Amazon Tax

A new California law, taking effect since July 1st, requires large, out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes on Internet purchases by California customers. Called the “Amazon tax,” the law was signed Jun 29th by Gov. Jerry Brown in hopes of raising an estimated $317 million annually to help close a yawning budget gap.

Amazon offered strong resistance to this new law. Amazon has already terminated its affiliate programs in such state as Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Texas.

This activity is based on the new law's conditions. New law said that even affiliates in California regard as physical sales office in the state.

Meanwhile, large retailers such as Best-Buy support this new law.

They complained about current situation that only Amazon didn't collect sales taxes is really unfair.

The top picture was shown at the meeting that is held by Best-Buy to stock holders and it showed the enforcement situation of the e-fairness.

E-fairness is the official name of "Amazon tax"  Best-Buy conducted their strong lobbying activity by using forty nine thousand dollars.

Amazon also suggested new idea that if California state government cancel

this law, Amazon promise to make some blanches in California and hire at least 7000 of new employee. Amazon knows that California is facing growing unemployment. However, most of retailers rejected this idea.

They said that we only focused on its unfair situation about sales tax.

To tell the truth, I am a heavy user of Amazon.com. I think it's convenience, lower price and of course no-tax. Also, easy to return is one of advantage point. But at the same time, I understand that California state is suffering from the lack of revenue shortages. Also, I know a lot of customer are trying to check items at the physical retailers and then buy it on Amazon.

 I think it is unfair.

Also, I'm worry about being the worst scenario.

I mean if Amazon terminates all affiliates in California, California states government can't get tax and no hiring. Some affiliates have already left from California.

I think that originally, on-line shopping is easy and convenience but at the same time, we have to pay shipping fee instead. If you don't want to pay it or you want to check the goods yourself, you should go to the physical retailer.

I believe that physical retailers and net retailers can be reconciled.

State government should control the tax equally as much as possible.

 Written in July 2011 and revised 2012 

Save the nature and the environment ～Through my trip to Canada

I went to the Canadian Rockies during my summer vacation and I was moved with the magnificent scenery, endowed with wild nature such as beautiful mountains and emerald green lakes. Also, I met a lot of wild animals that live there such as black bears and elks. In addition, I was moved with Canadian people's attitude that people truly love world heritages and takes the effort to protect the environment.

Canada is second large country in the world and surprisingly, 70% of areas are pristine nature. More surprisingly, Canada owned 10% of the total amount of forests all of the world.

Therefore, Canadian people are growing near nature all the time. So, it might be natural to protect this nature for themselves.

However, at the same time, Canada has a lot of issues about conservation of the environment. Different from Japan, Canada has a wealth of natural resources such as oil sands, so Canada has a lot of financial advantages but, when it come to refine them, it produces tons of carbon dioxide. Surprisingly, it increased 30% compared to 1990. Therefore, Canada announced that they will leave from the Kyoto Protocol last year, even though they joined it originally.

Like in America, Canada is also big and is thinly populate. So, people may not feel the importance of recycling and reducing greenhouse gas. It's not rare when spring comes and snow starts melting, a lot of trashes which littered in the snow appears in the city.

In this situation, there is the one guy who is the most famous Canadian Japanese and fighting to protect the environment.

His name is David Suzuki and he is known to be a scientist and professor in University of British Colombia from 1963 to 2001. He is also known for environmental activist. Above all, he is best known as host of CBC Television "The Nature of Things".

This show is really popular and over 30 years long-running that many Canadians said that they grew with his show.　This program is not only describing about the mystery and the beauty of nature, but also it introduces that the nature is lost in every moment and destroyed the ecosystem that should be a base of human life. It's continuing to accuse the risk of life operation and importance of the environmental conservation.

The program is retained by strong support of the public opinion while it's often glared by politicians, and receiving the pressure from the big companies. He also got the first prize as "the existing greatest Canadian" by a referendum held on a large scale in 2004.

He is also known as the father of Severn Cullis-Suzuki.

