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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Ah_so
In stopping the development of nuclear power in Germany in response to an earthquake-related accident in Asia was one of the oddest things I have ever heard a politician do. The German Chancellor's response to the one accident that could definitely not ever ever happen in Germany was to cease nuclear power. It seems akin to Finland banning going outside in winter because they read about Australians getting skin cancer.
However, the Germans border the French, who are doing no such thing and who rely on nuclear power and sell the energy to their neighbours. It is silly to confuse one country with a whole continent when the reality is so diverse.
Posted in: Does Fukushima show a split in philosophy between Asia and Europe?
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Ah_so
Jizo is not just there for aborted foetuses, but also for naturally miscarried ones.
I would guess that Jizo shrines came about through natural miscarriage and stillbirth. Adding artificial miscarriage i.e. abortion, is presumably a more recent phenomenon.
Posted in: Jizo
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Ah_so
Simple answer is that the airlines hedge the cost of oil on the markets. Through a financial instrument, they can guarantee that they will be able to buy fuel at $X per barrel for a certain period. This then allows them to fix the price, which makes life a lot easier for travel agencies etc.
Posted in: Airlines say they have no choice but to pass the increase in oil prices on to passengers in the form of a higher fuel tax? Do you agree?
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Ah_so
Hikozaemon - I am afraid I do not agree. Government planning of power supplies has nothing to do with "socialism" any more than have a police service does.
The advantage (and disadvantage) of fossil fuels is that they already exist - they simply need to be extracted, but not made. Power is far harder to extract from a renewable source or nuclear, but that does not invalidate its use, for reasons of carbon emissions and that one day the fossil fuels will run out.
Posted in: Should countries phase out nuclear power plants and look at other sources for their energy needs?
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Ah_so
Signing the Convention is good news. However, so far Japan has announced that it is planning to announce that it is planning to sign.
Still quite some way from actually signing it!
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Ah_so
This whole affair is pitiful. One of the issues that makes the rest of the world (and for once, absolutely correctly) look down its nose and sneer at the USA.
The vulgarity of the serving President having to produce his birth certificate to placate some oddballs is pitiful.
Posted in: Obama releases full birth certificate to end controversy
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Ah_so
Funny how you did not say anything about Harry resembling his father....
Posted in: What did you think of the British royal wedding on Friday?
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Ah_so
Basically, Japan is in the wrong time zone. It gets light a couple of hours before people wake up, and gets dark hours before they go to bed.
Few other countries in the world have problems with changing the clocks twice a year. But as this relatively simple task is too taxing for Japan, may I suggest a one-off changing of JST to GMT +10 from GMT +9?
Posted in: Do you think switching to daylight saving time in summer in Japan will help ease the power shortage?
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Ah_so
Of course it will help. True, lights are not the main source of electricity usage, but they are still a big one. Also, being up during a cooler time of the day will save on air conditioning, which is a massive user of power. Cars will also use less gas if they do not have their headlights on.
Aside from just power usage, it is more natural and better for our body rhythms to be awake when it is light and sleep when it is dark. At present, the Japanese lie asleep for hours when it is broad daylight outside and then stay up for hours into the night. Daylight saving could help reduce this bizarre behaviour.
Posted in: Do you think switching to daylight saving time in summer in Japan will help ease the power shortage?
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Ah_so
Daylight saving is an obvious one - it starts getting light soon after 4am in June and you really do not need it to be light before 6am. Those 2 cool, light hours are wasted, in exchange for air conditioned, artificially lit evenings.
My Japanese father in-law gets up with the sun in summer and goes to bed with it - up soon after 4 and in bed at around 8. In traditional Japan, I am sure that all would have kept these approximate hours in summer. Daylight saving is just a way of keeping in step with nature.
Posted in: What is the fairest way to deal with the expected summer power shortage?
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Ah_so
If Japan gets rid of Nuclear power, it has increase reliance on foreign powers for energy. Or, gasp, introduce radical concepts like daylight saving and turning off air conditioning.
