(OT) Descendants of a Japanese Diplomatic Delegation from 400 Years Ago Greet Japan's Crown Prince on His Visit to Spain

There are about 700 people in the town of Coria del Río in Seville, Spain whose surname is "Japón" (originally "Hasekura de Japón", according to Wiki). They are considered to be the descendants of a Japanese diplomatic mission headed by Tsunenaga Hasekura from 1613 through 1620. Hasekura was sent on a global mission by his lord Masamune Date of Sendai-han (that includes today's Miyagi Prefecture).

It is known that 7 or so of his delegates decided to remain in Coria del Río, and their descendants started to use the surname of "Japón".

Japan's Crown Prince is on an official visit to Spain, and met with the "Japóns" in Coria del Río, proud descendants of the Hasekura delegation, as Asahi Shinbun reports (6/15/2013):

日本との交流４００周年を迎えたスペインに、日本を意味する「ハポン」という名字の人たちがいる。その数、１５００人。４００年前にスペインに渡った支倉常長ら「慶長遣欧使節団」の子孫とされる。１４日夜（日本時間１５日未明）、同国南部のセビリア市にハポンさんが集い、皇太子さまと懇談した。

It's been 400 years since Spain and Japan first made contact. There are people with the surname "Japón", meaning Japan, in Spain. There are 1,500 of them. They are considered to be the descendants of "Keicho Delegation" led by Tsunenaga Hasekura, who went to Spain 400 years ago. In the evening of June 14, "Japón" people got together in the city of Seville in southern Spain and met with Crown Prince of Japan.

使節団は１６１４年、セビリア近郊の市コリア・デル・リオに滞在。７人前後が帰国しなかったことが分かっており、郷土史家らは「子孫らが祖国ハポンを名乗り始めた」という説を唱えている。

The delegation stayed in Coria del Río, near Seville, in 1614. It is known that seven or so of the delegation didn't go back to Japan. Local historians believe the descendants of these people started to use the name of their home country Japan as their surname.

ハポンさんたちも日本とのつながりを強く意識する。１４日昼にコリア・デル・リオを訪れた皇太子さまを、ハポンさんを中心に１万人近くが出迎え、「ハポン！」コールを上げた。「支倉常長協会」会長のファン・フランシスコ・ハポンさん（４４）は「ハポンの名字にみんな誇りを持っている。日本人の特徴である蒙古斑（もうこはん）がある人も少なくない」と話した。

"Japón" people are keenly aware of their connection to Japan. Nearly 10,000 residents including "Japón" people greeted Crown Prince in Coria del Río on June 14 afternoon, chanting "Japón!" Juan Francisco Japón (age 44), chairman of "Hasekura Tsunenaga Association", said, "We are all proud of our surname Japón. Some of us have the Mongolian spots like Japanese."

ファンさんによると、東日本大震災後、ハポンさんたちは支援活動に奔走した。支倉の銅像前で黙祷（もくとう）を呼びかけ、募金やチャリティーオークションをした。コリア・デル・リオもホームページで「こちらに避難したい方には市民権を与えます」と日本向けに発信したという。

According to Juan, after the March 11, 2011 disaster in Japan, "Japón" people did all they could to help Japan. They called for silent prayers in front of the statue of Hasekura, they did fund raising and charity auctions. The town of Coria del Río called to people in Japan on their website, offering citizenship to anyone who wants to escape Japan and come to the town.

１９９１年に宮城県石巻市を訪問したビクトル・バレンシア・ハポンさん（４８）は「石巻の被災後の映像を見て、私たちの遠い親族が被災したかも知れないと思うと、とてもショックだった」と振り返る。

Victor Valencia Japón (age 48) visited Ishinomaki City in Miyagi Prefecture in 1991. He said, "I looked at the images of Ishinomaki after the disaster, and it was very shocking to me, thinking our distant relatives may have been affected."

