JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
-
1
Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
-
2
Confrontation
-
3
U.S. Navy investigating how parts fell off aircraft near Atsugi
-
4
California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
-
5
Kuroki reported pregnant 2 weeks after denying relationship with Akanishi
-
- 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
-
- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
-
- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
-3
Alphaape
Meanwhile back in the US, two rousing endorsements were announced today in suppor of the OWS movement.
The first came from the American Nazi Party who's leader is quoted as saying: "What is really MISSING – is the “MOVEMENT” from these popular protests – its time to pull WN heads out of their collective ass’s, and JOIN IN the attack on Judeo-Capitalism."
The second came from the Communist Party USA "This is an exciting time! Thousands of mainly young people have been occupying Wall Street for three weeks already, and the “Occupy Movement” has spread to more than 200 other cities. The movement is the newest wrinkle in the all-people’s upsurge against the banks and corporations and reflects a new level of class-consciousness."
Politics makes strane bedfellows as the saying goes.
Posted in: Rioters hijack Rome Occupy Wall Street protest; police fire tear gas
2
Alphaape
It works if you are gaijin and your neighbors are Japanese. I have seen many complaints from my work where Japanese have called the police on loud American neighbors. Some at night when it should be done, but I have seen a few where the Americans were in the yard cooking out during the daytime and the Japanese neighbors called the police.
I have been in Japan a long time, and it still amazes me at how sometimes doing the most simple thing can be the hardest thing to do. I can't tell from this article if the carpenter had ever asked the guy to keep the noise down, but just based on what I have seen from my time in Japan, I doubt that he has ever spoken to him to say hello let along ask him to keep the noise down.
Posted in: Carpenter attacks neighbor with hatchet over noise
0
Alphaape
Good luck to him. I know what he had to go through, face the same type of "circular logic" in my office. It can get frustrating sometimes, but what really gets me is when I ahve started something that works after all of the foot dragging by the Japanese employees they act like they never had any conflict and all is well.
I at least hope this guy was well compensated.
Posted in: Olympus ousts British CEO after 6 months due to conflicts
0
Alphaape
Guns are restricted. Chicago has some of the toughest gun ownership laws as well as D.C. and other major cities. And guess what, they have some of the highest gun death rates. The restrictive laws hamper the honest law abiding citizen, not the law breaker who will get guns anyway.
Posted in: 8 killed in California salon shooting
0
Alphaape
@Elbuda Mexicano: It does happen here in Japan. Guns aren't used but knives are. That same senario you described is just as good for a mass stabbing. Remember Akihabra? The problem is it is the people, and not the instruments that do the killing. A gun can't get motivated to go and call people just like a knife can't do it either. It is the actions of one individual. Whether he will use a gun, knife, club or car, if they are intent on doing harm to others, they will use whatever is available.
Posted in: 8 killed in California salon shooting
0
Alphaape
@smithinjapa: people like to slam the US versus Canada when it comes to gun control, especially Michael Moore in his movie "Bowling for Columbine." He examined the gun murder rate in Detroit, and then he went across the lake to Canada (Windsor) and noted how the murder rate was very low. I argue that you can do the same in this case, instead you have to drive about a good 200 miles to the border with US and Mexico. Guns are illegal in Mexico, but you have thousands killed there by gun violence (and other violence) yearly. Guns are legal in America, and you do have a hgher murder rate in Detroit vice Windsor, but you don't have the large scale killings like you do down in Mexico as much as you do in the US.
I guess my point to this, if you want to own a gun, live in Canada.
Posted in: 8 killed in California salon shooting
0
Alphaape
No, they beacme rich by working hard. Babs had to start off at the bottom in show biz and through luck and skill made it to the top. I don't think that she went around demanding equal roles that Raquel Welch was getting when she was rising up. How many auditions did she fail in? Same with Jobs. He had a product and an idea. Through working with these same venture captialist to front him money to make his dreams come true he got rich. How many meetings was he turned away from before he finally got the right people to lend him the money.
It takes time and effort. What I will agree with is that at some point, the playing field needs to be somewhat leveled in terms of holding those who cheat the system accountable and make it harder for cheaters to operate. But going there and demending some of the demands that I have been reading and hearing about (i.e. redistributing the wealth, etc) is not going to solve anything. If you gave everyone $1 million dollars in the US right now, some enterprising person will find a way to sell some unsuspecting person a $2 million dollar house, and we will be right back where we started.
