JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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Darren White
When I first started speaking Japanese, one of my goals was actually to be able to understand what Beat Takeshi said because I really loved his early films, and he's got really poor diction due to a motorbike accident.
Unfortunately, when I got to that level, I realised that he just isn't funny.
Posted in: Beat Takeshi compares same-sex marriage with bestiality
4
Darren White
Japan : 1st rate country / 2nd rate economy / 3rd rate leadership.
Posted in: Ishihara wants to meet Noda to discuss Tokyo's purchase of Senkakus
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Darren White
I was wondering what all of this recent sabre-rattling from Japan was about ; un-founded fears about North Korea, missiles in Tokyo, David Cameron flying in with British arms industry salesmen ??
It looks like Japan is slowly unravelling its post-war pacifist constitution.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/27/us-japan-defence-idUSTRE7BQ06Q20111227
Posted in: Defense official voices fears over possible N Korea nuclear test
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Darren White
.... and what exactly does this have to do with Japan today ?
Posted in: Doctors urge fewer tests, less costly treatments
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Darren White
would! would! would! would! would!
Posted in: Karasia
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Darren White
I would hardy call this "social justice".
It's an action by a group of 42 very wealthy shareholders to try and claim losses.
It's been widely reported that one of the reasons that the Fukushima plant was unprepared for the events of the tsunami was because it had been subject to a cost-cutting drive under Tepco chief executive Masataka Shimizu. One of the effects of cost-cutting is to increase shareholder value.
To see this situation as "the people vs. Tepco" is incorrect. Rather than being "victims", as they are trying to portray themselves, I see the shareholders as being complicit in the meltdowns. If you make money from cost-cutting, you can't then start crying when a disaster happens due to the very same cuts that you profited from.
What I would call justice is suing the executives and giving the money to the real victims ; people who have lost their homes and businesses due to the radiation.
Posted in: TEPCO execs should face poverty over Fukushima, lawyer says
2
Darren White
"Japan is a safety country" ...
Posted in: Japan slow to take anti-terror measures at nuclear plants
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Darren White
Ah, the delicious irony !
In a book called "The Japan that can say no" written at the height of the Japanese bubble by Tokyo Governor, Shintaro Ishihara, and Sony co-founder, Akio Morita, these 2 were gloating over the fact that Japan had the cutting edge with technology, to the extent that it was Japanese-made components that were being used for guidance systems in US missiles.
Well worth a read, if only to see how (ahem) misguided they were.
How things have changed...
Posted in: Japan, U.S., and EU to meet on rare earths
1
Darren White
"Since many single women are single mothers"
Completely untrue ...
"There are 340,000 abortions a year in Japan, many of them presumably on women for whom child-raising is an economic impossibility"
don't "presume", just the facts, please.
D-
Doesn't anybody read anymore ?
Posted in: Japan's 10 most intractable problems
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Darren White
Anyone who has flown on an US-based carrier lately, and has had to go through the rigmarole of dystopian security procedures ; including, taking your shoes off, tasting your own baby's food ( to ensure that it is not a component of some sort of dirty bomb ), then having to deal with overweight, school marm flight attendants with bad manners who keep bumping into you (if you have the misfortune to be in an aisle seat ) with their more-than-ample, popeye-chicken-fed / age-discrimination-proof posteriors as they squeeze down the aisles ; which are gradually getting narrower as the airlines cram more and more seats in, in an effort to cut costs ; can have, at least, a modicum of compassion for this guy's predicament ...
... but I guess it's just easier to condemn the guy as an "oyaji", right ?
Posted in: Japanese passenger arrested in Hawaii for punching Delta flight attendant
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Darren White
top-down management style = ( slow decision-making process X missing new ideas ) = getting left behind.
Posted in: Japan trails international peers in social media-based marketing
1
Darren White
Toshi sings really well, but, seriously, are all of the staff too scared to tell him that he looks like cheeseburger-era Elvis ?
Posted in: The X Factor
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Darren White
I tried the Beef & Chicken with Lemon & Basil Salt Sauce one yesterday.
It was vile !
Posted in: Burger sharing
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Darren White
¥200 yen is disgusting ... The fraction of profit they give away will be more than offset by the increased number of copies bought by people under the misapprehension that they are giving something to charity.
This is a particularly callous example of opportunism masquerading as altruism.
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0
Darren White
The IAEA is a joke. They make recommendations, which countries and utility companies ignore because it would mean spending huge amounts of money.
The nuclear industry has always known that huge reactors are inherently unsafe, but have worked under the pretext that the possibility of an accident occurring were extremely slim. doh ....
There's a 1992 BBC documentary by Adam Curtis that gives some great background info on how we got into this situation.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2011/03/aisfor_atom.html
Posted in: IAEA says nuclear safety must be improved; criticizes Japan for being lax
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Darren White
@Sawada2
That's a very strange way of putting it.
You do understand that AKB48 isn't a real group, right ? They are the "product" of a production company ( mostly oyajis ) and the girls are told what to sing, when to sing it, what to wear and what to say.
I mean, if you like them, good for you, but I don't think they're really doing that much for gender politics in Japan, unless they are posing in bikinis in an ironic, post-modern way.
Posted in: AKB48 album sells over 600,000 copies in its first week
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Darren White
Yes, Japan was unprepared for a nuclear disaster ; I don't think that anyone would argue with that.
Looking forward to the "best nuclear disasterist" award. Finally Japan is bestest at something ! I'm sure that this will be really comforting to my children in the future when they develop cancer... Thanks Japan.
I have a hunch that this will change from "worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl" to "worst nuclear accident ever" within the next couple of weeks...
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Darren White
No, this doesn't look embarrassing at all, does it ?
Now if they had made the gaijin wear the funny chonmage the Japanese would have found it hilarious.
Posted in: Il Divo
1
Darren White
More beer = always a good thing.
Posted in: Korea’s popular beer Hite reaches Japan
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Darren White
When I saw the headline I though that it was about the president of Softbank ...
Posted in: Son arrested over murder of mother in Sendai