The Tanabata decorations familiar as a summer fixture at the Palaceside Building are on view again this week in the atrium of the central corridor on the first floor and first basement. Through July 7.
The Palaceside Building Meitinkai (chair Yoaki Okada, president of Sakae Inc., which runs Tea Room Hana), a volunteer group of the building’s restaurants and shops, organizes the annual “Tanabata Festival” so people can feel the season and enjoy a traditional popular custom.
Twelve large streamers hang from the atrium ceiling; ten pots of bamboo stand in the first-basement passage; blue LED lighting suggesting the Milky Way draws the eye. At a corner for writing wishes on tanzaku, passersby wrote what they hoped for and tied the slips to the bamboo and a cage. Last year nearly 5,000 slips were written. As usual they will be dedicated at Kanda Myojin.
Apparently it is a “human-resource revolution.” The recently cabinet-approved “Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform 2018” (the so-called “big-boned policy”) has an item, “Realizing and expanding a human-resource revolution,” covering free kindergarten and daycare, free university tuition and adults going back to study (“recurrent education,” they say).
So we looked at the slips to see what wishes and warm cheers — mainly about exams — students, parents and colleagues had written about education.
Orthodox school entrance exams (photo above). From the left, first “o-juken” (famous private elementary schools). Next, “on the 24th pass/fail judgment, may ○○ (school name) be 50% or more” — a cram-school test for junior-high entrance. It is probably the pass-probability on Nichinoken’s June 24 “preferred-school judgment test” for sixth graders.
The usual University of Tokyo, Kyoto University and others are lined up as well.
Then various qualification exams (photo below). Perhaps in the “recurrent education” category mentioned above. Familiar credentials such as real-estate agent, bookkeeping, curator and career consultant appear. “Corporate-tax exam” may be the National Association of Vocational Schools of Business’s Corporate Tax Law Proficiency Test — a rather niche credential testing knowledge and calculation of corporate tax. Eiken and N-ken (News and Current Affairs Proficiency Test) are more self-improvement than qualifications.
There were fewer such slips than we had hoped. The government’s call has probably not yet reached every corner.
So that everyone’s wishes may come true, the slips will be dedicated at Kanda Myojin after Tanabata, as every year. Please write a line.
The Meitinkai is also running a stamp rally through July 6: spend 500 yen or more on a meal or shopping at a member shop and receive one stamp per visit. Five stamps on a card let you turn the raffle drum (garapon) once. Draws are twice each day on Thursday, July 5, and Friday, July 6 (11:30–14:00 and from 17:30). Prizes are as in the table below; from the top “PlayStation 4” or “Nintendo Switch” through a Roomba, premium earphones and an AI speaker, the total value exceeds 1 million yen. Please join in.
