JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Kanto region
- RCS (RCSコーポレーション), Kanto
- Salary: ¥180,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month includes performance bonus
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- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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ADK99
They're throwing paint and rancid butter at a ship. Unless one feels that this is striking terror into the hearts of the whalers then the word the word is inappropriate, and puts the Sea Shepherd people alongside suicide bombers, kidnappers and murderers. A little bit of perspective wouldn't go amiss.
Posted in: Activists hurl stink bombs, paint at Japanese whalers
3
ADK99
The picture JT is using is rather unfair, unless the policeman in the picture is the one that turned Hirata away. Unlikely, I think.
Posted in: Police at first turned away surrendering Aum fugitive
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ADK99
Ooops, that should have read:
Gaijininfo,
It's not really an economic issue, it's a security issue. At the moment, by calories, Japan produces only 39% of its own food. In the event of some kind of emergency - war, blockade, sudden crop failure outside of Japan - the country could potentially find itself in a very difficult situation particularly if the self-sufficiency rate continues to fall (which it will, regardless of the TPP).
There is an argument to be made that in the long-term the TPP may be good for food self-sufficiency by forcing domestic farmers to become more efficient but it's difficult to see how mom-and-pop farmers in Japan can compete with low-cost producers in Asia in the short or even medium term. I suppose the government needs to carefully weigh up the obvious economic benefits of joining against the security risks.
Posted in: Food self-sufficiency a weak argument against TPP participation
1
ADK99
Gajininfo,
All I hear is high self sufficiency good, low self sufficiency bad.
Japan was most backward and most behind the rest of the world when they were the most self sufficient, and suddenly became rich when they opened up to the rest of the world via trade.
It's not really an economic issue, it's a security issue. At the moment, by calories, Japan produces only 39% of its own food. In the event of some kind of emergency - war, blockade, sudden crop failure outside of Japan - the country could potentially find itself in a very difficult situation particularly if the self-sufficiency rate continues to fall (which it will, regardless of the TPP).
There is an argument to be made that in the long-term the TPP may be good for food self-sufficiency by forcing domestic farmers to become more efficient but it's difficult to see how mom-and-pop farmers in Japan can compete with low-cost producers in Asia in the short or even medium term. I suppose the government needs to carefully weigh up the obvious economic benefits of joining against the security risks.
Posted in: Food self-sufficiency a weak argument against TPP participation
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ADK99
It's something of a nonsense to hold passengers (or bartenders) responsible for drink drivers for all sorts of reasons. Firstly, it divides the responsibility for the crime. We're effectively saying that it was the drivers fault, but it was also the fault of some other people. I don't buy this - it's the driver's responsibility to ensure that he's able to drive, and to pay the price of he's not and causes an accident. Secondly, it's logically flawed. What the law is effectively saying is that you can't be considered able to drive a car responsibly because alcohol (a legally available product) impairs your judgment. That being the case (and I have no problem with that) how can we also judge that a passenger is able to judge whether the driver is too drunk to drive? Moreover, how can we say that the passenger - who did not drive to the pub, either by planning or good fortune - is able to make a sensible decision about whether to accept a ride or not? He has already taken the precaution of not driving to the pub, and has not attempted to drive, has consumed a legally available drug that the law deems (correctly) to impair judgement. His crime is to wrongfully accept a ride. Hardly seems like a prison matter to me.
In this specific case - and I'm amazed that this has largely passed without comment - the most heinous crime committed by both these two fools is fleeing the scene of the accident. I'm happy to see them both get a stiff sentence for that.
Posted in: Passenger arrested for riding in car with drunk driver in hit-and-run case
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ADK99
JapanGal, no you don't need to have a facebook to view company pages - just search on google and you'll find them and be able to view them (can't think why you would want to though). I'm not sure why you would boycott Dole for advertising on facebook. Why is it different to advertising on TV, radio, poster etc? Personally I don't see myself being influenced one way or another by this kind of thing - when I buy bananas I compare price and how nice they look. I have no idea what brand my breakfast banana was this morning.
Posted in: Would you go bananas for Y877,000 an hour?
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ADK99
Took me about 90 seconds to find Toyota, McDonalds, Microsoft, Virgin Atlantic and Coca Cola all have facebook pages. A better question would be "What kind of serious business wouldn't open a facebook account?"
Posted in: Would you go bananas for Y877,000 an hour?
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ADK99
So TEPCO is considering screwing its own workers for the company's own mistakes (direct or indirect cause). Bet they're ecstatic about that.
The thing is, a company is just a piece of paper. It doesn't make mistakes, its employees do. I'm not saying that this is a good idea (or not) but the money has to come from somewhere or the company will be bankrupt. In which case the retirees will see their pensions cut anyway.
Posted in: TEPCO considers cutting pensions to pay compensation
-4
ADK99
I lived in Shin Koiwa for years until last week (I didn't move because of the suicides!) but I agree with Human Target. It IS a night place in many ways but I never felt it to be a depressing place at all. Had many a fun time there. The reason for this is pretty clear - anyone who has lived in Japan for any length of time will have observed the suicide trends that pop up from time to time. Off the top of my head I can recall cleaning products mixed to make poisonous gas, often in hotel rooms; charcoal BBQs in cars; group suicides from people meeting on the internet. This is just another one of those - the first one hit the news because it was rather spectacular. The other have followed because that highlighted the fact that the Narita Express rushes through the station extremely fast, without stopping.
