets at 20,752 yen. Overall, women spent 12,508 yen on average, which was more than four times that of men, the report said.

Pet food makes up one third of the market, with diet food and health conscious ‘‘premium food’’ selling well, according to Fuji Keizai.

Beauty products including shampoos and services such as teeth and ear cleaning are also a big hit as more pets are raised indoors and live in line with their owners’ lifestyles.

Celebrating Japan's vegan and vegetarian traditions

Few people have done as much to help Western audiences understand Japanese food as Elizabeth Andoh. In “Kansha,” her follow-up to 2005’s award-winning “Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen,” the former Gourmet magazine correspondent casts her eye over the country’s neglected tradition of vegan cuisine.

Like her earlier books, “Kansha”  (appreciation) isn’t content merely to list recipes, but offers an entire philosophy of cooking, focusing not only on nutrition but also avoiding waste and sustaining natural resources. Its pages are littered with advice on ways to use parts of vegetables that you’d normally throw away, alongside a wealth of tips on preparation, cooking and storage.

The detailed instructions accompanying each recipe mean that it’s hard to botch things up, and the titles alone are the stuff of mouth-watering daydreams: pop-pom sushi, slithery somen noodles, chrysanthemum greens in nutty tofu sauce, fiddlehead ferns steeped in soy-tinged broth… Veggie nirvana.

“Kansha: Celebrating Japan’s Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions.” Available from major bookstores and Amazon Japan.

From Japan, the Heavy-Metal Kid

Now, feel your lover's heartbeat through a digital heart!

Japan Herald, Wednesday 20th October, 2010  (ANI)

A Japanese mobile service provider has created a device, known as 'Taion Heart', that can transmit your partner's pulse through a phone app so that you can physically feel their heartbeat.

No matter how far away you are from your loved one, you can always feel close.

While the potential negative consequences of the device haven't been fully explored, for the romantic tech-lovers the Taion Heart is designed to replicate the experience of holding hands.

The device takes pulse and pressure readings when held in the palm of your hand. It transmits them via Bluetooth to a mobile phone running the application, reports News.com.au.

The app sends the data to your partner's phone, which in turn transmits the information to their Taion Heart that vibrates, warms up and illuminates in different colours depending on the readings.

NTT DoCoMo Inc., the company that made the device, said that couples can hold the heart in bed as they sleep to feel close to their absent partner.

They don't have any immediate plans to release the Taion Heart commercially.

Empress marks 76th birthday

Wednesday 20th October, 06:20 AM JST

TOKYO —

Empress Michiko marked her 76th birthday Wednesday and indicated her hopes that the imperial family members will find their future guidance in the footsteps of Emperor Akihito.

Referring to Crown Prince Naruhito, his brother Prince Akishino and their families, the empress said in a statement, ‘‘I am certain that they will find a guiding principle and support in the way His Majesty over the years has proceeded in pursuit of how the imperial family should be and how the emperor should be,’’ when they assume their roles in the future.

‘‘I trust that both the crown prince and Prince Akishino are continuing to nurture carefully the budding potentials they so often showed as infants and boys,’’ she also said.

Meanwhile, Empress Michiko expressed concern over the current state of the crown prince’s family, with Crown Princess Masako continuing to be treated for stress-linked illness and their daughter Princess Aiko attending a limited number of classes at school.

‘‘As the crown prince’s family is now experiencing difficulties related to health and schooling, all of us in the family are watching over them with concern,’’ she said.

‘‘I truly cherish the families of the crown prince and Prince Akishino, and I pray with all my heart for the peace and well-being of each member of their families,’’ she added.

The remarks came in response to reporters’ written questions in time for her birthday.

Asked about her health, as she was diagnosed with a high probability of having a cough variant asthma in September, Empress Michiko said she has been ‘‘blessed with relatively good health’’ but feels she has become ‘‘a lot slower at doing things’’ in the last few years.

