Employees should be allowed to work any hours

(For my practice for English examination and this might be not my honest opinion.)

Q: As long as they meet deadlines and attend meetings, company employees should be allowed to work any hours they choose.  

Agree or disagree?

I know there are some smart people whose skill are more sophisticated than that of other people and they also can finish their tasks quicker than other employees. Therefore, I partly understand that they should be allowed to work any hours they choose. However, I disagree with this statement for the following two reasons.

To begin with, I believe that the peer group pressure is imperative for most people. Forcing standard employees to do the same everyday routines has a strong effect in order to keep their motivation and keep the companies safer and more stable. In fact, I know an American professor who claim this method. In his view, most people are really normal and they cannot manage themselves and cannot keep their high motivation although only a few special people can do them. If companies give them right to decide their working time, they may be lazy easily. Thus, from the point of view of companies’ stability, companies should force their employees to do the same action. By doing that, totally, companies can keep their better environment to work and guarantee stable outcome of them.

Secondly, by paying additional money, companies can evaluate high skilled workers. Some advanced people may think that it is unfair because they have to stay their offices longer in spite of already finishing their tasks by using advanced skills and sometimes, they may have to deal with additional works which shouldn’t be assigned to them. In this way, I believe companies should pay more money to them or they should be promoted higher positions on which they can get much basic salary. As far as I’m concerned, it is by no means difficult for us to judge whether which employees are good or not. Actually, since I have been running my own company, I know that is easy. Therefore, I can conclude that companies should force their all employees to follow the same routine and rules but at the same time, should evaluate sophisticated workers properly by paying higher salary.

In conclusion, for these reasons, keeping better environment of companies, and being able to evaluate skilled workers by paying money more, I disagree with this statement.  

What are some other reasons that people work?

(For my practice for English examination and this might be not my honest opinion.)

Q: People work because they need money to live. What are some other reasons that people work?

I believe there are some reasons why people work and earn money aside from working to live. I know some people simply want to get money to become rich people. In my case, I believe that I work for the following two reasons.

Firstly, I can improve my technics as a professional music composer. After graduation from music university, I started pursuing my professional career in music. Although it was true that I had to work and earn money to live, it was also true that those works gave me a lot of experiences which were imperative for me to improve technics for becoming a mature professional composer. If there were not a lot of offers from customers with the budged for the composition, I have never reached my current level of skills for the composition. Thus, working has another important meaning for me.

Secondly, working and earning money aside from working to live can increase the quality of my life. For example, if I have spare money, I often go popular restaurants with my friends even though they are a bit expensive because I like their atmosphere in their restaurants which are not usual and I can feel a special day. At those restaurants, I can enjoy special dinners with unique ingredients and many beautiful decorations, sometimes formal clothes and the sight of cherry blossom from inside of the restaurant. These can really increase the quality of my life. In addition, if I have spare money from working, I can increase the quality of lives of other people by donation. I understand that there are a lot of people who have been suffering from starving on the earth. By donating money from my spare money, I can help people and increase their happiness, at the same time, it also makes me happy mentally. This is because the reason why I work.

To sum up, for these two reasons, being able to increase my technics as a professional composer, and for better quality of my life and other people’s lives, working has significant meanings for me aside from working to just live.

Why do you think some people are attracted to da

(For my practice for English examination and this might be not my honest opinion.)

Why do you think some people are attracted to dangerous sports or other activities?

I have often seen people who devoted themselves to dangerous sports or activities in this year through watching Olympic on TV. Some athletes performed high jumps with complicated technics. Although I hate to do dangerous things because I am timid and I don’t want to get injured. However, I can understand that there are some people who like dangerous sports and activities for the following two reasons.

Firstly, I believe that they want to overcome themselves physically and mentally through dangerous sports and activities. Actually, those people have to be afraid of many things during their performances such as breaking bones and there is even possibility to die depending on the situation. In general, although ordinary people like me tend to avoid such risks, there are some people who want to take risks positively, and enjoy overcoming them. Then, after completing their own mission, they can feel satisfied and proceed their next stages which are more difficult to overcome. As a result, we can say that they just enjoy the process and the routine. This is one reason why they want to take risks in spite of dangerous things.

