＜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:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
<2023/6/9 postscript> Miyu Kato overcame the “disqualification decision” in Women’s Doubles to win the Mixed Doubles championship. Congratulations!
The French Open Tennis Mixed Doubles was held on June 8, 2023, and the team of Miyu Kato (Xymax) and Tim Putz (Germany) won the tournament. They played Michael Venus (Australia) and Bianca Andriescu (Canada) and won 4-6, 6-4, match tiebreaker 10-6.
Kato was disqualified in the previous women’s doubles match.
After the awards ceremony, Kato said on court, “These past few days have been very emotionally painful from the unfair disqualification. I want to thank everyone who gave me heartwarming messages about this. I turned everyone’s positive energy into strength and moved forward and was able to compete today,” he read from a prepared document.
<2023/6/7 postscript> Miyu Kato’s “disqualification decision” in the French Open Women’s Doubles is unjust. I suspect that there is an underlying sense of discrimination against the Japanese.
On June 6, the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) announced that the decision to disqualify Miyu Kato (Xymax) from the women’s doubles third round of the French Open, a four-major tournament currently being held at Roland Garros in Paris, after her ball hit the ball girl, was unjust, disproportionate and unfair.
It is clear that it was an accidental and non-aggressive event.
The issue in question was the third round of women’s doubles played on the 4th. The case is that Kato sent a ball to the opponent’s court side between points, which hit the ball girl, and was disqualified as a dangerous act.
Also, once she was given a “warning” but her opponent protested to the chief referee and the decision was changed. Kato expressed his dissatisfaction with this point as well, saying, “I am not satisfied with the situation. Other competitors also questioned the disqualification.
Kato also forfeited his prize money and points as a penalty; the PTPA states that “prize money and points should be returned.”
The PTPA concluded, “We express our unwavering solidarity with all the players who have been treated unfairly. To address and remedy this situation, we have begun an active dialogue with both the French Tennis Federation and the Grand Slam Committee. We have already contacted Miyu Kato herself directly. The objective is to promote open discussion and to achieve a fair and equitable environment for all players,” the PTPA wrote.
The protests of the opposing players were despicable, and the French Open management director made an extremely unfair and wrong decision. I think the statement of the Association of Professional Tennis Players is more fair and honest.
<2021/2/6 postscript> Was Sara Takanashi’s “disqualification for violation of suit regulations” due to malicious intent?
The news was that Sara Takanashi was “disqualified for suit regulation violation” in the 5th individual World Cup Nordic Ski Jumping event held in Hitzenbach, Austria, on February 5.
In the world of jumping, “suit regulation violations” seem to happen often.
However, according to Masahiko Harada, the 1998 Nagano Olympics jumping team gold medalist, “I have never heard of a disqualification for the thigh part like this one.
This decision was made after she flew 91.5 meters in the first round of this competition to take the lead with 124.5 points.
She came into this competition with a strong momentum from her 2nd place finish in the 4th round of the World Cup, her best finish of the season, so I can’t help but feel that there is “some kind of discriminatory malicious intent against a leading Japanese athlete”.
I think we need to consider including an appeal to the “Court of Arbitration for Sport.”
Recently, Japanese athletes have been very successful.
However, there is something that has been bothering me for some time. That is, whenever a Japanese athlete achieves great success in winning a series of championships, the “rules” have always been revised to the disadvantage of the Japanese athlete who is doing well.
１．Nobutaka Taguchi (1951- )
Breaststroke swimmer Nobutaka Taguchi is a gold medalist in the 100m breaststroke and a bronze medalist in the 200m breaststroke at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
From his junior high school days, he improved his record by using his natural ability and various innovations to set a new junior high school record, and he was very successful in high school as well.
While still in high school, he participated in the 1968 Mexico Olympics for the first time and set a “new world record” of 1 minute 7.1 seconds in the semifinals of the 100m breaststroke.
However, he was unexpectedly disqualified for a “swimming infraction.
The leg movement he developed, called the “Taguchi kick,” was determined to be the “butterfly’s dolphin kick.
Unsatisfied that his winning time was lower than the record he had set in the qualifying round, he did not “protest the decision,” but instead “got inspired and practiced hard. The result was a gold medal at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
I admire his fair attitude, and at the same time, I cannot help but sympathize with him for the enormous effort he must have had to go through to modify the “Taguchi kick” that he had developed.