‘‘I also often experience symptoms that seem to be caused by aging, such as not being able to find what I am looking fore. I find these incidents amusing at times, but I also feel a bit helpless,’’ she said.

With regard to recent events that left impressions on her, she named the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Miyazaki Prefecture, along with several other topics including extreme summer heat and two Japanese researchers receiving the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

‘‘My heart goes out to the people of Miyazaki Prefecture who, before the end of the foot-and-mouth disease was formally declared, had to dispose of nearly 290,000 cows and pigs and I feel deep sorrow that they had to bury in such a way the animals that had been almost like family to them,’’ she said.

In April, the foot-and-mouth disease hit livestock in the southern prefecture, leading to the massive slaughtering of cows and pigs for preventing further spread of the disease until the Miyazaki government declared the end of the epidemic in August.

She added the incident also made her ‘‘think deeply about the pain’’ of those who found the animals with the disease and those who had to vaccinate them and cull them.

Introducing Japan’s new singing robot

October 18, 2010

Source: PhysOrg.com, Oct. 15, 2010

A new humanoid robot, the HRP-4 or “diva-bot,” has learned to sing by mimicking a human singer, enabling it to sound natural and to sing with more expression than any previous robot.

A research team from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Tokyo used a new technology called VocalListener to observe a real singer in action and synthesize the appropriate notes of the song with the help of Yamaha’s existing voice synthesizing software, Vocaloid.

Facial expressions were generated with a second new technology, called Vocawatcher, which analyzes video of a singer to mimic the expressions.

The 3-D Global Manager

Jesus' Love Shines in Tokyo

Sometimes in places where Believers are few, they bear a stronger resemblance to Jesus.  Japan is one of those places and Midori is one of those Believers.  She leads the singing in a church of 25 souls and cleans the rooms in a Christian guesthouse.  But a particularly Christ-like act of love by Midori happened in a Tokyo coffee shop.

The “Sonrise Café’” is a new ministry recently opened by TEAM missionaries in Tokyo.  The café’ exists to bring Japanese into genuine relationships with Jesus through those whom He has redeemed.  There, Midori’s humble, loving service has found her favor in the eyes of a patron...

Midori works part-time at the cafe, and one customer frequently asks "She will be here on Saturday, right?"  One Saturday, Midori extended kindness by massaging this woman's deformed hand.  The next week, a missionary co-worker at the cafe noticed a strange clicking sound and looked up to see Midori clipping the woman's fingernails for her.  Hmmm... strange.  A few minutes later, Midori was on her knees on the hardwood floor and spent a long time clipping the woman's toenails.  As it turns out, the woman's toenails are also deformed and very difficult to care for.  The woman has no family and had not found anyone willing to trim her ugly toenails – until she met Midori.  The missionary co-worker watched in amazement.  She saw the grace and the glory of God in that act of selfless love.  Perhaps the Lord will draw this woman’s heart to Himself through the love of Jesus in Midori.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. – John 13:12-14

Diplomats reveal Japan 'old and new' through lens

TOKYO - An annual exhibition featuring photographs taken by Japan-based foreign diplomats opens in Tokyo on Oct 15, showcasing a country that is traditional, modern, beautiful and curious, from the viewfinders of keen international observers.

About 90 works submitted by 66 diplomats and family members from 40 countries will be on display at the 13th week-long exhibition, titled, ‘‘Japan ‘Old and New’ through Diplomats’ Eyes,’’ with the special theme of ‘‘takumi’’ (craftsmanship).

The Grand Prize, chosen by the show’s eight-member committee, went to Bengt Westerblad, a Swedish-born artist and husband of a diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, whose photo captured a bamboo-made bud vase on a black background. In the picture, what looks like a test tube protrudes from a dark bamboo-woven ball, with a green leaf inserted into it.

The piece, which is paired with a photo of bamboo, a knife and skin, ‘‘makes us see how natural life emerges and reigns even from the simplicity of bamboo,’’ Colombian Ambassador to Japan Patricia Cardenas says in a message to the exhibition.