Secondly, in my opinion, the chemical substance like adrenalin may affect their action. Some researchers claim that the adrenalin is released when we are in dangerous situation such as fighting against foes in a war and also it can motivate us. In fact, all people have this substance in our bodies as our innate abilities because animals need to fight against other animals in order to defend ourselves and our family. Of course, humans are no exception. The more people are afraid of something, the more the adrenalin will be released. This is the method why some people devote themselves to those dangerous sports and activities.

To sum up, for the following those reasons, overcoming difficulties is their satisfaction, and the chemical substance such as adrenalin affects their behavior, I understand that some people devote themselves to dangerous sports and activities.

The expression “Never, never give up”

(For my practice for English examination and this might be not my honest opinion.)

The expression “Never, never give up”

Do you agree or disagree? Making efforts is necessary or not?

A few days ago, I saw a book named meaningless efforts and I noticed that people especially in young generation were interested in this book and many of them might think that making efforts and the mind set of keep trying were meaningless. Some people believe that making efforts and keeping trying something aren’t necessary or meaningless for their lives. However, in my case, I agree with this statement for the following two reasons.

To begin with, I think the main purpose of our lives is improving ourselves and without this mind set, we lose the meaning of our lives. For example, I have a favorite Japanese author named Fumihiko Iida. In his books, he explains that the purpose of our lives is improving our souls and after we die, we will be checked our lives by higher souls like angels as if we take examinations bout our lives and proceed next lives again to become more sophisticated humans and souls. Since developing my soul should be my main purpose, making efforts is necessary for me even though it is difficult to overcome.

Secondly, I know that there are many occupations which need a lot of efforts. For instance, I am a professional music composer in Japan. Actually, becoming professional is not easy for me because it might take more than ten years to reach even the beginning of the professional. If you reach the first goal by spending about ten years, we have to improve more our technics to pursue our career in music. It may continue forever. Therefore, I can say that making efforts and keep trying are imperative part of music composers and I know there are other occupation like this. Moreover, especially for musician, there isn’t actual goal because music is art. No one knows the goal and no one can reach final goal of music. Because of that, at least, we need to make effort to approach our final goal as much as I can.  

In conclusion, for these two reasons, the main purpose of our lives and there are many occupations which need a lot of effort, I agree with this statement.   

Health insurance is necessary or not?

(For my practice for English examination and this might be not my honest opinion.)

Q : Applying for the health insurance is necessary or not?

We see many advertisements for the health insurance almost every day on TV and social media. Some people claim that we should buy those insurance in case of having serious disease such as cancer because we can compensate for at least financial problem caused by it. On the other hand, other people might say that is just a waste of money. In my opinion, applying health insurance is necessary for the following two reasons.

To begin with, I understand that many insurances have perspectives as not only literally health insurance but also our asset management in other words, investment. For example, I know that many specialists of finance claim that the asset management is important especially for people in this era because the number of the population in Japanese has been dropping and the amount of our retirement fee will become smaller. It is because our pension will be paid by our future taxes which will paid by a smaller number of working people.  In this case, by managing our money properly, we can compensate for the future loss of our pension.

Secondly, I believe that just saving money on our bank accounts has a huge amount of risks although many people think that investment has risks to lose money. As I mentioned, our economic trend in Japan has become weaker and it meant the value if our currency has gradually been dropping compared to other countries. Since our country need to import a lot of necessities from other countries, this situation might lead a big problem for our lives. Thus, using our money on our bank accounts as our investment, we can cover the risk.

To sum up, for these two reasons, having another perspective as investment as well as insurance, and decreasing risks of our money by just saving money on our domestic bank accounts, I believe that applying for health insurance is necessary.

Which is more important for our happy marriage?

(For my practice for English examination and this might be not my honest opinion.)