１４日夜、セビリア市のホテルに約３０人のハポンさんが集まった。「サムライ精神を持つことが誇らしい」「日本とスペイン交流の懸け橋になりたい」。思いを訴えるハポンさんたちに、皇太子さまは「日本の名前が付く方々にたくさんお会いできて本当にうれしいです」と笑顔を見せた。

In the evening of June 14, 30 "Japón" people gathered at a hotel in Sevilla. They said to Crown Prince, "I'm proud to be the descendant with Samurai spirit", "I want to help in deepening the relationship between Japan and Spain." Crown Prince smiled, and said "I am very happy to meet so many of you with the name Japan."

参加したフェルナンド・ハポン・セビリアさん（４９）は「日本由来の４００年の歴史を持つハポン姓の私たちにとって、とても名誉な日だ」と語った。

Fernando Japón Sevillia (age 49) said, "For us, with the surname Japón with 400 years of history, this is a very honorable (proud) day."

I didn't know anything about these people in Spain with the "Japón" surname until I read the Asahi article. How wonderful to know there are people in the world proud to be of Japanese lineage (alleged or not proven, it doesn't matter) who continue to care about their very distant "home" country from 400 years ago.

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Spain's Prime Minister Rajoy: EU Countries Must Accept to Give Up Sovereignty

We're all "global citizens", I guess. I'm sure he well represents his people.

EU über alles.

Germany wins, as its economy sputters.

From Zero Hedge (4/23/2013; emphasis is original):

Spain's Rajoy Yields To Merkel, Agrees That EU Countries Must Cede Sovereignty

In what seems like a bow to his overlords in Berlin, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has unleashed a somewhat remarkable torrent of terrible realization and truthiness:

• *SPAIN PM SAYS EUROPE ECONOMY WORST THAN FORECAST THIS YEAR

• *SPAIN PM SAYS ALL EU COUNTRIES ARE REVIEWING GROWTH FORECASTS

• *SPAIN PM SAYS MUST TAKE DIFFICULT DECISIONS FOR COUNTRY'S GOOD

• *SPAIN PM SAYS EU COUNTRIES MUST ACCEPT TO GIVE UP SOVEREIGNTY

• *EU countries’ giving up sovereignty to the bloc is crucial for its future

In other words, handing over your liberty to Germany is for your own good. It seems the German perspective (as we noted here) is winning out.

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WSJ: Germany and Spain Move to Curb Green-Energy Supports

This kind of news is definitely NOT what the anti-nuclear people (who are almost all pro-renewable energy) in Japan want to hear. My followers will most likely completely ignore my tweets on this, because to them, Spain and Germany are the role models on how renewable energy should be pushed by the national government - on the small rate payers, to save the earth.

From Wall Street Journal (2/14/2013; emphasis is mine):

Germany and Spain Move to Curb Green-Energy Supports

More than a decade ago, Germany and Spain created similar laws to aggressively promote the adoption of renewable energy. The two countries were again marching in step on Thursday—this time to fix a web of subsidies and compensations they created for green energy that had the unintended effect of driving up household electricity bills.

With Spain in the grips of recession, the government wants to lower consumers' light bills. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel faces an election in September and hopes to win points with voters by putting a stop to rising electricity bills. The independent steps have been welcomed by German consumer groups, but have been slammed by businesses as German and Spanish politicians move to finance cuts for consumers by passing on the costs to companies.

Germany subsidizes producers of renewable energy such as solar and wind power in part by imposing a surcharge on household electricity bills. As the industry has grown, demand for the subsidy increased, driving the surcharge higher. In January, the surcharge, which amounts to about 14% of electricity prices, nearly doubled to 5.28 euro cents per kilowatt hour. Large energy-intensive industries are exempted.

That means ordinary consumers shoulder the lion's share of the costs for what the German government calls its "energy revolution."

Fearing a voter backlash from anger over the lopsided financing of green energy, Ms. Merkel's government on Thursday proposed putting a cap on the green-energy surcharge until the end of 2014 and then restricting any rise in the surcharge after that to no more than 2.5% a year. The government also plans to tighten exemptions, which would force more companies to pay, and achieve a cut in green subsidies of €1.8 billion ($2.42 billion). The plan is a quick fix pending comprehensive reform after the election, government officials said.

