Time to hang up our ubiquitous cellphones?

Novelist Hyakken Uchida (1889-1971), whose wit continues to delight readers today, reportedly hated unexpected visitors.

So he came up with this parody of an old kyoka (comic tanka poem) and posted it on his front door: "There is no greater joy than receiving a visitor/ But I don't mean you."

The pronouncement must have taken many a hapless visitor aback.

The telephone was another device for which Uchida had little use.

Once you install a phone line, he wrote, there is no point in locking the doors and windows at night before going to bed. Just one phone cable snaking into your house makes the gates and shutters completely useless, he complained.

Were Uchida alive today, I am sure he would be horrified by today's ubiquitous cellphone use.

According to a private think tank that surveyed people about what they do with their cellphones at home, 90 percent of the respondents said they keep them beside their bed as they sleep; 54 percent carry them even into the lavatory; 45 percent keep them within reach at mealtimes; and 18 percent even take them with them when they take a bath.

The picture that emerges is of people who literally cannot go anywhere without their phones.

I imagine this sort of "24/7 preparedness for action" must be stressful. But some business calls and personal communications are too important to miss, I suppose.

Still, when all of society starts taking it for granted that everybody should be reachable at every hour of the day or night, it certainly does not make it easy for anyone to be the first to put their foot down and refuse.

The result is that radio waves bind everyone tightly together and thus "rule" us all.

The vernacular Asahi Shimbun recently ran a story about junior high school students who admit to using their cellphones 9 hours a day. I am aware that most models today come with music and game functions for kids to play with, but I still think the hours they spend texting and playing are excessive.

All over the country, the "magic gadget" is gleefully gobbling up the hours of young peoples' lives--time that could be spent differently. This is not a pretty picture.

Back to Uchida. Particularly irritated by visitors who dropped by at night, Uchida reportedly "guarded" his front gate with a notice that said "Closed at sunset."

It wouldn't be such a bad idea to sometimes post similar notices in our hearts and leave our cellphones alone.

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 26(IHT/Asahi: June 27,2009)