[Oe List ...] Japan's Yubari!

[Isobel & Jim Bishop]

Hello Michael and Molly,
Thank you for your clear description of my time in Oyubari, and at the Oyubari Consult.  I remember well my time in the village, and going to the Hospital which was not being used, and the Operating theatre which was very dusty.
It was a good time for the residents in Oyubari, as it seemed to give the villagers some hope, that someone cared enough to come off the "end of the bitumen" to them.
Peace be to you,
Isobel Bishop.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Michael & Molly Shaw 
  To: 'Order Ecumenical Community' 
  Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 6:28 AM
  Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Japan's Yubari!


  The Oyubari HDP was indeed in a part of Yurbari-shi.  The melon farming had been developed in Oyubari before we arrived.  At the time melons were all that there were.  Today, I believe there is melon liqueur, and some melon wines based on the Yubari Melon.

  The Mitsubishi coal mine in Oyubari had closed about 5 years before we began the HDP.  Mitsubishi still operated a coal mine in Shimonoseki, about 5 km south of Oyubari.  It was still the primary employer of Oyubari reseidents, and still ran a company store and public bath there.  I believe there was one other active mine "at the other end of Yubari-shi.

  At the end of the consult in Oyubari, it was rumored that the Mayor of Yubari-shi used the HDP document as he traveled in Japan as the model for Yubari.

  Peace,
  Michael Shaw, resident, with Molly, Jeremiah and Nathan (born while there) of Oyubari for 18 months late 70's



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  From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of SVESjaime at aol.com
  Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 8:07 AM
  To: oe at wedgeblade.net; Dialogue at wedgeblade.net; earthrise at yahoogroups.com; OE at wedgeblade.net
  Subject: [Oe List ...] Japan's Yubari!


  Found this article in the J at pan Inc.  Is this the same mining town where an HDP was attempted?

  CONTENTS:
  @@ VIEWPOINT: Yubari Still Has Melons

  Yubari City, on Hokkaido, northernmost of the main Japanese
  islands, is known for its orange-fleshed melon. Film buffs
  will recognize it as the partial setting for the 1977 film
  'Shiawase no kiiro hankachi' (The Yellow Handkerchief),
  which won the Japanese Academy Award for Best Picture.
  Now it is notorious as a symbol of fiscal mismanagement
  in the hinterlands.

  Yubari went bankrupt. It will become an organization for
  fiscal reconstruction in March. Under state control the
  city will have 18 years in which to repay its debts. That
  will mean higher taxes and reduced public services--in short,
  a heavy burden on the backs of Yubari's citizens.

  Yubari is the most prominent example of fiscal mismanagement.
  But it is hardly unique. Nationwide as many as 20 percent of
  municipalities are facing a financial crisis. In case a
  municipality goes belly up, should its citizens be saddled
  with a heavy tax burden?

  When the 'Asahi Shimbun' posed this question to 9,000
  nationwide monitors during a four-day period from January
  19 to 22, 60% of the 2,476 respondents said no. The reason
  they most often gave was that government bears the heavier
  responsibility. Commented a 46-year-old monitor in Tokyo,'
  [Placing the burden on the people] blurs the responsibility
  of top officials.'

  In rebutting the notion of the people's responsibility,
  a 37-year-old woman in Ibaraki compared a municipality
  to a company: 'When a company fails, its employees never
  bear a financial burden.'

  Then again, some respondents opined that in case a town
  goes bust its people have no choice but to sacrifice for
  its restructuring. Yubari has became a symbol of a bleak
  future, and a verb: 'It's clear that all of Japan will be
  Yubari-ized one day,' said a 46-year-old Tokyo woman.

  A 38-year-old man used his hometown as an example in raising
  the question of the electorate's responsibility.

  'Since the election of the present mayor when I was in middle
  school, there has not been a mayoral election, and I'm now over
  30. And the same people always run for the town council. It's said
  that the people elect the politicians, but I think that's an
  empty theory held by city people who don't know the actual
  situation.'

  Yubari is now 35.3 billion yen in the red. Mining, the
  town's principal industry, ended with the closing of the
  mine. The town staked its future on development of tourism,
  with 'Yellow  Handkerchief Plaza,' the location for the
  shooting of the film; Coal Mining History Village; a tour
  of a pitch-black mining road; and, the last resort of a
  failing provincial city, an art museum. Tourists didn't
  come in sufficient numbers for a return on investment.
  Yubari obtained loans from financial organs to hide the
  red ink and fell deeper into debt in making repayments.

  Thirty-six percent of monitors replied they would
  continue to live in their town even if it went bankrupt,
  as opposed to 27% who said they wouldn't. A conspicuous
  number of respondents said they would stay put because
  an unpaid loan on their house prevented their moving.
  The Japanese have entered an age when it behooves them
  to investigate municipal finances before sinking roots
  in a town.

  While watching a news slot on the plight of Yubari, my
  nine-year-old asked if he would still be able to eat
  Yubari melons.

  'That, son, is all Yubari has left.'





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