The proposal represents a compromise by the parties in Ms. Merkel's center-right coalition between taking small steps before the election and a more time-consuming comprehensive reform of the renewable energy law. The government now hopes to thrash out a bill with Germany's 16 states by the end of March, eliminating a potentially negative issue ahead of the election on September 22.

"We need a fundamental reform of the renewable energy law, but until we get there we don't want to make people wait and that is why there is this price cap on electricity," Economy Minister Philipp Rösler said Thursday after a meeting with representatives of the states.

The Spanish parliament took a similar step on Thursday, passing a law that aims to curb rising household electricity costs by cutting aid to the renewable-energy industry.

Renewable-energy producers "are going to receive less revenue, but these measures are better for consumers" said Energy Minister José Manuel Soria.

Among the changes in the Spanish system, the new law indexes certain subsidies and compensation to an inflation estimate that strips out the effects of energy, food commodities, and tax changes.

Until now, producers have been compensated using a full inflation estimate. The government said the law will cut the costs of the country's electrical system by €600 million to €800 million a year.

Renewable-energy companies said that the government was backing away from previous promises that it would ensure them a reasonable return on their investments.

"Spain's government is trying to smash the renewable-energy sector through legislative modifications," said José Miguel Villarig, chairman of the country´s Association of Renewable-Energy Producers.

Uh... The renewable-energy sector has been created and heavily subsidized by legislative modifications. But never mind that. Investors from the United States, Japan and the United Arab Emirates who have invested in renewable energy in Spain are already preparing to sue the Spanish government.

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Zero Hedge: Two Spaniards Self-Immolate Due To Financial Problems

"Strong recovery" of the global stock markets in 2012 surely indicates a robust rebound of the global economy, in the minds of central bankers and politicians in the so-called developed nations, from Bernanke to Draghi to Shirakawa, from Rajoy to Obama to Abe.

But people on the street don't seem to buy into that idea, as their lot hasn't particularly improved. It has gotten decidedly worse, apparently, for the two Spaniards, as Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge writes (1/5/2012):

Two Spaniards Self-Immolate Due To Financial Problems

First it was a German, then an Italian, and now, two months, later, the European self-immolation wave has spread to the country that many expect will be the next one to follow Greece into effective debt default. El Pais reports that an impoverished 57-year-old man who set himself on fire in Málaga Thursday, and subsequently died of his injuries at Carlos Haya hospital. He had third-degree burns on 80 percent of his body and suffered a multi-organ failure. The victim, thought to be of Moroccan origin, had worked in construction for years but was out of a job now, said people who knew him. In the last few months he had been scraping a living with the small change he made guiding cars into parking spaces near the hospital, an illegal practice that is usually overlooked by authorities. The police, who have not yet located his relatives, are not ruling out the possibility of an accident just as the man was lighting up a cigarette. Just two minutes before the event, he bought a pack of cigarettes from a local newsstand whose owner asked him how he was doing.

“I don’t even have enough money for food,” he replied. The man is thought to have been homeless at the present time, and seemed even more depressed than on other occasions, said the stand owner.
Several taxi drivers came to the rescue with their vehicles’ fire extinguishers when they saw the man go up in flames on a side street from the hospital. A few hours after being admitted into the emergency room there, he was transferred to a specialized burn unit in Seville, where doctors were unable to save his life.
He was the unlucky one - as BBC follows, another Spaniard also lit himself on fire on Thursday night, in the same city, but lived.

Another man is being treated in the same hospital apparently after setting himself alight in Malaga on Thursday.

The 63-year-old was found with serious injuries beside his burning car under a road bridge, police said.

No other details were given of that man but, according to Spain's El Mundo newspaper, preliminary investigations indicated that the fire had been lit intentionally.
...
Spanish media have reported a number of cases in recent months of people facing poverty in the country's recession killing themselves.

