The Tomigaia Blog

Civil Disobedience or Selfishness?

I recently got an e-mail from my friend Greg pointing out another dangerous change in Japanese society. 40% of eligible working adults are refusing to pay their pension bills (farmers and the self-employed are sent pension contribution bills, whereas employees of corporations have their contributions witheld from their paycheck). I read an Op-Ed piece in the Asahi Shi.bun, and the proposal that the editor put forward was to reform the Japanese pension to work like the Swedish pension system. This may resolve some issues, but it will not fix the basic problems with the Japanese economy that are causing people to lose faith in government.

I think some young people are intentionally refusing to pay because they disagree with the way the goverment is operating, and they find it a simple way to protest. The majority are just looking for a way to help make ends meet in the short term.

Japan needs deep reform soon.

Data-Tapping problems ahead

At this week's IETF meeting, I attended a session where there was a presentation about the way that Cisco proposes to enable Legal Interception (Also describe in this Internet Draft). I saw a related article on a PBS web site about big problems with the current legal data-tapping situation.

If this article by Robert Cringley is even partially true, the future of legal surveillance does not look good. If the security of CALEA systems in the US is lax, they are probably even more lax in Japan. There are more slippery slopes here, and I hope to look into this some more in the future.

Attending the 57th IETF meeting in Vienna

I am at the Autria Center in Vienna today, attending the 57th IETF meeting. At the reception last night there were all the usual suspects in attendance. It seems that there are more European attendees than usual. One big debate that seems to be on everyone's mind is the continuing validity of the "end to end principle". There is a lot of debate about what this term really means. I have been reading the Reed paper and a page by J. Noel Chiappa.

I won't be blogging from each Working Group meeting, but I will try to blog a little about the bigger issues under discussion.

Summer Greeting Card

I sent out a Summer Greeting card by e-mail today. If you would like to see it, click here. Does it make sense? Should it make sense?