Cardenas, who serves as chairwoman of the exhibition’s selection committee, adds that Westerblad’s photo embodies this year’s theme.

The Prince Takamado Memorial Prize was awarded to Tomasz Kuczynski, second secretary at the Polish Embassy in Tokyo, whose photo shows the right side of an old man with a carved wooden mask covering his cheek and ear.

The picture, shot at a flower festival in Hiroshima Prefecture some years ago, shows the man and the artifact well blended together and expresses a sense of tradition, Princess Takamado, the show’s honorary president, said in picking it, according to Shinobu Abe, the committee’s secretary general.

The special prize was created in 2003 to memorialize Prince Takamado, an avid photographer who died in 2002 at age 47. Emperor Akihito’s cousin had served as the exhibition’s honorary president since its launch in 1998.

The show will run through Oct 21 at the Roppongi Hills business and commercial complex in Tokyo. It will also be held at the Central Park shopping mall in Nagoya on Nov. 19-30 and at Hyogo International Plaza in Kobe from Dec 15 to Jan 27, 2011.

Information about this event is available at http://diplomatseyes.com/

The Lost Art of Finding Your Center

The words people use give us a clue as to how they experience the world. As the culture changes, so does the language. Take the word hara, for which there are over 150 expressions listed in a Japanese dictionary. When a word has different nuances, it may be pronounced the same, but written with a different character. 

Hara written with the character 腹 (belly, abdomen) is in most common use today, and generally refers to the shape or state of the abdomen, as well as the seat of common emotions. Get hungry (hara ga heru), get angry (hara ga tatsu), be overweight (hara ga deru), be famished (hara peko), beer belly (bīru bara), eat to 80% of your fill (hara hachibunme), be determined (hara wo kimeru), be firmly resolved (hara wo kukuru). 

Hara written with the character 肚 (center, root) is associated more with mastery and maturity, rooted in Samurai culture. To have accomplished hara is to be a master (hara no dekita hito), to have large hara is to be big-hearted and magnanimous (hara no ōkī hito), to think with hara is to think deeply (hara de kangaeru), to have seated hara is to be calm under pressure (hara ga suwatteiru), the art of communication with hara to be intuitive (haragei), to train the hara is to develop yourself through a discipline (hara wo neru), to seek out hara is to know real intentions (hara wo saguru), to speak with presence is a hara voice (hara goe). 

Both characters use the left-hand radical 月 (here meaning flesh, or body), but belly 腹 is a body shaped like a bulging container, whereas root 肚 is a body which is grounded to the earth. In the latter case, it refers to the center of the mind and body, and the seat of the soul. 

The word hara as center or root (肚) has a long tradition, which is captured with clarity in a classic book called Hara: The Vital Centre of Man, written by Karlfried Graf Von Dürckheim (1896~1988) English translation: http://budurl.com/2r95 , Japanese translation: http://budurl.com/2pzy

Dürckheim was a German diplomat and psychotherapist, who studied Zen in Japan for 8 years, from 1938~1946. Although he was captured in 1945 by US counter-intelligence agents, and kept for eighteen months in Sugamo prison, after his release Dürckheim’s books and introductions to Zen Master D.T. Suzuki led to a chain of events that brought Zen into the mainstream of awareness in America. http://budurl.com/38jb 

But even as the West was discovering hara, mainstream Japanese culture was in the process of forgetting it. Though it is still an integral part of the martial arts and many traditional disciplines, it is fast fading from daily life. The vital center for many people seems to be shifting upward. 

In Japanese the original expression for losing your temper was hara ga tatsu (the hara stands up). Today you more commonly hear expressions like atama ni kita (it comes to the head), or even worse, kireru (to cut loose, or lose it). The English equivalent might be blew a fuse, or burst a blood vessel. If the mind is centered in the lower abdomen, even if you lose your temper, it is still possible to calm down, count to ten, or sleep on it to regain your composure. A person with a low center of gravity is grounded and composed, and can recover calmness quickly. The preferred way to be is to have a cool head and warm feet (zukan sokunetsu). 