My wife has been reading things on the internet that Japan can make substantial savings by stopping having night baseball games and golf driving ranges. Not enough. Japan uses about 25% more electricity per head than the UK. I suspect that a lot of this comes down to fan powered kerosene heaters and aircon.
Posted in: No more nukes
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Ah_so
I think the headline was purely accidental.
Posted in: Cable networks plan flood of royal wedding shows
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Ah_so
The King's Speech is a truly great movie and easily deserves the accolade.
Inception got 4 minor Oscars for SFX, but the SFX do not really make the movie - it tried to be too clever with its "am I dreaming or is this reality?" type thing, that was done in the Matrix. At the end, I barely cared whether they were dreaming or not.
Posted in: 'King's Speech' crowned best picture at Oscars; Firth, Portman win acting awards
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Ah_so
You may as well have substituted "drink", "alcohol" and "alcoholic" into your post and it would have read just the same. I am not saying it is great to be hooked on weed, but it is no worse than abuse of alcohol and it does not mean that it should be banned for the bulk of, ahem, "responsible" users.
Posted in: For many Japanese, laid-back overseas vacations a one-way ticket to nowhere
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Ah_so
The average Japanese is only dimly aware of Unit 731, if at all. Having been absent from school textbooks up until recently, and the general taboo about televising anything negative about Japan, the subject seems to be fairly unknown.
Posted in: Japan excavating site linked to WWII human experiments by Unit 731
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Ah_so
Real whisky is not to everyone's taste!
However, Japan does seem to have plenty of excellent whisky, unlike their attempts to brew wine. If only it were not diluted so much, I could really enjoy it.
Posted in: From Scottish Highlands to Kaku-highballs: the rise and rise of Japanese whisky
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Ah_so
@shinjukuboy - you are right about the net government debt. A very valid point, but I wonder how long it will be before the net debt reaches the levels of the gross debt today. The J-government cares less about external rankings because the majority of purchasers of JGBs are Japanese institutions.
A AA- rating is still the best rated highly liquid debt you can get. Japanese investors have little choice but to buy it, but without a serious plan to turn the economy around, the government will eventually have to resort to inflating the debt away.
Posted in: Kan, referring to Japan's debt rating cut, says fiscal discipline vital
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Ah_so
I was wondering how many posts I would need to read until I got to this most predicatable post. It is true, the agencies rated a lot of debt (and banks as a result) with investment grade ratings. They were faced with new products and made some wrong assumptions.
However, with country debt and corporate debt, they are far more accurate. The ratings are based on fundamental concepts - level of debt, savings, growth in economy etc. In the past they have provided a fairly good guide to the chance of default. I have seen S&P's own historical figures on the percentage of default in 5 years given each rating. The good news for investors in JGBs is that AA- is still pretty good.
However, the AA- rating is now 3 ratings below the AAA rating that most G7 countries enjoy. Japan's debt has ballooned over the past 20 years to have massive multiple of GDP and it does not seem to have any plan as to how to pay it off. The only realistic way out is to inflate away the debt at some point in the future, which is a de facto default on its debt.
Posted in: Kan, referring to Japan's debt rating cut, says fiscal discipline vital
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Ah_so
All that time and money to get photos of less than you can see with your own eyes on a public beach in summer. And a whole lot less that you can see on a European beach. Seems a waste of time, but I guess he liked the thrill of the hunt.
Posted in: Ehime man secretly films over 1,000 women with collection of hidden cameras
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Ah_so
Judge, jury and executioner, based on little more than a superficial article that gives no detail as to what happened, other than give the driver's age and what he was arrested for. Based on this lack of information you recommend a punishment reserved for all but the most wicked murderers.
You never know, perhaps we was driving a Toyota and the brakes failed.
Posted in: Car mounts sidewalk, killing 9-year-old boy and injuring 3 others