Sara Inoue

    In today's lesson, our group continued discussing.  As we were talking about the military, we realized that our perception of the country differed among the group members. Some were imagining the country as the size of Germany, and others imagined the size of Australia. From this, we agreed on the idea that Japan was a perfect size, and easier to create rules. The death penalty was a difficult topic to discuss as it is a long-debated matter in contemporary society. our opinions split into two, and I personally think that the death penalty is necessary if criminals transgress to a certain extent. Moreover, many family members of the victims wish for the murderers to be dead, and I believe such strong feelings would apply to anyone. Others mentioned how death was the easy way out and a life-long sentence was better. Our group exchanged opinions and each person had a strong belief which was very captivating and interesting to hear. In the end, we decided on including the...

    The media reports candidates of elections in ways that are too irrelevant. For example, facts about candidates could be that they are a "dog person", which attracts citizens who prefer dogs over cats and increase the number of voters; however, this method eventually leads to citizens disagreeing or becoming confused. Moreover, vague themes that are reported on the media, claiming the candidate's target, can sometimes be far from the truth.  We also talked about the conservative and progressive side of world views and how we imagine our own government to be. Although both sides have their disadvantages, we agreed on creating a system closer to the progressive view.        People in Japan choose to be moderate when being moderate is not always the best option.  This made me wonder why the majority think the same way, and could not help but think that media was the answer. Even in contradicting situations, people tend to stay in the middle t...

     Japan, incorporates both the flat tax and progressive tax, which is an adequate system in order for the country to gain money. Although surpassing the country as a whole is vital, we would also need to consider the equitable amount of flat tax. Our group decided that 10% was a fair amount for both sides, as long as the government uses these taxes for a beneficial cause. In the UK there are no taxes for books/newspapers and children's clothing because citizens need information and certain things are more important than others. However; I thought that necessities differ depending on the person, and listing up everything would become too complicated. Therefore, we thought that everything should have taxes. More specifically, flat tax for sales tax, and progressive tax for income and corporate tax. A progressive tax is a system of differentiating tax percentages depending on their wages.       Progressive and conservative world views co-existing cause...

     Today, our whole class was split into three large groups. we were told to come up with a governmental system, which would be the best for the people. Our group started off by discussing how the voting system should work; however, debates over who we were voting for took the longest time. Talking about what we already know and sharing our opinions helped our group identify the negative aspects of our current system. We decided to talk about dual nationality and pertinent residency. As Japan has a system of banning dual nationality, people have to choose one nationality before they reach the age of 22. Our group agreed that we shouldn't incorporate this idea, and allow citizens to have more than one passport.        Moreover, subjects for voting needed a few boundaries. For example, we created a system that foreigners that live in the country for more than 7 years can apply for a permanent residency. This structure allows foreigners that leave ...

       In Today's lesson, we mainly talked about Coca Colas scandal over the years, which most people are unaware of. I was most surprised to find out about the making of Fanta. Many American companies worked with German companies until a law was made to ban such businesses. This occurred during WW2 to prevent further conflict between the US and Germany. However, the German branch of coca-cola was spun off to be a different company, which lead to the making of "Fanta". I did not know that Fanta was a beverage made by the recipe of coca-cola, without the secret recipe. Furthermore, Coca colas decision to make money from both sides of the war successfully steered their way to a larger profit. This evidence clearly shows how the company is prioritizing money over other factors. Yet, such information is never on the news or media.       We then tried to find negative information about Coca-cola on Japanese media, but nothing came up, as expected. one ...

In today's lesson, we discussed the main topic of the documentary, "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism". Countless scandals regarding fox news were introduced. Murdoch and his news channel were being attacked in this documentary, because of how unprofessional their journalism was. In our groups, we shared what we learned, and one of my team members mentioned how strangely obvious the bias portrayed. One of them being the fact that the news reporters were disrespectful towards guests. It made me wonder whether Fox News cared about the image of their news company.  We also talked about the election in 2000. The vote for Bush and Al Gore was a close tie, and a recount was exhorted due to the inaccurate results. The supreme court decided on whether there should be a recount, with 9 judges. However, 5 out of 9 judges are republican appointed judges and the remaining 4 are democratic appointed judges. Therefore, all 5 of the republican appointed judges voted for B...

      Today we watched the documentary on Fox News, "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism". Although Fox News was advertising their news channel with the phrase, "We Report, You Decide", their journalism and system were the complete opposite. Not only were they manipulating the audience but also sharing misleading information. Guests invited to speak on TV were weak, and not many of them are well-known professionals. Moreover, techniques such as interrupting the speakers and shutting them up was painfully obvious. The documentary included snipets of news reporters claiming "some people say", which was a way to express their own opinions.      The documentary uncovered many sides of Fox News that i had no idea. Despite, the clear evidence and manipulation shown on screen, it was difficult to understand who exactly was being attacked. I understand how Rupert Murdoch was behind all the scandals; however, the majority of the documentary discussed a...