Think how this compares to the opposite, having a hot head and cold feet! If you lose it, you’ve lost it. A person with a high center of gravity tends to be proud, self-righteous, argumentative, and inflexible, or even violent when things do not go their way. You see it on the evening news, and it’s not a pretty sight. 

The discovery of Zen in America in the 1950s and 1960s had a major impact on Western psychology. It developed over time into a greater emphasis on awareness, attitude, mindfulness, and emotional intelligence. Ironically, during this time Japanese have tended to drift away from their own roots, and currently seem more interested in key words like critical thinking, compliance, and quality control. While communication used to be hara to hara, or at least heart to heart, it is increasingly head to head. Books on brain training are bestsellers, while books on training the hara are hard to come by. 

However, like a prodigal son, the culture of hara has traveled to the West, changed our psychology, and is ready to return home. As Japanese witness the unravelling of good things in their culture that they once took for granted, they will become more receptive to the echos in their own cultural heritage. 

William Reed
WEBSITE: http://www.williamreed.jp
WEB TV: http://williamreed.tv
NANBA: http://www.nanbanote.com
JAPANESE SITE: http://www.reedcom.jp
BLOG: http://www.EntrepreneursCreativeEdge.com 

Guilty verdict in guitar maker's slaying

Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

(09-28) 16:32 PDT ROHNERT PARK --
A Sonoma County man was convicted today of first-degree murder for fatally stabbing a well-known guitar maker during a burglary in Rohnert Park.

Joshua Rhea Begley, 28, of Windsor killed Taku Sakashta, 43, whose body was found shortly before 4 a.m. Feb. 12 outside his business on the 600 block of Martin Avenue. Sakashta had been stabbed numerous times in the head, neck, chest and hand.

Sakashta's blood and DNA were found in Begley's car and on his shoes, and a witness placed Begley near the scene at about the time of the slaying, prosecutors said.

A Sonoma County Superior Court jury convicted Begley today of first-degree murder, robbery, burglary, evading arrest, resisting a police officer and enhancements for using a knife and causing great bodily injury.

Sakashta had 25 years of experience designing and crafting guitars, according to his Web site. Police checked on his business after his wife called to report that he had failed to return home.

Four days before Sakashta's body was found, Begley was arrested in Petaluma on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs. He was released on bail the next day.

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

http://www.sakashtaguitars.com/index.html

Taku Sakashta played rock and roll guitars early in his life, starting in elementary schools. While reading about the guitar designer Rick Turner, he realized he would become a guitar builder. He began refinishing his own guitars, and later graduated from luthier engineering school at eighteen. He has worked in research, design, and development for a major guitar company in Japan and United States, making prototypes and endorsement projects.

In 1995 Taku independently began designing and crafting guitars for the general public in addition to professional musicians. He has recently built guitars for musicians including Tony Darren, Robben Ford, Tony Macus, Boz Scaggs, Ellen Stephenhorst, and Martin Simpson, and is designing a guitar for Tuck Andress and Pat Martino.

All his designs combine traditional and innovative elements for exceptional sound and playability, tempered for each individual musician. Craftsmanship is of the highest quality using the best materials available. Finish and appearance are recognized as superb.

Taku now has 25 years of professional experience (primarily with professional musicians) and has become well known for his special talents in all fields of the musical industry.

Taku Sakashta's philosophy on his guitars are that they are an extension of the musician's personality and soul. Each musician demands different instruments because each has different talents, motivations, and preferences --- from sonic, aesthetic, and tactile points of view. Taku realizes the importance of past traditions in guitar building, and has used this as a foundation to build his forward-looking instruments for the consummate performer looking for personalization without compromise. And he does this while still retaining the superior advantages of past, traditional designs and features.