Considering it was an identical act of self-immolation in Tunisia that set off the Arab Spring in the winter of 2011, Europe has for shown far more resiliency to socio-economic collapse than many had expected, although this is not unexpected: after all, Europeans, and especially Spaniards, still have more to lose than gain by rising up against a reverse Robin Hood globalist system bent on taking from what's left of the middle class and giving to the status quo banking oligarchy. Or so they think: the big strawman, is and for the past 150 years has been the welfare state myth.

Then again, now that Spain has almost drained its entire social security fund, and replaced it with worthless ECB repo material, i.e., Spanish bonds, will Spaniards finally wake up and realize that while they were snoozing, their government spent 90% of their pension and retirement money to prop up the Ponzi for one more year. And instead of committing suicide, or even patching up various symptomps, shouldn't the people of Spain, and all of Europe, finally address the real underlying cause of their misery: a dysfunctional government, which contrary to indication, is merely a puppet in a banker-led globalist system?
If not, how many more people have to burn themselves to death before it becomes clear?

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"Tens of Thousands" on the Streets All Across Spain to Protest Against Government Austerity Programs

I suppose the phase "tens of thousands" must be the global standard that the media has to follow whenever they have to report a very large demonstration. (If it is just a large demonstration, the phrase is "thousands".)

What good does the government's austerity programs do? Well it will squeeze out enough money to pay to the bankers outside Spain.

From AFP (7/20/2012):

Police fire rubber bullets after huge Madrid protest

Spanish police fired rubber bullets and charged protestors in central Madrid early Friday at the end of a huge demonstration against economic crisis measures.

The protest was one of over 80 demonstrations called by unions across the county against civil servant pay cuts and tax hikes which drew tens of thousands of people, including police and firefighters wearing their helmets.

"Hands up, this is a robbery!" protesters bellowed as they marched through the streets of the Spanish capital.

At the end of the peaceful protest dozens of protestors lingered at the Puerta del Sol, a large square in the heart of Madrid where the demonstration wound up late on Thursday.

Some threw bottles at police and set up barriers made up of plastic bins and cardboard boxes in the middle of side streets leading to the square and set them on fire, sending plumes of thick smoke into the air.

Riot police then charged some of the protestors, striking them with batons when they tried to reach the heavily-guarded parliament building.

The approach of the riot police sent protestors running through the streets of the Spanish capital as tourists sitting on outdoor patios looked on.

A police official told AFP that officers arrested seven people while six people were injured.

The protests held Thursday were the latest and biggest in an almost daily series of demonstrations that erupted last week when Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced measures to save 65 billion euros ($80 billion) and slash the public deficit.

Among the steps is a cut to the Christmas bonus paid to civil servants, equivalent to a seven-percent reduction in annual pay. This came on top of a pay cut in 2010, which was followed by a salary freeze.

"There's nothing we can do but take to the street. We have lost between 10 and 15 percent of our pay in the past four years," said Sara Alvera, 51, a worker in the justice sector, demonstrating in Madrid.

"These measures won't help end the crisis."

(Full article at the link).

At least these people still have jobs. Spain's unemployment rate is over 24%, hitting young people disproportionately. The unemployment rate for people aged 16 to 24 in Spain is 51.5%, about twice as much as the overall average (which has always been the case in Europe, except Germany).

