The death penalty is the most severe penalty in Japan. It is mostly enforced for murderers that killed two or more people with murderous intent. Some people oppose it because they think it is against human rights. However, I wonder what they think about the human rights of people who were killed. No matter how many people a murderer kills, is it really necessary to think about the human rights of the murder? One problem of the death penalty is false charges. If the death penalty is enforced in the case of a false charge, there is no recovering from that. Does your country have the death penalty? Do you approve of it?

Can you guess them?

1. The more people you share your pleasure with, the more you feel pleasure. On the other hand, the more people you share your sadness with, the less you feel sadness.

2. Sea water evaporates and becomes vapor. It is cooled in the sky and becomes cloud. Cloud makes rain and it falls down on the ground and sea.

3. I am not sure whether it will become successful, but if the possibility of success is more than 50％(The percentage depends on the person), there is no reason why I don't try to do it.

4. I need it to achieve my goal. Even if I sometimes feel like my goal is far away, it cheers me up at such time and gives me energy to make a effort for my goal.

A Chinese scientist is being criticised for making twin girls whose genes were modified. He seems to have modified the girls' genes when they were ova, so that they wouldn't contract AIDS, because their father had AIDS.

Most scientists around the world criticise him because they think it is unethical to modify human genes. If they allow it, they can design people as they like. It would be very terrible, wouldn't it?

There are some problems about this case. For instance, how about the girls' human rights? The girls will be an object of study. They will be observed throughout their lives. How about their health? We can't know what will happen to the girls because they are the first humans whose genes were modified. Are they allowed to have babies? If they have babies, of course, their babies will have the same problems as they have. What do you think about modifying human genes?

Nissan, a big Japanese car company, was facing financial difficulties in the late 90's. Carlos Ghosn was appointed as the president of Nissan in 1999 and succeeded in rebuilding the company. At that time, most of the Japanese mass media admired him as a good manager. 

After eighteen years, he was arrested by Japanese police in December of 2018. The reason is because he is suspected to have underreported his income from Nissan by more than 10 million dollars and shifted his 16 million dollars of losses by stocks trades to Nissan. Moreover, he is suspected of using the money of Nissan for himself. He could do this because he had been the president of Nissan for a long time and power became concentrated in him. I think that this has happened because of his greed for money. He lost his reputation because of his greed. Greed ruins one's life, doesn't it?

I read an article a few days ago and it said that Miss USA looked down on Miss Vietnam and Miss Cambodia because they can't speak English. Then, Miss USA received a lot of criticism and apologized to them. I wonder why she looked down on them. I hear some American people, especially young women, tend to look down on people who can't speak English and complain when they travel other countries and English is not understood there. Of course, English is the most spoken language around the world and very useful because we can communicate with people in other countries with it. However people in non-English speaking countries have their own language and can make a life without English. Miss USA may think the USA is the world, but of course, it isn't. Can you give me your opinion on her behavior?

This is the article. https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/13/asia/miss-usa-comments-summers-intl/index.html?fbclid=IwAR19auFc_SC0xMcmRao2yY2ndhw64RK3ewUZE7i6Fhd-ZDzg68E4OiBzWSY

I know that the ground on the moon is being sold. An American company sells it for thirty dollars per the area of a soccer filed. More than six million people in the world have already bought them, and the total sales so far is more than eleven million dollars. The founder of the company says that he wondered who owned the ground on the moon and searched for laws about that. He noticed that an international treaty prohibits countries from owning the ground on the moon, but he thought individual people weren't prohibited to own it. Then, another international treaty prohibits not only countries but also individual people from owning it. But almost countries had not ratified it yet, so he thought it wasn't a problem for people to own it. However I think it will be a big problem if the day comes when we can go to the moon easily.

By the way, I wonder why people buy the ground of the moon, even though they can't go there. They may be satisfied with the dream of living on the moon. Do you want to buy the ground of the moon for thirty dollers per the area of soccer ground?

The morning is so gloomy, and he is in a deep sleep. He wakes up when the sun shines right above the head. Finding his wife and his daughter no more around him, he recalls everything happened all of a sudden yesterday. He closes his eyes for a few minutes more. Afterwards, he gets up, throws on his only black jacket, takes the car key, and hits the road. Crazily thinking of committing suicide, on a highway, he very fast drives his car. From afar, he vaguely sees a girl smiling, asking for hitching a ride. Though he is hurrying to his best friend's house, he gives her a ride in his car because she is so beautiful.

They have a conversation in his car untill they arrive at her destination. While he is talking with her, he is recalling what happened yesterday. He knew that his wife had affairs with his best friend for some years, and she had gone to his best friend's house with his daughter. This fact makes him very sad because this is not only his wife's betrayal but also his best friend's betrayal.