Taku builds a range of instruments which fit different guitar styles. These models form the main product line. Many times, players like the features of one guitar, but strive for another because of different features -- each player trying to balance sonic, aesthetic, and tactile feelings with their own personality. Taku understands this, and it is reflected in the many options which fill the gap between his guitar lines. This allows the performer to choose the best features, and create a truly unique, personalized instrument.

TOP 10 MOOS ON JAPAN THIS WEEK

This list can also be read on the Humor-Us Guide to Japan Blog at
http://wp.me/pyTih-1gb

1. Japan Lite: The off-season and other things that go off @JapanLite
http://t.co/LFsJ6uj

2. Evolta mascot robot walking from Tokyo to Kyoto @Muzachan
http://ow.ly/2LlV1

3. In Japan: No Hope, No Dope. Paris Hilton's mistake @AsiaSociety
http://asiasociety.org/blog/reasia/asia-no-hope-dope
http://ow.ly/2Lm0T

4. Funny signs and notices in English from around the world @wordsteps_en
http://ow.ly/2Lm3g

5. Cool JAPAN!: Japanese Kimono Style Outfits for Dogs @japan_style
http://ow.ly/2Lm73

6. Video: The Most Awesome Dog House in Japan, a 2.5-meter-high replica of Matsumoto Castle @JapanPhotos
http://ow.ly/2Lm9c

7. Video: Crazy Japan Ad–-craziest roach killer commercial ever @copyranter
http://ow.ly/2Lmba

8. Video: Japanese farting Contest @shinpuren
http://ow.ly/2LmcI

9. Video: Time for the boobies to show off @wtfjapan
http://ow.ly/2Lmg1

INTERNATIONAL BOVINE NEWS

10. Cows take on the Japan Times, Cowmentary: The truth about Kobe Beef cows
http://t.co/4zwCvTo

To follow any of the people above, just click on the @____ and that will take you to their twitter page.

Thanks for reading Japan Lite!

Amy Chavez
amychavez2000@yahoo.com

Japanese scientists creates New Humanoid Walking Robot Unveiled

Description: Japanese scientists have unveiled a new humanoid walking robot, northeast of Tokyo. Demands are growing for socially useful robots, such as those for caring for the elderly and the sick.

Survey: Americans don't know much about religion

By RACHEL ZOLL (AP) – 12 hours ago

A new survey of Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths.

Forty-five percent of Roman Catholics who participated in the study didn't know that, according to church teaching, the bread and wine used in Holy Communion is not just a symbol, but becomes the body and blood of Christ.

More than half of Protestants could not identify Martin Luther as the person who inspired the Protestant Reformation. And about four in 10 Jews did not know that Maimonides, one of the greatest rabbis and intellectuals in history, was Jewish.

The survey released Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life aimed to test a broad range of religious knowledge, including understanding of the Bible, core teachings of different faiths and major figures in religious history. The U.S. is one of the most religious countries in the developed world, especially compared to largely secular Western Europe, but faith leaders and educators have long lamented that Americans still know relatively little about religion.

Respondents to the survey were asked 32 questions with a range of difficulty, including whether they could name the Islamic holy book and the first book of the Bible, or say what century the Mormon religion was founded. On average, participants in the survey answered correctly overall for half of the survey questions.

Atheists and agnostics scored highest, with an average of 21 correct answers, while Jews and Mormons followed with about 20 accurate responses. Protestants overall averaged 16 correct answers, while Catholics followed with a score of about 15.

Not surprisingly, those who said they attended worship at least once a week and considered religion important in their lives often performed better on the overall survey. However, level of education was the best predictor of religious knowledge. The top-performing groups on the survey still came out ahead even when controlling for how much schooling they had completed.

On questions about Christianity, Mormons scored the highest, with an average of about eight correct answers out of 12, followed by white evangelicals, with an average of just over seven correct answers. Jews, along with atheists and agnostics, knew the most about other faiths, such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism. Less than half of Americans know that the Dalai Lama is Buddhist, and less than four in 10 know that Vishnu and Shiva are part of Hinduism.

