Governmental manipulation in the stock market is being over

I am not an active investor to the stock at all. But I am still interested in it. The stock market reflects, or strictly speaking, used to reflect the economy in our country as well as the world.

Since the administration of Abe started 6 years ago, in addition to asset bubble due to astronomical scale of monetary easing, the government has manupilated the stock market through buying massive amount of ETF by BOJ. It is to make window dressing on the economy in our country. BOJ has become the major stock holder of 40% of the companies in the market. It could never be continued. With the world stock market getting into bear phase, our government/BOJ could never go on this window dressing. 

Since Oct. 2nd, the stock price is dropping rapidly. About 10% drop in total. During this short period, BOJ has bought ETF by 36 million USD, which has been absorbed by foreign vulture funds through short selling. Of course, the stock market could wax and wane. It is the characteristics of the stock market. But it could not be excused anyway to try to keep the governmental manipulation in the market with the fund with the fund from BOJ. We should bear the consequence in the near future.

It is a tragedy that most people are not aware of that in the vague euphoria in the society from the asset bubble. That is what the Abe administration aim at.

Rich fall here

Almost last batch of tomato harvest in the garden farm.

I love those tomatoes grown in the garden farm. Quite different from those sold in  supermarkets. Sweet and crisp. I often express that, when talking to my wife, the cell membrane is intact! I sure miss them now. It will get below 10 degrees C early in the morning here in a few days. They won't get ripe soon. Expecting another good harvest next summer, I will get ready for good farm for tomatoes.

Persimmons are ripened as well. They are sliced and added to fresh salad every day. Unfortunately,almost all of them ripe at the same time. Some of them will be gifts to crows in thie area. It's their share.

Broccoli are grwoing even though some leaves have been biten by bugs. Later this fall, they may provide us fresh fruits also served for salad after being boiled.

What a blessing we could have such a rich and peaceful fall. May it last long for us and for all my friends.  

"Autumn Leaves"

The article posted below has reminded me of "Autumn Leaves" sung by Yves Montand. It was in '60s when I got a record of that song. Having built an audio amplifier featuring a couple of 6BM8s, I listened to variety of musics. Different genres including chanson like this "Autumn Leaves". I was only a teenage boy attending a Jr. High in Tokyo and had never learned French. Without knowing what the song meant, I used to sing the song mimicing his French. I was surprised to see what it meant with this clip. How could a teenage boy sympathize with such a song of bitterness in life? Did it foresee my life?

Starting a story as if talking to his friends. Withoug making audience be aware of the transition, he moves spontaneously to the song of beautiful melody. What melancholy and nostalgia for the passed days are covering the entire song! It is a song tha a man remembers of the past with a girl friend who has been separated long time ago. It is comparable to remebering of own life. We fall in love with our own lives but it is going away soon.

I was so glad to see Montand in this clip again. In my teenage days, when I listened to this song at first, I have never thought of listening it again at this age feeling deeply nostalgic for those days.

Music makes us united

A Korean travellor bassist is making an instant session with the musicians on a street in Florence Italy. Of course, they played in impromptu. Excellent performance. In addition to their performance, this clip says we could be company through music. Music has the power to unite us.

Autumn leaves sure sound great in this season. 

The election result of Okinawa governor

The election result of Okinawa governor will be a real clout to the Abe administration. Even though the government has orgnized a stark campaign for their candidate, some of them almost illegal, the liberal one has defeated the former by a big difference. The main issue was if they would allow the government to build a new military base at Henoko, a beautiful beach with a lot of animals/fish/coral. The new base is estimated to be a permanet facility. The US base lots occupy about 20% of the island, that is, 70% of total US military base in Japan in 0.6% of the land area of our country. It has been a pain for them to have such burden since the end of WWII. Our government will face to a difficulty how to do with construction of the new base at Henoko. Without approval for the plan by Okinawans, it won't be possible for anyone to construct any base any longer.