"I am traveling around the world," the girl says. In that moment, he thinks he will tell her that he wants to travel around the world with her, but soon he thinks it is impossible. After he drops her off at her destination, he heads for his best friend's house, wondering what he should do.

When he arrives at his friend's house, the friend invites him in. They talk it out for some hours, and his wife and his best friend tell him how much they love each other. He can't say anything after hearing that. Then, he leaves his best friend's house and goes home alone. His heart is broken and he commits suicide.

After a few days, his wife and his best friend find out about his suicide. It is needless to say that they have been racked by a guilty feeling ever since. 

Do you know of Doraemon? It is a famous Japanese manga and the main character's name. He is a futuristic robot that looks like a cat and came to Japan from the future in order to help an unreliable child named Nobita. He is always bullied by his classmates but doesn't fight against them, instead he asks Doraemon for help. Doraemon has a lot of futuristic machines. For example, the Takecopter is a futuristic machine that looks like a bamboo-copter and you can fly through the sky by putting it on top of your head. You can go anywhere in a moment through the Dokodemodoor. Dokodemo means "anywhere".

He always helps Nobita with his futuristic machines. The most interesting part of this manga is undoubtedly the many futuristic machines. I am sure that children who read this manga or watch this anime want to become a friend of him and come to want the futuristic machines. What futuristic machines would you want?

Freedom of speech is one of the most important human rights. How to know a way whether freedom of speech is secure or not boils down to whether the citizens of a country can criticize the most influential person there or not. I think freedom of speech is relatively secure in Western countries, because they can see, read and listen to a lot of criticism of their president or prime minister.

On the other hand, there are some countries where it is forbidden to criticize the head of the nation. In countries like that, if somebody criticizes him, they are sent to prison or are killed in the worst case. I think criticism for correcting something is important, but it is often unfavorable for the head of the nation to maintain his power. What do you think about freedom of speech? Do you think freedom of speech is secure in your country?

Osaka Naomi is a 20 year old tennis player who has a Japanese mother and an American father from Haiti. She won the U.S open in 2018. She was born in Japan and her family moved to Florida when she was 3 years old. She could have played tennis as an American player, but she didn't do it. She plays tennis as a Japanese player. I have heard it is because she wants to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. There are many strong tennis players in the U.S, so she thinks it will be easier for her to be chosen as the Olympics representative in Japan than in the U.S.

There are some people who say that Naomi should not play tennis as a Japanese player because she has lived in America for a long time and can't speak Japanese, and that she just wants to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. It is easy to decide which country you belong to, if your parents have the same nationality and you have lived together with them in the  country that you were born in for a long time. But if not, such as Naomi, it is difficult. What do you think decides which country you belong to?

I have heard that a big earthquake and tsunami occured in Indonesia two days ago and many people died. I feel sorry for them and their families. I knew the threat of big earthquakes and tsunami because they occur in Japan at times. A very big earthquake occured in Japan at 3 p.m on 11th March in 2011. Many people died by being crushed under collapsing houses, buildings and landslides, and by being washed away by the tsunami. About 17500 people died owing to this earthquake.

I know big earthquakes and tsunami occur as often in Indonesia as in Japan. We are living in the place near the plate's edge. We can't expect that they won't occur in Japan and Indonesia. We can't fight against the power of nature.

What is music for you? Music is necessary for me and is always in my life. When I listen to the music that I used to listen to in high school, I immediately feel like I have gone back to that time. When I listen to the music that I used to listen to with my first girlfriend, I can feel the emotion I felt at that time. When I listen to the music that I listened to at a particular time, I can remember the emotion and the scenes at that time. We can travel back in time with music. It is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

I recently read an interesting article. It said that Facebook, Inc. announced that they are developing a system with which things we think can be changed into characters and we can display them on terminal devices without typing anything on a keyboard. This method to read what a human think doesn't involve implanting some devices into the human brain, but they are detachably attached to close to the head. They aim to input 100 characters into the terminal device per minute in the future and this is five times as fast as we type them on a smartphone keyboard. Nobody can know so far whether the plan is feasible or not, but the developer said, "Though you may think it is impossible, it won't be so long as we might expect."

We usually speak and write what we think after organizing it. If the idea becomes a reality, the screen connected the terminal device will be filled with many words we think randomly and we don't want other people to know. Do you think the idea will come true? If it comes true, do you want it?

The Conversation Between Lovers
Girl: Have you ever loved any other girls as much as me.
Boy: No, I've never loved any other girls more than you.
Girl: Really? I am glad to hear that. I'd never asked you this question before because I'd been afraid of what your answer would be.
Boy: Oh, no. Trust me. I've never lied to you.
Girl: By the way, I received this message "I've never loved any other girls more than you." from you at this morning, but "to Mary" is written on it. I'm not Mary, I'm Emma.