Posted in: Protesters in New York march on billionaires' homes
0
Alphaape
Continue of last post: Only to find out that the "new homes" were highly overpriced and the money they made from selling old homes in old areas quickly went away, and now they are left with nothing. While their old homes are now priced out of their range.
If you want better neighborhoods and increased home values, cut down on crime in areas and soon values will start going back up. Just my opinion.
Posted in: Protesters in New York march on billionaires' homes
0
Alphaape
@Human Target: No I don't have any data on what you asked. I am sure that there are a mix of people in the crowd that would fall into the category I described. I am not talking about the person who worked a job, and took out a loan for a home that was in his income range, and then lost his job. That person I can understand and feel sympathy for. No one expects to have their job taken from them like that.
I am talking about those who did use false information to get homes, or those who overextended themselves by borowing against homes as if they were cash money or trying to buy multiple homes, basically playing "musical chairs" with borrowed money and homes until the music stopped. Those are the ones who when they were making money everything was fine, but now that they got caught holding the bag, now it's a problem.
You are correct, owning a home is the best way to get out of poverty, and it still is the American Dream. But if you were only making $50-60K a year, that doesn't mean that you should be living in a $500K home. I have seen in my old neighborhood how older homes shot up in value by speculators and how people who had been living there for generations were sold a false bill of goods to sell and they did.
Posted in: Protesters in New York march on billionaires' homes
1
Alphaape
@Taka313: Actually the ball is in your court. If you see the news and read the article, you can see that they are only targeting those whom they oppose politically. I am fine if they march pass Murdoch and other billionares who lean right, but don't just try to make it as if it is only those on the right.
By the way, I don't blame some of the intent on the protestors, but I have to say some personal responsiblity does have to come into play. Yes there was a housing bubble and big banks and money lenders made bogus loans. But they were not forcing people to go and get loans that they couldn't afford. If you were using bogus income data to qualify for loans on homes that were way out of your price range, then it really isn't Wall Street's fault that you took the bait to get caught up in a loan that you knew you couldn't afford. Greed on Wall St, yes. Greed on Main St, yes also. Not also to put the blame on those who gambled and lost, but also on local and state governments that based spending on property taxes they were expecting and when the values went down they are left with budget gaps. Greed was all around. Both on the right and the left.
Posted in: Protesters in New York march on billionaires' homes
4
Alphaape
Here are a few more homes that they should be protesting but somehow they get left off the list:
Paul Krugman: Former Enron advisor
Micheal Bloomberg: NYC Mayor
George Soros
Philip Falcone: LightSqured billionare investor
Jeffery Immelt: GE CEO
If they want any credibility, in my opinioin they should target all of them, not just the ones who they disagree with politically.
Posted in: Protesters in New York march on billionaires' homes
1
Alphaape
There are some, but the idustry is illegal. I have gone to the PI several times. Back when we had military bases there, it we used to call it "Adult Disneyland" because of the sex industry. Ask most of the women there, and they will give you the same song. Tjhey are from the provinces, and there is no work or very little money. They either have the option of going overseas to work as a "maid" in places like the Middle East where they can be mistreated, or to Hong Kong or Singapore where they are treated little bette, or to Japan where they can work in girlie bars and marry a Japanese man to stay here, or work in Subic or Angeles city in the bars, and hope to marry an American to get out.
That's not PC, but that is just the way it is. Just do a web search for sex tourism in the PI, and you will see many companies offering tours to Manila and Angeles City and Cebu. It's not pretty but it is there.
What the PI government should be concerned with is not so much that an American Ambassador made the comment, but that it is actually going on in their country. That has been the manner of their government too long. They look the other way at how these woman are treated and what they do in the PI and other countries, as long as they keep sending remittances back to the PI.
Posted in: U.S. ambassador to Philippines apologizes for sex tourism remark
-1
Alphaape
I believe that is true. The last time I was in SK, I noticed more Filipina women working in these areas. One Korean mama-san told me that as the economy goes up, the Korean girls who work in the areas where Americans are go back to working in Korean only bars and clubs, thus you had a huge influx of FIlipina. Only when things get slow in the economy do you see Korean women come back into these areas.
Reading the Stars & Stripes, it loooks like the one soldier was drunk and broke into a girls room. If that is the case, then he will be sacrificed to quell the outrage. Not sure on the other case.