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Nigel Farage: "Euro Titanic Hit the Iceberg and There Aren't Enough Lifeboats"

From Zero Hedge (6/13/2012):

In an epic rant, trumping Biderman, UKIP's Nigel Farage appears to have reached the limit of his frustration with his 'peers' in the European Parliament after the Spanish bailout. Rajoy's proclamation that this bailout shows what a success the euro-zone has been, sends Farage over the edge as he sees the Spaniard as just about the most incompetent leader in the whole of Europe (up there with favorites like Van Rompuy and Barroso). The erudite Englishman notes that by any objective criteria "The Euro Has Failed" expanding on the insane farce of Italy funding Spain's banking bailout at a loss (borrowing at 6% to fund a loan at 3% as we discussed here). "This 'genius' deal makes things worse not better" as it merely drives other nations towards needing bailouts themselves and while his socialist colleagues in the room are mumbling and checking their blackberries, he reminds them that Spanish national debt will surge and that 100 billion does not solve the problem, and that if Greece leaves, the ECB is failed, is gone, and to rectify this there will be a cash call from the very same PIIS (Ex-G) that are tumbling towards the abyss. Blood pressure surges as he screams "you couldn't make this up" concluding that "the Euro Titanic has now hit the Iceberg and sadly there simply aren't enough lifeboats."

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OT: Egan Jones Downgrades Spain to CCC+, Lower than Uganda (Which Has B Rating), While Greeks Stock Up Non-Perishable Food

From Zero Hedge (6/13/2012):

And so, the little rating agency that could, just gave Spain the triple hooks, downgrading the country from B to CCC+, negative outlook. As a reminder, the Uganda credit rating is B: it sure is no Spain.
From EJ:

Synopsis: KINGDOM OF SPAIN EJR Sen Rating(Curr/Prj) CCC+/ CC Rating Analysis - 6/13/12 EJR CP Rating: C Debt: EUR805.9B EJR's 1 yr. Default Probability: 18.0% Spain continues to be weakened by high funding costs (6.75% for 10yr today), the gov. deficit of 9.6%, an estimated decline in GDP of 1.7% (per the Economy Ministry), the 24.4% unemployment, the IIF's recent estimate of additional bank loan losses up to EUR260B, and possible depositor withdrawals. Over the past four fiscal years, that is from 2008 to 2011, Spain's GDP declined from EUR1.09 trillion to EUR1.07 trillion. Meanwhile, its debt mushroomed from EUR519B to EUR806B. With the EUR100B infusion for Spain's banks, the debt to GDP will rise to 90% plus future additions for the government deficit, support for its regions and additional support for its banks. Social benefits are a major problem; while payments to the govt have been down EUR 3B (2008 to 2011), payments from the government have been up EUR 29B). As a result, Spain is short about EUR50B per year for social payments, EUR35+B per year for interest, and an additional EUR 30B for asset growth; hence the EUR110+B per annum increase in debt. As we expected, Spain requested support for its banking sector and will probably need cash for weaker provinces. Assets of Spain's largest two banks exceed its GDP. We are slipping our rating to " CCC+ " ; watch for more requests for support from the banks and money creation.

Just the reminder that the Greek election is on Sunday, June 17, and people are withdrawing money from the banks at a furious pace ($1 billion, or about 800 million euros per day). As CNBC reports, they are stocking up on non-perishable food:

...New Democracy has been telling voters they must choose between the euro or the drachma, while Syriza promises to end the austerity measures imposed by Greece's international lenders, such as salary and pension cuts, that have driven many Greeks into abject poverty.

Fears that Greece will collapse financially and leave the euro have slowly drained Greek banks over the last two years. Central bank figures show that deposits shrank by about 17 percent, or 35.4 billion euros ($44.4 billion) in 2011 and stood 165.9 billion euros ($208.1 billion) at end-April.

Bankers said the pace was picking up ahead of the vote, with combined daily deposit outflows from the major banks at 500-800 million euros ($625 million to $1 billion) over the past few days, and 10-30 million euros ($12-36 million) at smaller banks.

"This includes cash withdrawals, wire transfers and investments into money market funds, German Bonds, U.S. Treasuries and EIB bonds," said one banker, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Retailers said consumers were stocking up on non-perishable food while almost all other goods were seeing a huge drop in sales as cash-strapped Greeks have no money to spare in the country's fifth year of recession.

"People are terrified by the prospect of returning to the drachma and some believe it's good to fill their cupboard with food products," said Vassilis Korkidis, head of the ESEE retail federation.