Love or Money?  Which is more important for our happy marriage?

Through the Internet and SNS, we can see a lot of information and opinion about the marriage and the condition of it. Some people believe that having much money is more important condition than having love as their future partner because they think that most things are based on money and the more money we have, the more we become happy. However, I disagree with their opinion for the following two reasons.

Firstly, it is important for me to think about time when I will be poor or in other difficult situation after marriage. This is the fact that no one can predict our future. For example, now a days in Japan, the economic situation has been not good and some researchers predict that even big and stable companies have many risks for their bankrupts. In this case, without money, we have to manage our lives and happiness. It means love is more important and effective than having money in order to feel happiness.

Secondly, although we are able to increase our income by many methods such as changing our career and getting a new valuable license. We are able to start its study from tomorrow and for most license, we will complete its study in at most from five years to ten. In contrast, as far as I’m concerned, we cannot change personality and humanity of other people. Therefore, I can say that if we get married to beloved partners, we can get both love and money.

In conclusion, for the following two reasons, thinking about our difficult time on the future and not being able to change humanity, having love is more important than having much money for our marriage.

Getting married makes us happy or not?

(For my practice for English examination and this might be not my honest opinion.)

As far as I know, some people cast doubt on this opinion because they can’t imagine the brilliant future of Japan and themselves. In fact, recent years, the number of married people in Japan has been decreasing significantly. In my opinion, I also disagree with this question for the following two reasons,

Firstly, as far as I am concerned, each of us has to manage our lives by ourselves after all. Some people might say that by getting married, we don’t have to live alone because there are always our married partners next to us. However, I cast doubt on their opinion because there are not a few cases that we will be alone even after getting married. For example, some people might get divorced and other partners might have to get serious sick to die unfortunately. Thus, the marriage itself doesn’t guarantee us to keep our partners next to us and our permanent happiness.

Secondly, we have to be a person who can feel happy even though we are alone. I believe that a lot of people tend to depend on their partners each other in negative ways including their lack of finance. For instance, I know some married couples who had a lot of conflicts when they had arguments about their divorces on which they tried to get benefits as much as they could from ex-lovers.  I believe that if we want to make us happy through our marriage, we should be mature who can manage their lives of course including finance before getting married. On the other hand, we can also say, if we finished those preparation in advance, we must be happy already without our marriage.

In conclusion, for the following two reasons, the fact that we might be alone a after all and importance to be happy alone in advance, I disagree with this opinion.

School career is necessary or not?

（For my practice for writing English essay）

School career is necessary or not?

Nowadays, I hear the news about school career that many people especially in young generation want to proceed their career by getting into colleges even though they have to borrow a huge amount of money due to the money issue of their parents. I understand that some people agree with this opinion. However, in my opinion, I disagree with this for the following two reasons.

Firstly, the actual skill is more important than school career especially for people like me, In fact, in some fields, just having school career is meaningless. For example, as a company’s owner of some music private schools, I know that a teacher who has the biggest number of students is a male teacher who don’t have any high educational career. I guess that having his good humanity and his personality are more attractive than just having school career.

Secondly, for some music composers like me, school career is not evaluated at all. For instance, as a professional music composer, I have to attend many tough competitions in which I have to win the first place in order to provide famous singers with my songs. In this way, I have to fight against other competitors only by my songs because its judgment decides the winner by only listening to mp3 files in which there is not any candidate’s resume.

In conclusion, for the above mentioned two reasons, the fact that the most successful person in my company doesn’t any high school career and the fact that there are many competitions which doesn’t check the school career of attendants, I disagree with this opinion.

The conflict between Ukraine and Russia

Nowadays, we often hear news about the conflict between Ukraine and Russia on TV and SNS.  As far as I know, most people in the world disagree with this war that Russia has invaded Ukraine. In my opinion, I also disagree with this war for the following two reasons.

