＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:https://skawa68.com/
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
1. Casualties from collapse of block wall at elementary school
During the Northern Osaka Earthquake on June 18, 2018, a female student at Jyuei Elementary School in Takatsuki City died when a block wall at the school collapsed while she was on her way to school.
・「大阪北部地震」
2. In the old days, schools didn’t have walls and people were free to enter and exit.
When I was in elementary school, in addition to the main gate on the south side, the east side of the schoolyard on the north side led directly to a causeway, and the west side also faced an unpaved road directly, so children coming to school from houses on the north, east or west side of the school entered not through the main gate but through the east-west “service entrance” which was free to enter and exit. Both sides of the main gate on the south side of the school may have also had hedges, but I don’t think there were any noticeable walls.
Have you ever heard of the phrase, “Do not take back roads or trails to get to your destination, take the main street!（「行くに径（こみち）に由（よ）らず」）”? This phrase is found in the Analects of Yongya（「論語ー雍也」）.
I have heard that this phrase was used by the principal of the old First High School to warn students who took shortcuts to school instead of entering through the main gate. It was probably a lesson to promising young people to take the main street and not the small or back roads. In doing things, one should not seek shortcuts or tricks, but go in a fair and honest manner.
When I was a high school student, there was a narrow path without a gate leading into the school before the main gate, and I always entered the school from there. I always entered through there because it was closer to the classrooms and I didn’t feel the need to go all the way around to the main gate.
I have failed to follow the teachings of the Analects.
3. How block walls came to be installed in elementary schools
I’ve digressed a little, but let’s get to the main topic. When did elementary schools start to install block walls?
It’s impossible to investigate them all, but the block wall at Jyuei Elementary School in Takatsuki City, where the recent accident occurred, is apparently visible in a photo from the 1977 (Showa 52) graduation album. That means it’s been there for over 40 years.
(1) Installed as a crime prevention measure
At that time, there were many cases of kidnappings and other crimes targeting elementary school children, so it may be that people began to build high block walls as a way to protect children from such suspicious people and perverts.
I think that even among ordinary houses, block walls started to be built around the houses from around the 1960s. They became popular as a crime prevention measure, and because they were cheaper than hedges and didn’t require maintenance.
(2) It is questionable whether this is an effective and appropriate crime prevention measure.
However, in terms of “hiding” from criminals and “crime prevention,” I think that a hedge that shows the inside has the advantage of being more visible to “the general public, including many passersby,” than a block wall that hides the inside. Also, a hedge with flowers and trees is more lively than a tall block wall like those found in prisons, which is inorganic.
(3) The problem is that the Building Standards Act Enforcement Order was not followed and illegal conditions were left unchecked.
Even more problematic is that, despite the revised Building Standards Act Enforcement Order in 1971 stipulating that “block walls must be no more than 3m in height,” and then tightening it to “no more than 2.2m” in 1981, “it had been illegal for over 40 years.” Originally, the Building Standards Act required that “walls over 1.2m in height must have retaining walls to prevent them from collapsing in strong winds or earthquakes,” but the 3.5m-high block wall at Juei Elementary School did not have one.
No matter how many laws are made to ensure safety, they are nothing but pie in the sky unless actual buildings are inspected to see if they are legally installed. Furthermore, even if the law is revised to improve safety, unless on-site inspections are conducted on existing buildings as well as new installations, it cannot be said that safety has been improved.
I believe that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism at the national level and prefectures and cities, towns and villages at the local level will be responsible for checking and supervising illegal construction.
Although it will be impossible to conduct on-site inspections of everything, including private homes, I believe that it is necessary to establish a system that allows for intensive inspections of public buildings, especially schools, as a top priority in the future.
Although a disaster prevention expert had pointed out the danger to this elementary school three years ago, an employee of the Takatsuki City Board of Education had judged the wall to be “no problem” after merely carrying out a simple visual inspection and tapping with a stick. Moreover, the employee was not a licensed architect and had no idea that the block wall in question was in violation of the Building Standards Act.
4. The accident was also largely man-made
I believe that this is a man-made disaster, rather than a natural disaster. It is not an issue that can be easily dismissed as the result of “irresponsible government officials.”
In December 2012, there was an accident in which a concrete slab from the ceiling collapsed in the Sasago Tunnel on the Chuo Expressway in Yamanashi Prefecture, and unless proper maintenance and inspections are carried out, there is a very high possibility that a similar accident could happen again.
The word “groundless worry” comes from an ancient Chinese story about the people of Qi who worried that the sky would collapse, and refers to worrying about something that never happened. However, the collapse of the tunnel ceiling is no groundless worry; it is a reality.
As the saying goes, “Once it’s past your throat, you forget how bad it was（喉元過ぎれば熱さを忘れる）（Danger past, god forgotten.）,” but as there has been no coverage, we don’t know what measures have been taken to respond to this tunnel accident or what the “roadmap” for review and inspection is.
However, it is precisely these kinds of things that I would like the mass media to report on in the form of a “follow-up investigation,” and I would also like the opposition parties to take positive action and seriously consider the safety of the people more broadly, rather than rushing around in party-based tactics such as “bringing down Abe” and the “Futenma issue.”
In conclusion, the block walls at elementary schools cause many problems, and from the perspective of crime prevention and disaster prevention measures, we would like to see them removed as soon as possible.