The best way to ensure peace is through strong self-defence. This week, we officially inaugurated #Taiwan’s submarine manufacturing factory, taking a big step forward towards stronger self-defence capabilities.
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仏教の入門書を日本語で読むと、やたらと「輪廻」とか「涅槃」とか「諸行無常」とか独特の術語を有難そうに解説してあるのを、胡散臭く思っていた。そこで英語で仏教入門書を読もうと決意。はじめ Penguin Books の Buddhismって本を読もうと思ったが、本書の方が小さくて出版が新しいのでこっちにした。通勤電車の中だけで、約一ヶ月で読了。全く基礎知識の無い英米人向けに書かれているのが良い。ただ術語にパーリ語の原語がいちいち添えてあるのが、やや鬱陶しい。上座部と大乗を平等に扱っている点も好感が持てた。特に最終章 Buddhism in the West では日本の入門書ではあまり扱われていない西洋での仏教の受容について最近の状況まで述べられていて貴重。このシリーズはパラグラフの切り方が独特（インデント無しで一行空ける）で慣れないとやや戸惑う。句読法のミスプリも若干あった。
Achieving equality with the West was one of the primary goals of the Meiji leaders. Treaty reform, designed to end the foreigners’ judicial and economic privileges provided by extraterritoriality and fixed customs duties was sought as early as 1871 when the Iwakura mission went to the United States and Europe. The Western powers insisted, however, that they could not revise the treaties until Japanese legal institutions were reformed along European and American lines. Efforts to reach a compromise settlement in the 1880s were rejected by the press and opposition groups in Japan. It was not until 1894, therefore, that treaty provisions for extraterritoriality were formally changed.
During the first half of the Meiji period, Asian relations were seen as less important than domestic development. In 1874 a punitive expedition was launched against Formosa (Taiwan) to chastise the aborigines for murdering Ryukyuan fishermen. This lent support to Japanese claims to the Ryukyu Islands, which had been under Satsuma influence in Tokugawa times. Despite Chinese protests, the Ryukyus were incorporated into Japan in 1879. Meanwhile, calls for an aggressive foreign policy in Korea, aired by Japanese nationalists and some liberals, were steadily rejected by the Meiji leaders. At the same time, China became increasingly concerned about expanding Japanese influence in Korea, which China still viewed as a tributary state. Incidents on the peninsula in 1882 and 1884 that might have involved China and Japan in war were settled by compromise, and in 1885 China and Japan agreed that neither would send troops to Korea without first informing the other.