She gave the great speech at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and her famous phrase that " If you don't know how to fix it, please stop breaking it!" impressed audiences. Thereafter, she is active as the young leader of environmental movement all over the world. She was featured in the documentary film called "the voice of our children(Severn no chikyu no naoshikata) " and it was released in 2010 in French. This film is still screened in various cities in Japan.

This film introduces about the spirit of one farmer who makes organic rice with using dubbing duck instead of pesticide. In addition, the film shows Barjac village in France where filmed on "Non Enfants Nous Accuseront (Mirai no shokutaku) "and this village's situation now. 

I didn't see this film, but DVD will release soon. I can't wait to see it.

I think that the theme of giving nice future to children through food safety should be thought by Japanese people now. Also, it's really important to act something what each people include me can do, not only her.

These are David Suzuki's recommendations what we can do in our daily life.

1. Reduce home energy use by 10%

2. Choose an energy-efficient home and appliances

3. Don't use pesticides

4. Eat meat-free meals one day a week

5. Buy locally grown and produced food

6. Choose a fuel efficient vehicle

7. Walk, bike carpool or take transit

8. Choose a home close to work or school

9. Support alternative transportation

10. Learn more and share with others

Let's try and we can do them.

Data source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Suzuki

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/# 

Severn's legend speech 1992(English/Japanese)

http://www.sloth.gr.jp/relation/kaiin/severn_riospeach.html 

Severn's film official site

http://www.uplink.co.jp/severn/ 

Written in July 18 2012

 

Did young Japanese become inward-looking?

Young Japanese are becoming "inward-looking". I often see these articles lately. According to the media inward-looking could be one of the reasons why the amount of students who study abroad and young co-workers who hope to go overseas are decreasing.

According to the research conducted by Institute of International Education (IIE), the total amount of Japanese students who studied in the U.S were only 21,290 people. This is 14% less than the previous year and more than 50% less compared to its peak in 1997.

In response to this, internet-bashing was happened such as " Today's young people don't have a passion" or "They don't have a challenging spirit".

Without doubt, Japanese students who study in the U.S are declining.

However, I don't think it's true that inward-looking is the cause. I think it's really dangerous to accept all the information from media without deep thinking. Don't you think that's really rude to label young Japanese like this easily?

Why is it declining actually?

First of all, the economic reason is a big influence. Actually, American universities raised the charge of school expenses immediately. The average cost is 33,973 dollars for tuition, room rent and food expense during nine months in public four-year university from 2011 to 2012. The expense increased by 16% compared to three years ago. In addition, the long recession in Japan made young Japanese become hesitant to go abroad to study.

Next, the front-loaded job hunting system in Japan makes students think that the overseas education is disadvantage for job-hunting. Meanwhile, it could be another reason that many companies go global these days, but when it comes to hiring, they tend to not focus on student's experience abroad.

In addition, we have to consider that many students go overseas except the U.S such as China and Australia and the total amount of young Japanese is declining compared to the old days.

In the '90s, There were more than two million people, but the total amount of students who studied abroad was only 20,000 people. On the other hand, 60,000 students go abroad to study even in the bad economy and bad job-hunting situation recently. When it comes to the point of the absolute number, the total amount of students who study abroad is declining.

However, when it comes to the point of the studying abroad rate, it's not declining too much.

Therefore, I think it's wrong to jump into the conclusion easily that young Japanese became inward-looking, that's why they don't go abroad to study.

It's true that inward-looking students are increasing, but at the same time, people who have the thought of wanting to go overseas are increasing too.

In other words, it's a polarization in the thought of going overseas isn't it?

To be sure, there may be more demerits than a merit to study abroad compared to the old days. However, if we consider that a lot of Japanese companies will expand overseas in the future, I recommend young people to go abroad to study. I think that going abroad and learning new language and culture, and making acquaintances will help not only young Japanese themselves, but also companies and Japanese society in the future. Therefore I think companies and Japanese government should make a better situation that young Japanese can go abroad to study more easily.

Written in Jun 13 and revised Jun 29

Data source：http://d.hatena.ne.jp/Pada/20110813/1313346366