In the last RW class we watched the movie, The Corporation, and discussed about the content. In the movie, it was said that corporations manipulate children's eagerness to buy their products by advertisement, and it gives bad influence for them.

I think corporation's advertising for children is OK, and should not be strictly restricted by parents, because through being exposed to those advertisement, children can develop their skills of media literacy. 
These days so much information and advertisement come and go through the Internet and other media, and it is often said that consumers have to develop their media literacy skills. I think this skill can be grown through living in exposure of information. Of course parents and adults have to be careful to separate children from being manipulated by corporations, but I feel it is also dangerous for children to being ignorant of those risks. 

In the last class, we started to deal with essay topic, and learned some useful digital tools for writing.

Today we have so many digital tools and applications for computers and tablet terminals. If I search for new applications, many useful tools come up in an instant.

However, as I reflect that, I wonder how many applications I daily use in reality.

Actually, currently I use less than ten applications on my smartphone in daily life, though I have applications on my interface three times as many as I use.

I feel that digital devices are very useful and can be shortcut on tasks, but if I overuse them, I become overwhelmed by my devices and cannot concentrate on real life, distant from connection or enjoyment through the screen of my smartphone or laptop.

I think how we utilize those tools and applications is different from person to person, and it can be connected to how the person face the daily living.  

Online Writing Support in Japan

Int the last class, we covered many universities' writing help office like Purdue University's or Harvard College's, which are very helpful when write an essay, and some useful tools, such as Analyze My Writing, which automatically analyze my essay.

I found many efficient websites of writing organized by globally prominent universities, which everyone can view and refer to. And this is apparently different from most Japanese universities, because they only provide general information about their writing support system, and no online specific advice or points of writing.

I thought Japanese universities too, need online guide of writing, but not just imitating Western universities.

As I checked the websites of Western universities, I felt that certainly students can learn many points in writing English essays by them, but for me, I need some guide of writing a Japanese essay, too.

Of course I don't need tips of Japanese writing in this RW class or other English classes, but I  sometimes need such guide when I wright a Japanese essay for Japanese class. Actually I got almost no information about Japanese writing through ICU's curriculum, compared to English writing.

I know that writing in English is more important and needed to master as ICU's policy, but I think we need a bit more guide of writing in Japanese, because Japanese students can't avoid it if they live in Japan.

So I think Japanese universities, including ICU, need helpful and useful online guides of writing, which meet the demands of students.

In the last class, we dealt how we can take a short cut in dealing with task by dividing it among a group of people.
Certainly I can save time by dividing works and sharing it afterward, but I found some difficulties at first, to communicate and manage the task with people.

So what I thought is, in order to manage a task efficiently in groups,  we definitely need a leader who organize it. Especially when we have to manage a task with unfamiliar members or members in different grade or status, we need someone who put opinions together.
I have several presentations in classes other than RW class and I have to manage it with four other people, but I sometimes found difficulties in proceeding the task.
I think everyone can do their work easily if they had properly provided tasks, so I'd like to decide one leader first, before proceeding work from now. And hopefully, I want to learn how to manage tasks more efficiently.

In RW classes of this week, we covered the content of the corporation, and some important  points in writing an essay. The film, the corporation, presented idea that the corporation does not care about the environment and the people, for example during Vietnam War, American corporation Monsanto sprinkled toxic chemical for human body in order to clear the forest which disturbs marching, and it left enormous effect to the Vietnamese civilians.

But I feel that such extreme example does not completely match today's situation. Though it is true that many global big companies produces their products cheaper by operating factories in developing countries or they are responsible for current environmental problem, today's corporations much more care about public views or opinions.

I think corporations can no longer survive without consider those views in this information society, which huge number of people check the movement of corporations through the Internet.

Of course I don't know the true condition of corporations, or whether this world is becoming better, but I believe the situation is changing constantly. 

In the last RW class, we learned one of the key concepts of the corporation. It is to get around the rules, and it means finding loopholes in rules in order to get more profit in management. In the class, we  dealt with one example of The Body Shop.

As I think about other examples, the current dispute between two Japanese big beverage companies, Suntory and Asahi over their products is one kind of example.
Both Suntory and Asahi are prominent corporation in Japan, but in this year, Suntory sued Asahi for one of the Asahi products abusing the patent of producing the non-alcohol beer. Asahi completely denied it, and the fight in the court between two corporations is unavoidable.
Though this is very big issue, I feel this dispute is like first come, first served.
Because they hold top share in the field of non-alcohol beverage both has become heated to preserve their honor, but the original subject of their products' quality is not seems to be cared so much.
Like getting around the rules, they just see their profits.

The Relation of Museum and Corporation in Japan

In Wednesday’s RW class, we watched beginning part of the documentary film, The Corporation.

It shows many experts and executives’ opinions about corporation, and the strong point of this movie is that it presents various ideas of corporation from both supportive and opposing side.

But the core idea is that the primary aim of the corporation is to pursue a profit, in order to return it to their stockholders.

As I learned this idea by the film and the book with same name, the corporation, I wondered the situation in Japan.

In Japan too, though many corporations appeals their friendly image or social responsibility,the prior intention is profit. But as I think about it, I remembered that there are many corporation-owned museums in Japan like Bridgestone Museum of Art, or Suntory Museum of Art.

Such corporation-owned museums are famous and attract many visitors, because they hold various exhibition with collecting art works from within the country and abroad. Many such museums are as good as Japanese national museums on the points of exhibition, architecture and service.

I can say such services are also one of the industries of big corporation, but I feel those museum management is somewhat different from other industries. And it can be seen that those corporation-owned museums, especially ones which have corporation name in their name, are distinctive in Japan, because I can’t mention many museums in U.S. and European countries which are owned by corporations or have corporations’ name.

In the situation of Japanese museums, I think corporations supply the services for the public people which cannot be fully covered by national or local government.

So I feel that we can see and find the contribution of corporations for the society in some aspects, as we think about each country's situation.