Applying for Fellowships

I am now working on my application for a fellowship from a certain educational foundation. I believe this is a very good chance for me to narrow down the focus of my research; writing a 2000-word description of my research surely forces me to articulate a coherent narrative about what I want to do and how I want to do it.

Right now representatives from seven parties are debating policies on Asashi TV. Since last Sunday, candidates have been engaging in heated--sometimes nasty--debates on TV. I hope they will continue policy discussions even after the general election on 9/11.

I often see ordinary people on TV complaining about politicians using difficult language to explain policies. I agree that Japanese politicians are not very good at explaining things. But I also think that those ordinary Japanese must try to learn more actively about policies, even though it is true that they have not received good civic education at school.