The Conversation on the Telephone
A: I've just arrived in Japan. I am so happy!
B: I've just finished eating lunch. So, I will go to pick you up soon. Where are you right now?
A: I'm at the Tokyo station. Oh, it has just started raining, so can you bring me an umbrella?
B: Yes. Can you wait for about an hour?
A: Yes, I've not eaten lunch yet. I will wait for you while eating lunch.
B: Oops. I've already finished eating lunch. I wanted to eat lunch with you, because you would treat me.

Shark vs Lion

Shark: I am the strongest animal in the world.

Lion: No. It's me who is the strongest animal in the world.

Shark: What? So fight me! Come on, I'm waiting for you in the sea.

Lion: What? No, we will fight on land.

A Pig and His Owner

The owner: Eat a lot and grow quickly and healthily.

Pig: How kind my owner is!

The owner: Eat a lot and grow fatter.

Pig: Grow fatter? Why?

The People Who Are Easily Swindled

A: I have confidence that I will not be swindled.

B: Really? The people who are easily swindled are those like you.

A: Why?

B: It is because the people like you tend to relax their guard.

Recently, immigrant has become a major worldwide issue. The U.S president Donald Trump has stated that he will make a long wall on the border between the U.S and Mexico, because the U.S is troubled by the illegal immigration. The UK decided to break away from the EU because they didn't want to accept immigrants. I have heard the German people have changed their tolerant opinions towards immigrants to intolerant ones after a terrorist attack at the Christmas Fair in 2016. The Italian prime minister claims that it isn't fair that only Italy needs to take on so many immigrants and other countries should also accept them.

Immigrants want to migrate to wealthier countries so that they can make their lives better. The countries that accept them also expect them to be good workers while they live there. However, some immigrants can not adapt themselves to their new country because of the different culture and language, and they tend to commit crimes. As a result, people in the countries that accept immigrants are afraid of the deterioration of security in their countries. Besides, they may be afraid that their cultures and jobs will be lost by immigrants. What do you think about immigrant issues?

Have you read the book "The Diary of Anne Frank"? It is one of the most read books in the world and tells us about the misery of war. I recently read an article about this book, and it said the newest image analysis techniques could read two pages in the book that were hidden by Anne with two sheets of brown paper. Topics about sex and some sexual jokes were written on the pages and one of the jokes was "Do you know why woman soldiers in German army stay in Amsterdam? They stay here as mattresses for man soldiers."

Anne hid the pages because she was probably afraid that they would be read by her family. Though the pages were published against her will, even if we read them, I am sure that nobady would say anything against her, because it is what adolescent girls think about. Don't you think so?

Some countries have kings and some countries instead have presidents. Countries that have a king usually have a prime minister, who is at the top of the government. People can directly choose a president and indirectly a prime minister in their country through election. However, people can't choose their King. If the king who has power is a tyrant, his nation will suffer under him. Because people in France thought they didn't need a king, a historical revolution broke out there from 1789 to 1799, where he and his family were killed by his nation.

Japan has an emperor, which is almost the same as a king. The present Japanese emperor doesn't have any power. His main roles are to interact with kings and presidents from other countries, to greet people in some national ceremonies and to perform Japanese traditional rites. But he is respected by the Japanese people. There are some different types of heads of state as I said before. Which person does your country have and do you want in your country? Does your country's king have power and is respected by the people in your country?

It was when I was about five years old. I was sleeping with my parents in an upstairs room, which had a window that lead to a balcony. I woke up at midnight and looked out of the window. Then I saw something white floating in the dark and thought it was a ghost. Though I was very frightened, I soon fell asleep again because I felt my parents would protect me. After that, I became frightened of ghosts when I was a child, but when I became an adult and thought what it could have been, I realized it was a bath towel drying on the balcony. :D

In 1992, a Japanese foreign student was shot to death by a man in the U.S. This tragedy was caused by mistakes. He, who was dressed up for Halloween, visited a man's house to get Halloween treats. But the man mistook him for a robber and said "Freeze". However he got closer to the man while laughing and said  "I have come to Halloween party", because he mistook "Freeze" for "Please" . At that time, he was shot to death by the man. This accident made Japanese people think about the U.S as a gun society.

Some similar accidents have occurred in the U.S. For example, a seventeen-year-old American boy was mistakenly shot by a policeman and died. When the policeman visited the boy's house, the boy had a Wii remote control in his hand. The policeman mistook it for a gun and shot him. It was a tragedy. When the policeman realized his mistake, he broke down crying. The boy was joining the Reserve Officers' Training Corps and his friends say "He was a good guy".

I think the U.S society allows people to shoot a gun easily. I think this is because people in the U.S assume everyone else is carrying a gun, so they think they must shoot others as soon as possible before they themselves are shot. What do you think about these accidents and gun society?