JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- English Instructor (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe)
- Berlitz Japan, Inc. (ベルリッツ・ジャパン株式会社), Kansai
- Salary: ¥125,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month
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- FT English Teachers for Kids - Osaka
- Kohgakusha Co., Ltd. （株式会社興学社）, Osaka
- Salary: ¥255,000 ~ ¥275,000 / Month Travel Expenses, Encouragement of Japanese learning*
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- Translator
- ZAIHON, Inc. (日本財務翻訳株式会社), Tokyo
- Salary: ¥6.0M / Year Negotiable
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Ah_so
Misreading of a simple article like this shows a lot about the prejudices of many readers - they read what they want or expect, not what is there.
Posted in: Man held for punching 50-yr-old woman on Saitama train over playing games on cell phone
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Ah_so
Everyone knows that a holiday must consist of a one night stay at an onsen. Anything else is clear evidence of drug smuggling (as it proved).
Posted in: Drug suspect, caught at Narita, had 273 packs of cannabis in stomach
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Ah_so
She stunning, almost up there with Maria Ozawa.
Posted in: Jun Hasegawa capitalizes on 'haafu' look
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Ah_so
Bullies - either those who scheme and are unpleasant to immediate colleagues or the unpleasant boss who creates a miserable working environment. Bully may actually be too strong a work for some driven bosses, but the effect on morale is the same either way.
Posted in: Which office jerk bothers you the most?
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Ah_so
I do not know if it still is, but the Guinness sold in bottles in Japan used to be called "London Pub Guinness". This may be because the Guinness sold in Britain used to be pretty foul, but most likely it was because the marketing men assumed (quite correctly) than most Japanese had not heard of Ireland.
Thenewfront: I am afraid I do not follow your rationale for cancelling St Patrick's Day. After all, if you applied the same rationale for every event, we would never celebrate anything.
Posted in: Tokyo’s St Patrick’s Day Parade – It’s a long way from Tipperary
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Ah_so
Why invest in Japanese equities? They yield little no dividends, so seem pretty pointless as an investment. P/E ratios are generally at about 20, even higher than the over-priced Dow, with even less reason to be.
The only argument in their favour in recent years is that they are trading below book value. All well and good, but there is no way to unlock the book value.
Japanese equities are not something to "invest" in in the truest sense of the word. They are only something to speculate on.
Posted in: Gov't may seek additional steps to stem diving share prices after Nikkei closes at 26-year low
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Ah_so
Quite, but "strongly agnostic" is basically an atheist - the difference is little more than semantics, or possibly cowardice. I am also "strongly agnostic" on the topic of goblins living in the shed at the end of my garden, but I would not tick, "Don't know" if polled on my belief in the existence of goblins living in sheds. Of course there are no goblins - they are mythical beings...
In other words, I reject the concept of one being "strongly agnostic" - accepting the minute possibility that something exists does not make you uncertain. Intellectually I find it weak and perhaps fraudulent - an expression for people who are frightened of the label "atheist".
This topic is actually on life after death, but the answer is the same whatever way you look at it.
Posted in: Do you believe in life after death?
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Ah_so
I broadly understand what you mean (and previously shared the opinion, to an extent). After all, if you cannot know that there is not a God, how can one intellectually be arrogant enough to class oneself as an atheist?
This argument presumes a roughly even chance of God existing - you flip the coin and God is either there or he is not. In reality an atheist is more likely to say that he finds it very, very unlikely that there is a God based on evidence of lack of it.
As an analogy, beneath my back-garden could be the world's largest untapped reserves of oil and gold, just waiting for me to get my spade out and dig. I am not entirely closed to the possiblility. In fact I have occasionally day dreamed on this point. However, in reality I am pretty sure that this is not the case, to the extent that I could be an "athiest" on the idea. However, the fact that I believe that I do not own gold and oil reserves does not make me intellectually lazy, solipsistic, and most tiresome.
If this view is intellectually valid on gold and oil reserves, could it not be so about God?
Posted in: Do you believe in life after death?
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Ah_so
There are or you think there *might be *"mitigating circumstances"? How could you possibly know at this stage in the procedings? You seem to assume too much.
Posted in: Newborn girl dies after being left in bicycle basket in Tokyo
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Ah_so
Clearly the biggest impact will be in certain developing countries where there is limited access to a consistent electricity supply. It may be great in Tanzania, but utterly useless in Niigata.
Posted in: World's 1st solar-powered phone goes on display
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Ah_so
What is the point? Are they just doing it because Apple have some stores?
Waste of time, especially as we enter a depression.
Posted in: Microsoft to open chain of retail stores
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Ah_so
Well it isn't the world's first, by a long shot. Obviously they never typed "non-alcohol beer" into Google. However, one thing they all have in common is that they taste worse than cow urine.
Posted in: Alcohol-free Kirin beer
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Ah_so
The betting firm Paddy Power are actually taking bets on who is the father of this child, is the angel-faced four foot tall Alfie, his elder brother or one of the many teenageers of Eastbourne who claim to have had their way with the town bicycle.
People often use the term "yo-yo knickers" for such girls, but this is clearly misnomer for Chantelle, as "yo-yo" implies that they would be up half the time. Quite clearly hers only have one setting: down.
Posted in: Baby-faced dad, 13, raises 'broken Britain' fears
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Ah_so
I have seen it, and if it does not win it will be a travesty. It is an amazing picture and well deserves all the acclaim it has received.
See it. In April.
Posted in: Danny Boyle in Tokyo
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Ah_so
U.S. CEOs also seem to be fantastically well rewarded for destroying shareholder value, it seems.
But the overall point is fair - Japanese firms are not run for the owners, but more for the employees. P/E ratios always stay high, rarely dipping below 20, but without the growth of old, it is not justified from an investor's point of view. Also dividends are very low. Dividends are the investor's income, yet the companies refuse to distribute them.
The only reason for buying Japanese equities is to take advantage of their volatility, but this is one of the reasons that they are so volatile.
If it weren't for the cross-shareholdings of Japanese firms, equities would be fairer priced and more liquid.
Posted in: Japanese presidents aren't rewarded for improving shareholder value. Our data show that U.S. CEOs get paid about 100 times more for raising shareholder value than Japanese presidents.
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Ah_so
Will her legs fit in that car?
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Ah_so
Both right and wrong, but mainly wrong. Colds are caused by viruses - we all know this. However, you are far more likely to catch a cold in winter than in summer, much the same with influenza. The idea that this is because people spend more time inside in winter has been totally rejected by scientists.
It appears that we actually have cold viruses a lot of the time, but exposure to cold weather means that the virus is likely to become active and our immune system less able to fight it.
Scientific studies have shown that people exposed to cold temperatures are far more likely to contract a cold subsequently.
So basically the Japanese mothers are right and you are wrong. Presumably a Westerner, you have ignored the blindingly obvious fact that you always get colds and flu in winter and not summer just because of the word "virus" and that is like science, thus ignoring centuries of useful practical experience.
Typical Westerner.
Posted in: Entrance exam competition heats up
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Ah_so
A debt-fuelled real estate bubble is the cause of this mess. Same as Japan in 1990, but much, much more serious.
Japanese property values have halved since 1990. Expect the same all round the world.
Posted in: Start of the 'not so great' Depression
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Ah_so
This means that people are still voluntarilly buying rubbish cars when there are perfectly good alternatives. How strage.
Posted in: Toyota's global sales down 4%, but may still overtake GM
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Ah_so
Murder and remain uncaught/undetected for 15 years: get off scot free
Overstay your visa: remain liable for arrest and automatic deportation for the rest of your life.
Now that's what I call justice.
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