The civilised world

UK Foreign Office ministers seem to make frequent reference to "the civilised world". For example,

"The experience of terrorism, he said, was one that Britain, Spain and Israel all had in common, adding that such outrages were a shock to everyone in the civilised world." (Jack Straw, 11 March)

"Before the Iraq war and before the Afghanistan conflict, we had 9/11, which was a huge attack on the civilised world." (Bill Rammell, 16 March.)

Maybe this has always been a stock phrase in Western diplomats' vocabulary, but even so it strikes me as strange. What do they mean by civilization? Where is the "uncivilised world"?

Restrictions on street advertising

This is not directly related to political advertising, but is about the visual environment in which Japanese political posters must struggle for attention. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is to change the Law on Outdoor Advertisements (屋外広告物法) in order to give local authorities more power to cut down on street ads. This will be the first major revision of the law in 31 years. The current law makes it difficult to remove advertisements in order to protect free speech, but the number of advertisements has increased to a point where it can be difficult to walk along the streets. In particular flags and plastic boards, which are not covered by current legislation, have proliferated. Most of the offending advertisements are placed by loan companies, real estate companies and the sex industry. New regulations will allow persistent offenders to be imprisoned.

違法「のぼり」すぐ撤去　屋外広告規制３１年ぶり拡大へ. Asahi.com, 7 February 2004.