The study also found that many Americans don't understand constitutional restrictions on religion in public schools. While a majority know that public school teachers cannot lead classes in prayer, less than a quarter know that the U.S. Supreme Court has clearly stated that teachers can read from the Bible as an example of literature.

"Many Americans think the constitutional restrictions on religion in public schools are tighter than they really are," Pew researchers wrote.

The survey of 3,412 people, conducted between May and June of this year, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, while the margins of error for individual religious groups was higher.

___

Online:

Pew online quiz about religion: http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge

CAJ PEOPLE CHANGING THE WORLD

Dear missionary friends in Asia:

CAJ ’67 classmates Daniel Reid and Daniel Westberg and I spent a week together this July in WA, during which time Dan shared from his reading Spurling’s new biography of Pearl S. Buck.  That motivated me to pick up her two biographies of her parents—Fighting Angel of her missionary father Absalom Sydenstricker (about whom she is none too complimentary), and her mother—The Exile, whom she depicts in much more heroic and almost victim colors.  Dan and I talked then about how disturbed I was by her negative portrait of her barnstorming church planting father (Absalom) as imperialistic, bombastic, arrogant, and an absent father.  All of you might value reading either or both of her biographies.  Dan responded to me then, and here in these two blogs, by reminding me that her perspective might not have captured the entire truth of the style or impact of the Southern Presbyterian missionaries in China in the late 1800s and early part of the 1900s. 

His own investigation into his missionary heritage surfaces in these two blogs, which he helpfully parallels to the task of biblical interpretation and historiography.  I think you will find both blogs very interesting.

She received the Pulitzer Prize for her story, The Good Earth, in about 1933, and the Nobel Prize for Literature, based on the strength of the two biographies of her parents in about 1934-6.  So, these stories are good reading. 

Here are Dan’s original blog posts: 

Part 1: Who Wrote This Intemperate Letter?

Part 2: And Does It Matter Who Wrote It?

Warmly, Steve Hoke (CAJ ’67)

People Development and Strategic Life Coaching, CRM

More on the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010, 2:05 PM

More on the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands

By NICHOLAS KRISTOF

I blogged recently about the dust-up in Asia between China and Japan over the uninhabited islands known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyu islands in China. Both claim them, as does Taiwan for good measure. I argued that China appeared to have a slightly better claim to them, although they might also plausibly be terra nullis, not belonging to any nation. Here’s the latest on the tiff.

Japan, which doesn’t even acknowledge that there is a territorial dispute, protested my blog post and wrote me a letter outlining some of its arguments. I’m not persuaded — it seems silly to say that China didn’t protest the seizure of a few barren rocks, when it was so weak that it had lost the entire province of Taiwan — but Japan does have valid points to make. I wish it would seek referral of the issue to the International Court of Justice, setting a precedent for legal judgments rather than brute force to settle conflicting claims.

I’ve been following the ups and downs on the islands since the 1980’s and wrote about them with my wife in our 2000 book about Asia, “Thunder from the East.” Alas, I’ve never found a way to land on them, and I do worry that the U.S. could be drawn into the dispute. As I noted in my previous item, the U.S. in theory is required to defend Japan’s claim to the islands, based on the wording of the U.S./Japan Security Treaty. In practice, we wouldn’t, but our failure to do so would cause reverberations all over Asia. In any case, here are excerpts from the Japanese letter of protest, apparently written at the request of the Japanese Foreign Minister (who knows who reads this blog?). Since I suggested that the islands were more likely China’s, I want to give them a chance to respond:

1) Since 1885, surveys of the Senkaku Islands had thoroughly been made by the Government of Japan through the agencies of Okinawa Prefecture and by way of other methods. Through these surveys, it was confirmed that the Senkaku Islands had been uninhabited and showed no trace of having been under the control of China. Based on this confirmation, the Government of Japan made a Cabinet Decision on 14 January 1895 to erect a marker on the Islands to formally incorporate the Senkaku Islands into the territory of Japan.

