Ham radio licensees are steadily decreasing in number in Japan

 Elvin JA3CZY let me know there was an article regarding the ham radio license system in Japan published in November issue of ARRL QST. He kindly sent me a copy of the article. 

It is written by a JARL delegate JJ1WTL aka AC6IM who could not mention what is going on in the licensing system here due to his position. After explaining the complicated license system in Japan, it shows the number of licensees in Japan has peaked in 1991 and has drastically dropped afterwards. At present, the main age group of the licensees are in fifties through seventies. There are surprisingly small number of the licensees among young people. In order to allure young people into this hobby, JARL has enforced the YOTA program, that is, the young on the air program. It is not well known to us at all and seems not working to achieve the aim so far. 

I was sorry that it had only least described about the corruption going on in JARL and its related organization/company, JARD and TSS, regarding the new spurious emission regulation in the license system. The authority of the government and the ham radio equipment industries seem to be involved in this scandal as well.  

I have written about it in the post in this blog dated Dec 31 2017. I would revise  and quote it here;

” In Japan, the administrative office and the related organizations like JARD are enforcing a new regulation, which requires us to pay some money to continue using old equipment not officially proven to be spurious below certain level. Old vintage equipment won't be actually used any longer. It is based on the new regulation by ITU, which decided to enforce the regulation in order to get rid of any interference to the other communications. On the other hand, our authority requires us to measure the actual spurious emission of each equipment with any proofread measurement device. It is a big hurdle for us. They have invented a trick. Instead of that difficult measurement of spurious emission, they require us to pay some money to JARD, which is closely related with JARL and the governmental office. Surprisingly enough, that payment is to "guarantee" the equipment satisfying the new regulation. The guarantee is based on PAPER only. It is like a Yakuza's blackmail. A criminal behavior. JARD is accepting the former directors from JARL and some retirees most likely from the authority. It is a matter of despair that former JARL directors are involved in this corruption. I am feeling disgusted at such a system. I am sure, in addition to the existing complicated license system, the same concession for the bureaucrats and the related industries, this will lead the ham radio in our country to the extinction in the near future. As one of the peculiarities in our society, there are very few voices against this concession corruption among ham radio operators.”

JARL which should coordinate for the best of interests for all the hams in Japan won't react against this regulation but its executive staff seems to be on the side which exploits our interests. The author of this article in QST could not mention about this corruption from his standpoint as a delegate of JARL.

This scheme of exploitation is widely observed in the other regions of our society than ham radio. I have experienced this kind of corruption in my former profession, medical service, as well. A deteriorated aspect of bureaucracy and the related private sector. I am pretty sure it is an evil aspect of our society which deteriorates our country as if the most communist countries had done with its bureaucracy when they disappeared from the history.

You may notice there are less and less signals heard on HF from Japan. The main reason is the baby boomer generation quitting this hobby. I am sure this corruption regarding new regulation is enhancing that decrease as well. What a shame!