"It's over the top, we must not panic. Filling the cupboard with food doesn't mean we will escape the crisis," he said.

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OT: Spain's Prime Minister Is Mr. Bean Lookalike!

UK's Telegraph has an article by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard published yesterday about Spain's "austerity" program. But my eyes were glued to the photograph of Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Mr. Bean!


The article is no laughing matter, though. Evans-Pritchard sees the austerity plan as a sovereignty issue:

"...Mariano Rajoy, the conservative opposition leader, said years of ostrich-like denial by the Zapatero team had reduced the country to an EU "protectorate".

"[The European] Commission president Jose Barroso unveiled plans for EU control over national budgets, including an incendiary demand that Brussels should vet budgets before their first reading in Westminster, the Bundestag, and other parliaments. Current account deficits and credit growth will be monitored. Brussels can imposing sanctions on states that let booms run out of control. "We must get to the root of the problems," he said.

"Such a plan would greatly improve the working of the EMU system, but it would also entail a drastic erosion of sovereignty. The intrusive surveillance is a wake-up call for states that have tended to view the euro as a free lunch." [Emphasis is mine.]

Click here for the entire article "EU imposes wage cuts on Spanish 'Protectorate', calls for budget primacy over sovereign parliaments".

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Spanish Intelligence Suspects Coordinated Attack on Sovereign Debt

They are learning fast.

Spanish intelligence probing debt "attacks"-report
(2/14/2010 Reuters)

"MADRID, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Spain's intelligence services are investigating the role of investors and media in debt market turbulence over the last few weeks, El Pais reported on Sunday.

"Citing unnamed sources, El Pais said the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) was looking into "speculative attacks" on Spain following the Greek debt crisis.

""The (CNI's) Economic Intelligence division...is investigating whether investors' attacks and the aggressiveness of some Anglo-Saxon media are driven by market forces and challenges facing the Spanish economy, or whether there is something more behind this campaign," El Pais said."

Not that there's no reason to worry about Spain. On the contrary. Spain's budget deficit is 11.4% of GDP (note: US's number is 10.6% for 2010); many economists doubt the Spanish government's GDP growth projection of 3% by 2012.

Still, it is reminiscent of the "bear raids" on Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers in 2008, both of whom collapsed under the intense attacks from certain investors taking naked long positions on the CDSs (credit default swaps) - holding only CDS without holding the underlying debt - and naked shorting of their stocks. These attacks coincided with certain media news that turned out later to be utterly false (news like "Goldman would not accept the counterparty risk of Bear Stearns", as reported by David Faber of CNBC).

The article's last paragraph indicates what kind of "attack" that the Spanish government may be investigating:

"Underscoring those doubts, the premium demanded by investors for buying Spanish rather than German government bonds ES10YT=RR has risen in recent weeks and the cost of insuring Spanish bonds against default by the government has also risen."

In other words, CDS on Spanish sovereign debt.

So who are the "investors" attacking Spain's debt? The usual suspects - Goldman Sachs, J.P.Morgan Chase, Citigroup, etc.? We can probably add Barclays and Deutsche Bank. Maybe HSBC, too. Throw in several big hedge funds, and we can't be very far from truth, can we?

But what could be their end-game? Unlike Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, they can't possibly bankrupt the PIIGS countries and still profit from it, can they? Or can they?

Or is it to make sure that PIIGS will be bailed out financially by Germany (who, by the way, rejected the creation of a European fund to bail out the fiscally troubled countries like PIIGS), so that they don't lose on their CDS or their cash flows?

Or is the end-game more geopolitical than just financial? Is the end-game to drain Germany economically and fiscally, by making sure the sovereign debt crisis happens and that it gets worse until Germany pays - whether by setting up a bailout fund or by gorging on the Greek imports as Financial Times' columnist and internationalist Martin Wolf urges?

If it is the last one, it could involve other parties than just greedy bankers.

Who wrote those CDSs on the sovereign debt of PIIGS anyway?

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