To begin with, I believe that there is not certain justice on the earth. Whether the fact that the justice is right or wrong sometimes changes by the perspectives which people try to see, from the standpoint of people and even by the time or era. For example, in this case of Russia, the president Putin decided to invade Ukraine by his own decision, in other words following his belief. Although, most people including me might say he is completely wrong, there are many people in the world especially in Russia who support Putin’s decision even though they don’t know what brutal incident happens now in Ukraine by the restraint of the information by their government. In this way, this war is right decision for those who support Putin. On the other hand, most people in the world are clearly opposite to this war. Thus, I have to say that each side has justice and no one can clearly judge the justice. However, I have to add an important fact that people’s lives never revive.  When we take a mistake by our misunderstanding, we can rethink and fix it in our lives but no one can fix lost lives like revising documents. Therefore, I conclude that the war is never allowed for any reason.

Secondly, the war which try to invade other countries and expand their region to get benefits never brings us happiness. Our happiness is mainly made by tenderness and love by people around me. For instance, to be honest, I agree that we have to think about our money and properties in order to live, survive and become happy. I am often under the pressure about my income, my career, my future and my family which has often depressed me. Then, one day, I think, what if I can earn money easily and what if I was born in a rich family. It is the same routine happened in the past many times. Then, finally, I always notice that we can’t become happy without stopping thinking about those negative and fluctuate matter such as my income, my anxiety about my future. I realize that only people around me can give me happiness and their love never disappear although money easily disappear. Only people’s love around me can make me happy for ever. I believe all people live to become happy and people have to know that it can’t be done by the war.

In conclusion, for the above mentioned two reasons, no existence of our certain justice and misunderstandings about how to become happy, I strongly disagree with this conflict between Ukraine and Russia.  

昨今の侵略を考えてみました

コロナ蔓延の最中、開催することに意味があるのか？なんて話も出ていた、平和の祭典と言われているオリンピック。ドーピング問題なんかも騒がれている最中、今度は、「他国へ侵攻」とのニュース。

僕が常々思ってきたこと、物事は全て球体のようになっていて、それが正義なのか悪なのかは、どちら側から物事を見るのかによって変わってくる。今回はそれがいわゆる西側とそうでない側に分かれているのだろうと思っている。僕は、生まれた時から自動的に西側に所属していて、そのことに特に疑問を抱くこともなく生きてきた訳だが、年齢を重ねるにつれ、少しは歴史を学ぶし、何よりそれ以上に社会や人間を学ぶ訳で、そういう中で、物事の見方は、昔に比べて、よりフラットになったようには感じている。自分の正義は相手の悪だったりすることが、そこらじゅうにあるという経験を経て。

人間の行動や思考パターンは、それなりにシンプルだ。仮に他国に侵略を企てる動機があるのだとしたら、それは、利益を守るためだったりすることがほとんどである。おそらく地球上のほぼ全ての人が、自分や、周りの人の幸せを願って生きている。それ自体に問題はないのだけれど、その手段として、行きすぎてしまうと、それは他者から非難される訳だが、その非難だって、当事者が気にせず、自分は自分の大義を貫くんだと決めてしまえは、その非難は心には届かない。

戦争をする理由の一つとして、必ずと言っていいほど、経済、お金に関することは関わってくるだろう。今回の侵攻に関しては、直接経済に直結しないようには見えるが、きっとその行動に至るまでの背景には、表には見えてこない、経済戦争的な側面も大きく関わっているのだろうと推察する。

僕は、日本人であることに、ありがたさを感じながら生きているし、多く囁かれている、「日本の未来は暗い」という予想を考慮したとしても、それでも、この裕福な国に生まれたこと自体は、ラッキーそのものだと。あえて言っておけば、日本国内においては、もっともっとラッキーな人がいることを嫌ってほど味わってきている自分でも、やはり、日本に生まれたことはラッキーだという思いは変わらない。基本的には好きなように生きれて、好きな発言ができて、自分で責任を取れる範囲であれば、基本的に自由に人生を選べるのだから。

