On the First Day of Spring

Yesterday was "setubun", the last day of winter. The lunar calender tells us today is the first day of spring, though we find no sign of it. Oh, the sunlight is getting brighter, I know. On setubun we have a traditional event to invite happiness and drive the evil out of the house. In the evening our grandchildren threw the beans both outside and inside the house calling loudly "In happiness! Out devil!" After that we ate as many beans as our age. (The fact was children ate far more and we ate far less.)
On Sunday I went to a women"s meeting in this area It is called "Mothers' Meeting" . The national meeting satarted in 1955, and has been held every year since then. Its slogan is "Mothers who give lives birth wish to protect them". Mothers have talked about children's happiness, women's rights, and peace. It has made many important movements in its long history. But in the meeting I found most of the participants were aged people like the other civil activities.
We often find young people have little interest in politics or the society although they are living harsh lives. Many of them are temporary employees and so they are payed a little, fired easily, and working long hours. Big and strong workers' unions were crushed down decades ago and laws to protect workers seem to be ignored. I think they should get angry, but they don't. Instead they blame themselves, or try to conform with the situation, or run away from the problems. They might have no time or energy to think. It seems that their anger sometimes goes to the weaker part of the society like other Asian people or those who live on welfare.
Most of the people including the politicians don't kmow any real wars in Japan. For those people the slogans from the right wing like "We want strong Japan" or "Don't be looked down!" or "Get ready for the attack from the evil countries " sound descisive, I think. It resembles the situation just before the last war we have heard or read.
But now in Japan, there are many movements for peace, anti nukes, anti military bases, environment, human rights, helping homeless or jobless people, and so on. It's a big difference from the days seven decades ago. Many of the news on the papers make me angry every morning, but we old and retired people have a lot of time to think, read, and act, and we are stubborn! In Okinawa octogenarians are in the front line of the protesting activities because they have no jobs to lose in case of being arrested. What an idea! So, watch out Abe.