The other trains stop at that station, and at many other stations express trains pass by on tracks that don't go through the platform. Barriers on the thousands of platforms in Tokyo alone are a huge expense and I would have thought they are unlikely to reduce the rate of suicide. If that's the case then it becomes a simple financial decision - cost of barriers vs cost of delays. As JR has been installing barriers at stations for some time now, I assume that they have decided that it makes financial sense in the long term.
Posted in: Woman jumps to her death at Shin-Koiwa Station; 5th suicide there since July
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ADK99
I'd take issue with a lot of things in this "article". "Chatbots" are absolutely the LAST thing this country needs for improving English communication skills. The balance here is already skewed far too much towards learning by rote, and sitting at home running through set pieces in front of a screen will simply reinforce this.
I'd also like to know at which eikaiwa students are paying $300 (23,000 yen or so) a month and are speaking only 10 minutes a class. These days you can get a weekly one hour private lesson at that price and are likely to be speaking for considerably more than 10 minutes. The 10 minute figure sounds more appropriate for a group class, but group classes do not typically cost anything like 23,000 a month.
Posted in: Chatbots teach English conversation
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ADK99
i feel like you would more likely to be killed by your family member than any random stranger in Japan.
This is almost certainly true everywhere, not just Japan.
Posted in: Man allegedly beats 70-year-old mother to death
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ADK99
Weird story - either it was released after the event, in which case it's very unprofessional (and probably illegal) but substantively not such a big deal. Or it was released beforehand, in which case it's an extraordinary lapse for a man in his position of responsibility. Wonder if we'll get to find out which?
Posted in: Japan air traffic controller leaks Obama flight plan on blog
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ADK99
There are many good reasons to travel to America - it's a fabulous place to visit. But I never once heard anyone list food as their reason for going there.
Same goes for the UK - and note that Hide Suzuki said UK, not Europe.
Posted in: Tourism flatlines as visitors avoid Japan
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ADK99
In general, Japan exports more goods and services than it imports. The gap between the two is the current account surplus. (Or deficit, if a country imports more than it exports). The gap shrunk because of various factors, one of which was the need to import more oil to generate electricity. As for how it could possibly affect you, that's a very difficult question.....
Posted in: Japan's current account surplus down 42.4%
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ADK99
In my opinion Tescos got themselves caught in the middle of trying to be a convenience store and a supermarket. Most of their stores were only a little bigger than a combini, but you couldn't do combini things there like pay your bills. They were also too small to be considered a proper supermarket.
Posted in: Tesco failed to imprint itself on this fragmented, hyper-crowded and competitive consumer market. Japan's notoriously conservative and fussy shoppers simply had too many other choices.
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ADK99
> DentShopSep. 04, 2011 - 04:00PM JST
Do the maths here. 6 dead. 120 million people. Thats about 1 in 20 million chance of being killed. I will take those odds. Half of the people died doing things that could be deemed dangerous, like surfing, being too close to swollen rivers in the dark, trying to repair roofs at night...
You do the maths. You might as well have used 7 billion, or whatever the world's population currently stands at. There are not 120 million people in the path of this typhoon, not even close. And we now find that there are 17 confirmed dead & 54 missing. If you're not able to suggest sensible numbers for either your numerator or your denominator then it's rather difficult to take anything you say on the subject seriously.
Posted in: 17 dead, 54 missing as typhoon moves northward
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ADK99
What's strange about it? The trial was interrupted. The trail resumed. The trial was concluded with a not guilty verdict.
Posted in: Murder trial interrupted by earthquake resumes; defendant acquitted
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ADK99
Indeed - a few years ago a septuagenarian in East Tokyo was killed delivering newspapers. In a typhoon. Next to a river. On a motorbike. In the dark. RIP, but a bit of common sense wouldn't go amiss.
Posted in: 2 dead, 5 missing as typhoon slams into western Japan
3
ADK99
Steve, you seem to be confusing the question - which is clearly dealing with the general situation - with a very extreme example which I for one can't recall experiencing. Clearly we're talking about people taking casual snaps, not about setting up tripods, big flashes, and generally acting obnoxiously. Equally clearly, most restaurant owners - at any end of the price spectrum - are NOT throwing people out or throwing phones in aquariums. When you go to an expensive restaurant you do not pay for the right to have other patrons stopped from snapping their food - unless of course the restaurant is one of those that forbids cameras. In which case, your solution is simple.
Posted in: Why do so many Japanese women take photos of their food at restaurants and post it on Facebook or their blogs?
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ADK99
Steve, your lack of tolerance does you no credit. The idea that someone snapping a picture in a restaurant is somehow offensive is rather extreme, and you seem to be implying that people are either setting up huge lighting rigs or are taking hundreds of pictures. Well I've never seen that. I've seen people taking a quick snap of food - usually with phones, which aren't exactly dazzling flashes anyway - and then get on with their meal. I don't do this myself (or really understand it) but it had never occurred to me to be disturbed by it. And if I were so inclined and my phone accidentally found it's way into the aquarium then you might find yourself following it. Accidentally, of course. Lighten up - they're not taking your picture, or pictures of your food.
Posted in: Why do so many Japanese women take photos of their food at restaurants and post it on Facebook or their blogs?