＜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) on X
<Added July 31, 2021> Japanese life expectancy reached a new record high in 2020.
In 2020, the average life expectancy for Japanese men was 81.64 years (81.41 years in 2019), second only to Switzerland, and for women it was 87.74 years (87.45 years in 2019), remaining first in the world.
<Added October 8, 2020> Haruki Murakami will not receive the Nobel Prize in Literature this year either.
The Swedish Academy announced that the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature will be awarded to American poet Louise Glück (77 years old).
The Academy stated that the award was “in recognition of her unparalleled poetic expression, celebrating a simple beauty that elevates the individual to the universal.”
Rather than thinking, “Oh, it was a failure again this year,” my honest reaction is, “I’m disappointed with the Swedish Academy’s stubborn decision to exclude Haruki Murakami.”
It has been reported that conservative U.S. Appeals Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett (48) has been nominated to replace liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (87), who passed away on September 18, 2020.
She will need Senate approval, but if she takes office, six of the nine Supreme Court justices will be conservative, giving the court an overwhelming majority of conservatives.
What surprised me most about this news is that “U.S. Supreme Court justices are appointed for life.”
So, in this article, I would like to consider the “problems of the lifetime system.”
1. Problems with the lifetime system (lifetime appointments) and specific examples
(1) What is the lifetime system?
The term “lifetime official” is used to distinguish it from the “lifetime employment system.” This refers to “bureaucrats and officials who will not be relieved of their duties until their death unless they voluntarily resign or receive disciplinary action for serious misconduct.”
(2) Problems with the Lifetime System
While a lifetime system is not a problem for nominal honorary positions, there are the following problems with making lifetime appointments for positions that perform substantive and extremely important duties, such as Supreme Court justices and Nobel Prize selection committee members.
① As people age, their perspective narrows, their judgment deteriorates, and they risk developing dementia.
② As the saying goes, “power corrupts,” long-term tenure inevitably leads to various negative consequences.
③ It deprives younger generations of opportunities to thrive and prevents their judgment and sensibilities from being reflected.
④ While lifetime tenure allows judges to remain in their positions, it also hinders the mobility of talent.
⑤ The Supreme Court’s judicial decisions tend to be entrenched in either “conservative” or “liberal” thinking over the years, depending on which side prevails.
(3) Specific Examples of Lifetime Tenure
① U.S. Supreme Court Justices
Article III, Section 1 of the United States Constitution states, “The Justices of the Supreme Court shall hold office so long as they maintain good behavior.” This “good behavior” is interpreted as synonymous with life.
Therefore, U.S. Supreme Court Justices are appointed for life, meaning they serve until their death or personal retirement, except in the event of removal by impeachment.
Incidentally, there has never been a case of a person being removed from office through impeachment.
The current composition of the US Supreme Court justices is as follows:
Chief Justice John Roberts (65 years old), Caucasian male, Conservative, 15th year in office
Clarence Thomas (72 years old), African American male, Conservative, 29th year in office
Stephen Breyer (82 years old), Jewish male, Liberal, 27th year in office
Samuel Alito (70 years old), Italian male, Conservative, 15th year in office
Sonia Sotomayor (66 years old), Latina female, Liberal, 12th year in office
Elena Kagan (60 years old), Jewish female, Liberal, 11th year in office
Neil Gorsuch (53 years old), Caucasian male, Conservative, 4th year in office
Brett Kavanaugh (55 years old), Caucasian male, Conservative, 2nd year in office
As an aside, the retirement age for Supreme Court justices in Japan is 70, as stipulated in Article 50 of the Court Act. Considering the average life expectancy of Japanese people (81.41 years for men, 87.45 years for women) and the average life expectancy of Americans (78.54 years), I believe the United States should also set a mandatory retirement age of 70, given the risk of dementia and other conditions.
② Nobel Prize Selection Committee
The Swedish Academy, which selects the Nobel Prize in Literature, has a lifetime membership (18 members). Under the system, members cannot resign voluntarily, and membership is not renewed until death. A minimum of 12 members must be present to make decisions for the Academy.
Two members have been inactive for several years, and three, including the former Secretary-General, announced their resignations in protest of the lenient handling of the 2018 scandal, bringing the total number of active members to 13. If two more members announce their resignations, the Academy will be forced to cease functioning.
I believe that we should revise the Constitution and rejuvenate it, taking into account the “harm of old age” such as dementia and the idea that “power corrupts.”
2. Dictators with “effectively lifelong tenure” in authoritarian countries
In my article “The History of Absolute Monarchies (Absolutist Regimes) and Similarities with Modern Communist One-Party Dictatorships,” I discuss the problems with the following three dictators, so please refer to it.
(1) Russian President Putin
(2) Chinese President Xi Jinping
(3) North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un
Although completely unrelated to these dictators, considering that the current Emperor Emeritus abdicated due to his advanced age and inability to fulfill his duties as Emperor, I believe that we should also discuss the possibility of a mandatory retirement age for the Emperor and a female-line Emperor in conjunction with the discussion of constitutional reform.
Also, on a different note, the United Nations is an extremely unfair international organization that permanently favors the victorious nations of World War II by granting them veto privileges, while still not removing the enemy nation clause against defeated nations, including Japan.
This is like the lifetime rule for the victorious nations of World War II, and I believe it is a problematic international organization.