Okinawan US base is mostly of Marines, which should not be involved in the conflict of invasion to Okinawa itself. Marines should go to Sasebo at first to deploy the vessels in order to execute the operation. No reason to have such troops of Marines stationed in Okinawa. The Japan US Status of Forces Agreement is disadvantageous especially to the Japanese in Okinawa. The US military enjoys a  kind of extraterritoriality in Okinawa. It should have been corrected by our government. However, the politicians/high officials would never do that. It is believed there is a kind of hierarchy in our country of which the US military/government occupies the top.

The following article on the result of this election is excellent except for a couple of points. Firstly, Okinawa has not received any subsidy more than the other prefectures. The Okinawan government estimates the economy of Okinawa is not dependent on the income from the military base but it is an obstacle for them to develop Okinawa properly. Secondly, the new governor is still a mixed race between Japan and the US. But the race is not the matter. He is still what he has been and what he will have been. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/30/world/asia/okinawa-governor-election-us-base.html

It may not be a problem of foreign people, especially of the US people. But if the problem of the US military bases continues in Okinawa, it could be a big thorn for both countries in the near future, I am afraid.

Contaminated water is still contaminated

Another bad news on the Fukushima NPP. The contaminated water reserved in numerous tanks, amounted to one million sq. meter in quantity, is still contaminated with multiple nuclear species like strontium. They were told to be deconaminated except for tritium by the removal device of multinuclear species. In reality, 80% of the contaminated water still contained high level of multiple radioactive substances. For example, the content of strontium reaches up to 60000 times of the permissible value in the environment. The removal process seemed not to have worked as expected. The amount of the inflow of the underground water into the plant was over 500 tons/day in the beginning. Now it has decreased to about 100 tons/day, which results in the increase of the contaminated water by 36500 tons a year. The contaminated water is still increasing in quantity everyday.

There are two aspects of this problem which aggravate the situation.

Firstly, TEPCO and the related authority of administration have never published this contamination issue by themselves. Thorough research of the data by the civilians has revealed it. Even if the authority did not intended to conceal it, they have not intentionally published such an important fact.

Secondly, they have started discarding the contaminated water into the ocean. This is a criminal conduct. The government should be aware of this continued contamination from the begining. Tritium itself could be dangerous even at low level since it could be condensed by the ecological link. The other multiple nuclear species could directly contaminate fish etc and are harmful to people inducing the internal radiation. Our PM used to announce that Fukushima NPP accident was under control as the attraction speech of the Olympic Games to Tokyo at IOC meeting. It could be a vicious lie to the world. 

Keep your eyes open to the further news on this issue. 

Chestnut tree story

I am struggling with several baskets of chestnuts harvested from a big tree of that fruit in the garden. The fruits peeled the hard shell only are sorted for chestnuts boiled with the astringent inner skin seasoned with sugar. Those which the inner skin is taken away are for the rice cooked with chestnuts. Considering of the heavy work to get them, it is surely worthless. I still go on doing this. The reason is that the chestnuts are products of that big tree. It has been planted by my father when he was settle down here over 30 years ago. The tree has grown to be a real big one.

It is a part of the family history for us.

My father, as I repeatedly told in this blog, was a survivor of WWII as a soldier. I bet he has been threatened with starvation when he was in China as a soldier. That experience might make him like trees with fruites like persimmon or chestnut. 

When he was working in the sanatorium at the very same place as we live now, he used to go for studying farming with those fruit plants far away in Shikoku. I was a toddler or a bit older then. After a few days long absence, he came home. Appearing from the woods in front of the sanatorium, I found all of sudden, he was carrying  a tiny tricycle for infants. What a surprise and joy to see him again for me! I still remember of that moment seeing him smiling at me with that present to me. 

Ever since that event, he has planted fruit trees at various places when he could do that. This big chestnut tree is a heritage of his love to the family. With this note, I have sent some of them to my brother and sister. They were impressed at the gift as well as the story of my father.

I have cooked pretty large amount of chestnuts harvested with sugar, The fruits were boiled with sugar, which had the astringent inner skin. It's a taditional cook named Shibukawani. Elegantly as well as profoundly sweet. The problem is who would enjoy this amount of this chestnut cook. 

Fall is deepened in this way here.