Posted in: 2 U.S. soldiers accused of raping teenage girls in S Korea
-1
Alphaape
There have been a number of books written about this, namely how the Korean women who work in the "juicy bars" and other sex industry places near the bases are ostricized by the rest of the Koreans, and if they have any children, these biracial children can face discremination from the general Korean populace. One thing I remember from one of the books was how Koreans who even worked on the bases, had disdain for interracial dating between Koreans and Americans, yet they will gladly go there to work, and set up shops that cater to Americans. Another story from the same book (I believe it was called "In the Shadows of the Camptowns"), one woman who served as a prostitute in one of the bars helped put her brother through college, only to have him publicly reject her because of her work (he was some type of politician and an anti-base one at that).
I think this guy is just trying to get more publicity off a tragic case.
Posted in: 2 U.S. soldiers accused of raping teenage girls in S Korea
0
Alphaape
@Laguna: It may say so on the books, but that is not the case. That is the main reason why all of the fuss over illegal aliens. They can get assistance from the government without being citizens. If their children are in the schools, they qualify for the fee lunch program (a welfare cost). They are also eligible for food stamps and other assistance. If they they have a child born in the USA, the child is a citizen, and then they automatically get the WIC, and other benefits for the child to support the family. That is the major problem that communities face when you have massive amounts of poor people who are not citizens getting services.
I am for helping the poor, but only those who should be in America legally.
Posted in: U.S. gov't asks court to halt Alabama's immigration law
0
Alphaape
When I was younger and growing up in the deep south, I lived in the city and had cousins who lived in what we called "the country." When we would go visist them in the summer, they wouldn't be at home during the early monring hours during the daytime because they had part-time jobs of going out and picking crops to make money. This was in the 70's. My mom explained to me that this is how she and her siblings and parents made money (40's & 50's) to get clothes for school and other expenses. I know it is not much money doing this kind of job, but I am sure that it will help out.
What is really missing from the conversation on this issue is a point that I was making in the paragraph above. My relatives who are Black did these types of jobs (picking crops) while growing up as teenagers and some adults. But in those cases, they only did the jobs part time, to suppliment their other incomes, or as a way for a young person to make money. They weren't their only means of income because if it were, they wouldn't be able to survive. That is the big problem with the illegal aliens. If this is their only job then the amount they make is not enough to live on, so they turn to public assistance (i.e. welfare) to supplemet their income, and that becomes a drain on the local state economy. Not so much like migratory pickers who come in seasonal wabes and pick crops and leave, but people who stay in an area and need county services to surviveand that drains the budgets more without their putting back into it by paying taxes.
There are plenty of people that can do the job of picking tomatoes. Young Amercians (both Black and White) have been brainwashed to thinking that these jobs are benath them and they aren't. Just take a look at the Alabama youth unemployment rate for blacks and see. Sure I understand that it is seasonal, and that you can't make a career out of it, but for most teenage jobs, that is the same too.
Posted in: U.S. gov't asks court to halt Alabama's immigration law
0
Alphaape
@tkoind2: I disagree. There are other ways to raise funds for reserach. We have seen the scams of the carbon credits and the Solyndra issues as well as the fund raising efforts for Hati that have been plauged with scandal, so this one seems a bit too shady to me.
I don't think I am being selfish in pointing out that "There's something rotten in Denmark."
Posted in: Environmentalists pitch voyage in sea of tsunami debris
1
Alphaape
I agree, if they know where it is, and are going to try to make a "buck" off of it, I think that pretty much sums up the scam that is the environmental movement. I'm all for saving the planet from excessive junk and garbage, but don't tell me that I can not use plastic bags and can't use incandesant light bulbs, and try to get people and governments to donate funds to assist in environmental efforts, and yet turn around and try to sell vacation packages to see floating junk.
Posted in: Environmentalists pitch voyage in sea of tsunami debris
-2
Alphaape
RIP.
There was an article on JT about the movie "The Death of a Japanese Salesman" about a retired salaryman wanting to do his "bucket list" before he died (things like vote for another party other than LDP, tell his wife that he loved her).
Just curious and would love to hear from the posters; looking at Jobs and this guy do you think Jobs probably had his list of things that he wanted to do, or more importantly, he made a lot of money, do you think he really enjoyed it? Unlike the character the movie has, he seems to have regretted that he didn't do as much with his life and he missed out.
Any thoughts on this?
Posted in: Apple announces death of Steve Jobs at 56
0
Alphaape
@yabits: The same goes for Obama. When he doesn't get the Dem nomination are you going to say the same?
Posted in: Protests against Wall Street spread across U.S.