しかしその一方で、こうも思う。自分は日本の中では、至って普通の家庭に生まれた平均的な人。音楽大学の周りだったり、ちょっと変わった業界を通った者としては、自分の家庭は、彼らの家庭と比べれば、下の方だろう。社会に出て、人以上に働いて、働いて、やっと生活ができるようになるまでとても大変な思いをしたけれど、それでもやっぱり、明らかに、世界の人間から見れば、僕は明らかに「お金持ち」なんだろう。明日食べるものに困らない、音楽なんかを生業にできる時点で、きっと、裕福なボンボンなんだろう。そんな人間に、全く違った世界で育った人の気持ちなど、分かるはずもなく、彼らが何を考えているのかなど、分かるはずもないし、分かったような気になど、恥ずかしくてなれる訳もない。彼らから見れば、呑気に生きていられる、恵まれた、何の苦労も知らない、音楽なんかやってる生ぬるい人間なのだから。

ただ、少なくとも言えるのは、人の命は、お金やその他のものには変えられないという認識は、ほとんどの世界の中で共通であると信じたい。僕はリアリストであるので、理想を抱くことの大切さを忘れたくない一方で、それを実現するために必要な果てしない努力、困難が常に存在することを、少しは分かっているつもりだ。理想を語るのは簡単。実現するには、きっと綺麗事ではいかない。結局、遅かれ早かれ、人間の醜さに直面することになるし、最後は結局、「力」なんだろうと、心の中では理解している。

世界の勢力図が、もう昔とは違う中で、日本も、抑止力として、軍隊を持つべきだとか、核兵器を自国に配備するべきといった声も聞こえてくる。前総理大臣からも、そういった議論をすべきとの発言もあったようだ。歴史の教科書や、道徳の時間の教育のたまもの？としては、戦争はいけない。核兵器はいけない。軍隊はいけないと教えらてきた。日本の平和憲法は、世界に誇れるものなのだと教えられてきた。

しかし、一方で、現在の日本の安全の枠組みは、あくまで、アメリカが強かったことを前提としているため、今後は機能しないだろうという人がいる。自国は自国で守れと。

また一方で、そもそも今の平和憲法は、敗戦国であった日本が、他国の都合の良いように作られているため、だから改正が必要だという人もいる。

事実、尖閣や、北方領土の問題はタイムリーな問題である。ロシアは、北方領土を返還する気などさらさらないだろうし、中国は、執拗に領土を侵害したり、脅してきたり。北朝鮮も、頻繁にミサイルを撃って挑発してきたり、核ミサイルのアップデートを猛アピール。各国、日本から見れば、悪の枢軸に見える訳だが、やっぱり物事は球体であって、彼らには彼らの言い分があるのだろう。例えその言い分に正当性がないと思われても、それが彼らの思想だと言われてしまえば、それが彼らが選びたい道なのだと言われてしまえが、それまでなのだと思うと、もうそれ以上、思考する意味はなくなってしまう。

きっと、宗教を取り巻く戦争も、冷戦も、新冷戦も、みーんな、各々の正義を、各々の大義なんだろう。勝てば官軍、負ければ賊軍的な話だろう。民主主義が、あたり前と思っていたし、資本主義も当たり前と思っていたけれど、それすら、僕自身が選んだことではなくて、たまたまそのルールを敷いた国に生まれただけなのであって。

戦争は何も生まないという人がいる一方で、球体の反対側には戦争を望む人がいる。どちらも判断しているのは同じ人間。そんなことを考えていたら、高校生の時の日本史の授業を思い出した。戦争が生み出す結果を様々な角度から捉える側面もあった授業であった。また、その中で、沖縄戦のことを含まれていた。集団自決が行われた、悲惨な出来事の一部を取り上げた確か韓国人先生がいらっしゃった。そして期末テスト。そのことを踏まえ、あなたは戦争に対して、どんな意見を持っているんだという、記述式の問題があったのだが。僕の答えは、こうであった。

「僕は自分の母親を、自分の手や手榴弾で殺したくない。だから僕は絶対に戦争に反対だ。」

戦争をしない理由など、これで十分だと思う。