2) Since then, the Senkaku Islands have continuously remained as an integral part of the Nansei Shoto Islands, which are the territory of Japan. These islands were neither part of Taiwan nor part of the Pescadores Islands which were ceded to Japan from the Qing Dynasty of China in accordance with Article II of the Treaty of Shimonoseki which came into effect in May of 1895.

3) Accordingly, the Senkaku Islands are not included in the territory which Japan renounced under Article II of the San Francisco Peace Treaty. The Senkaku Islands have been placed under the administration of the United States of America as part of the Nansei Shoto Islands, in accordance with Article III of the said treaty, and are included in the area, the administrative rights over which were reverted to Japan in accordance with the Agreement Between Japan and the United States of America Concerning the Ryukyu Islands and the Daito Islands signed on 17 June 1971. The facts outlined herein clearly indicate the status of the Senkaku Islands being part of the territory of Japan.

4) The fact that China expressed no objection to the status of the Islands being under the administration of the United States under Article III of the San Francisco Peace Treaty clearly indicates that China did not consider the Senkaku Islands as part of Taiwan. It was not until the latter half of 1970, when the question of the development of petroleum resources on the continental shelf of the East China Sea came to the surface, that the Government of China and Taiwan authorities began to raise questions regarding the Senkaku Islands.

5) Your column focuses on historical manuscripts such as “Chinese navigational records” and “a 1783 Japanese map” to make the point that China has a better claim to the Senkaku Islands. However, please note that none of the points raised by the Government of China as “historic, geographic or geological” evidence provide valid grounds, in light of international law, to support China’s arguments regarding the Senkaku Islands.

Your thoughts?

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Steve Jobs: Amateur Ninja?

Steve Jobs is a visionary and a billionaire. But is he also a ninja on the side?

According to an extremely unreliable rumor that's been sweeping the Web this week, the Apple CEO was caught packing ninja throwing stars at a Japanese airport (you know, just in case he gets into a tussle while traveling abroad). The story, sparked by SPA!, a Japanese tabloid, is just about the most absurd thing one could imagine, and has been refuted by Apple. And yet... because of said absurdity, the story will not go gently into that good night.

The original story — which, again, Apple has refuted  — claimed that Mr. Jobs was caught trying to sneak shurikens (metal throwing stars) onto a plane. After being nabbed by authorities, Jobs supposedly became upset and vowed never to visit the country again. Web searches on "steve jobs" are up 99% over the past 24 hours, and related lookups on "steve jobs ninja" and "steve jobs ninja stars" are both comically high.

Rumors like this are nothing new, but what's interesting this time is that this particular tall tale refuses to go away. The story was reported recently, but the incident allegedly took place in July, when Jobs was visiting Japan. Already, blogs across the Web have chimed in with snarky commentary, and there are even a few doctored photos of Jobs posing with his alleged weapon of choice. Apple calls it "pure fiction."

How did the rumor start? According to Bloomberg, someone (nobody knows who) was "stopped at the end of July for carrying "shuriken." This person, who wasn't identified for privacy concerns, "threw away the blades." So, there may be a small speck of truth, but the Apple CEO's involvement is almost certainly bogus. But don't expect the story to die. Rumors can endure forever on the Web, thanks in part to the feverish spread of buzzy stories through social networks, emails, and blogs — and the way they can quickly morph into Internet memes.

Of course, this isn't the first time a wild tech rumor has captured the imagination of Web searchers. There are still, to this very day, jokes and email forwards that claim Al Gore once said that he invented the Internet. Wildly untrue, but the rumor lives on. And let us not forget Bill Gates.According to popular legend, if you receive a particular email from the billionaire and then forward it, the Microsoft co-founder will pay you a nice bit of cash. Once again not true, people. Sorry.