２．Daichi Suzuki (1967- )
Backstroker Daichi Suzuki (later Director General of the Sports Affairs Agency) won the gold medal in the 100m backstroke at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
He is a “pioneer of the Vassallo kick,” which is known as “having golden legs. His Vassallo is a 25m dive (21 kicks), but in the final of the Seoul Olympics, he made it a 30m dive (27 kicks).
After his victory in the 30m dive, the rule was revised to “diving distance up to 10m” and a subsequent revision allowed quick turns. After further revisions, the rule has now been revised to allow “up to 15m diving distance” (up to 30m including start and turn).
３．Kenji Ogiwara (1969- )
Ski combined racer Kenji Ogiwara has a brilliant record, winning gold medals in the team events at the 1992 Albertville and 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, two team and two individual gold medals at the Nordic Ski World Championships, and three overall individual titles at the Nordic Combined World Cup.
He has been instrumental in increasing the popularity of the previously minor Nordic combined event in Japan.
He won the championships with a winning pattern of gaining an overwhelming advantage in the “Ski Jumping” in the first half, and then running away with the “Cross Country” in the second half.
However, the foreign teams, especially the European teams that originated the ski combined events, must have been dissatisfied with the high distribution of points in the ski jumps and the excessive time difference, making Kenji Ogiwara’s “one-man journey” and “one-man victory” uninteresting.
Therefore, the rules were revised to change the scoring system from scoring the best two out of three jumps to scoring two jumps as they are. However, this revision had little effect on Kenji Ogiwara, who is good at jumping, and ironically, it resulted in lower scores for foreign teams who were not so good at jumping.
Then, the formula for converting “jump” scores into time was changed so that there would not be much difference in time even if the jumps were used to score points.
As a result, the Japanese teams were unable to take advantage of their jumps and were forced to fight an uphill battle. It is a blatant “bullying of the Japanese,” “beating up on the Japanese,” and “containing the Japanese.
Similar “rule changes” were made in the ski jumping competition. The length of the skis is restricted according to the height of the skiers, which is a disadvantage for small Japanese.
The prodigy jumper, who was a good opponent of Noriaki Kasai, was also short (164cm) and was affected by this “rule revision,” and his flying distance plummeted because he was forced to shorten the length of his skis by 5cm. He tried to increase his distance by losing weight, but he became anorexic and eventually had to retire from ski jumping. Kiaki Kasai was tall (177cm), so he was not affected too much by this “rule revision”.
４．Sara Takanashi (1996- )
There was also a revision to the “ban on changing the gate for scoring purposes,” which is rumored to have targeted Sara Takanashi. Until then, lowering the gate for the purpose of scoring points was allowed at the discretion of coaches, but after that, “it is allowed only when it is necessary for ensuring safety.
Lowering the gate reduces the running speed and thus the flying distance, but it has the advantage of stabilizing the flying form. Takanashi, who had problems with his flying style, sometimes lowered the gate to reduce his flying distance and make it easier for him to enter the telemark posture.
However, she has been very successful with her ingenuity and hard work even after this rule revision. However, there is a good fear that we will be hit by a new “rule revision” in the future.
５．Yuzuru Hanyu (1994- )
Figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu, who is by far the strongest skater in the world, is now considered the “absolute champion” of the world, but a “rule revision” has been made to “change the number of jumps in the Free Skate from 8 to 7.
As a result, more “performance points” will be awarded for each jump, so he no longer needs to “quadruple axel jump” at the risk of injury.
He is trying to overcome the “handicap of the rule change” by improving the accuracy of each jump.
６．Ayako Okamoto (1951- )
Ayako Okamoto, a professional women’s golf player, has won 62 times (44 times in Japan, 17 times in the U.S., and once in Europe), and is not only Japan’s prize money queen but also the U.S.’s prize money queen.
She has been more successful on the U.S. Women’s PGA Tour than Hisako Higuchi, former president of the Japan Ladies Professional Golf Association, but she has also experienced the hardships of racism, harassment, and disdain from her fellow competitors.
Recently, Naomi Osaka of women’s tennis beat former world queen Serena Williams in a “U.S. Open Tennis” match. Although some aspects of the match were unavoidable because it was away from home, such as the persistent protest by the former queen to the referee during the match, booing at the venue, and loud boos at the awards ceremony, As a Japanese, I felt sorry for Naomi Osaka.
I was reminded that Americans (and Europeans as well) have a deep-rooted discriminatory attitude toward Japanese. I think it is fair to give a round of applause to the winners at the awards ceremony, no matter which country’s athletes won, or even if your favorite athlete did not win.