JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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Confrontation
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U.S. Navy investigating how parts fell off aircraft near Atsugi
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California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
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5
Kuroki reported pregnant 2 weeks after denying relationship with Akanishi
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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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Heda_Madness
Cletus,
Before you finish laughing perhaps you should read what you're commenting on. All glass should be shredded and removed from the area. Dumping at sea is prohibited.
Do you support these actions?
Posted in: Confrontation
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Heda_Madness
By throwing glass, the SS are clearly in breach of the Antarctic Treaty. They really are a very strange group of 'environmentalists'
Posted in: Confrontation
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Heda_Madness
Yuvaru,
I think you missed this point:
And then think about who wants to be colonised by who.
The people of the Falkland Islands want to be a British Overseas territory and until that day changes they should be.
Posted in: Argentina says Britain has nuclear weapons in Falklands
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Heda_Madness
There is already a 20/20 competition as well as the regular 40 over competition. The biggest problem facing the JCA and the teams that play in the competition is that the time it takes to play them. Although Sano is an imnprovement on the Fuji grounds (both in terms of proximity to Tokyo and quality of the grounds) it still requires an entire day to play there.
I really hope that cricket takes of in Japan but there are a number of issues in their way. The JCA have done a fantastic amount of work to take cricket into the community with regular workshops etc but it's very difficult when the pitches, with the exception of the half pitch in Koiwa, are so far away.
I wish the JCA and Sano the very best of luck and they are certainly making progress.
Posted in: Howzat!? Tochigi city has cricket aspirations
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Heda_Madness
I'd say it had nothing to do with football fans. And everything to do with people wanting to 'kick off'. I'm a passionate football fan. Can't think of anything more stupid than fighting over it because someone supports another team. There are plenty of words to describe people who fight at football matches. None of the mare 'fans'.
Posted in: 74 killed as fans clash after soccer game in Egypt
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Heda_Madness
Which population??
The population of the Falkland Islands. The people who live there. Who were born there. Who's parents died there etc, etc etc. And as long as the people of the Falklands want to be a British territory then they should be.
Posted in: Britain sends new warship to Falklands
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Heda_Madness
As Zichi said, the radiation isn't in a pattern and there are parts of the 20km exclusion zone with substantially less contamination than places outside of it. Should the people move back to the village? Based on the information that I have here it's impossible to answer that as I simply have no idea what the current radiation levels are.
But to suggest that someone should be dragged through the streets and unceremoniously shot dead is one of the most disturbing things I've ever read. I can't believe that the moderators have allowed it. And I would suggest that the author have a look at themselves in the mirror. Shocking.
Posted in: Mayor of village near Fukushima plant urges residents to return to homes
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Heda_Madness
Sorry... I'm on a roll...
You say that the person in charge of the center was crazy. Well let's just remember who these people were. They weren't out of towners, they were members of the community. They may have lost their homes, their families etc. as I said before the mayor of Rikuzentakata was appointed mid February. His wife's body was discovered a few months later.
He had to make decisions despite his personal situation.
The system was designed to be fair. There was nothing fair about those early days. Nothing. Yet the people had to cope as best they could. Many on here on here have complained about one thing or another but the people up there haven't. Go up there. Meet them. Talk to them.
Understand what humanity means.
In years to come I will forget Japan Today, the comments, the ratings. But I'll never forget the peope of Tohoku.
Posted in: Foreign firms feel sidelined in post-quake rebuilding
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Heda_Madness
Yasukuni, You have to understand the scale of the disaster. And it's very difficult to do so. Someone mentioned New Orleans before and that was a disaster that was forecast yet still the federal government was found lacking. This was impossible to prepare for and it needed people to fill in the gaps. There were many, many gaps and I don't think for one moment that it couldn't be improved upon but too many people have an ideological idea of what should happen.
Or to put it in another way, when you're driving around looking for a distribution centre it's pretty damned hard when there's no road sign and you have to rely on Google maps. It's even harder when you want to turn at the next left and you have no idea where the next left is because it's simply not there.
Someone mentioned above about the politicians making decisions in thei warm Tokyo offices but perhaps I'm th only one who sees the irony in that statement. A lot of people are making judgments without venturing further north than Saitama. Could the government have done better? Yes, especially with regards to the temporary housing but they could have done a hell of a lot worse because of my views on whaling I have attracted a fan club of sorts who are quick to criticize because I said it. I'm not going to say that's right or wrong on other issues but on this it's wrong. It's wrong for the people of Tohoku and it's wrong base on the knowledge and information that I've gained on my trips and my experience.
Those that marked me down earlier do so without knowledge of what the situation was. If they did, they may disagree with what happened but I doubt they would disagree with the logic behind it.
Posted in: Foreign firms feel sidelined in post-quake rebuilding
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Heda_Madness
There was no communication. No telephones. No nothing. It needed to be centralised but a lot of the main centres were washed away.
Being centralised. Being organised through some kind of establishment needed to be done. So it was the only option to go through the centralised distribution centre to ensure that everybody got the same.
And despite what everyone says, especially my fan club, it needs to be equal for everyone.
Posted in: Foreign firms feel sidelined in post-quake rebuilding
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Heda_Madness
Yasukuni,
Thanks for the input. I was relaying first and second hand experience as opposed to idle supposition. I can't believe the amount of time I've wasted in a car park on the expressway counting out carrots and potatoes to ensure that everyone received an equal share.
Next time we'll adopt a different strategy.
Posted in: Foreign firms feel sidelined in post-quake rebuilding
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Heda_Madness
It's me. Usually I don't care about the ratings, especially on the whaling issue but this is something I'm pretty passionate about having been involved since the early days. It's just frustrating that I seem to have collected a troll fan base. I guess that's what the ratings system has brought about.
I was going to post on the executive impact feature about what a wonderful job the BCCJ have been doing in Tohoku but I know that some would immediately give me a negative rating. And that would be unfair on Lori.
Posted in: Foreign firms feel sidelined in post-quake rebuilding
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Heda_Madness
The one that got 11 or 8 or ot however many thumbs down. I'd be interested in the first hand opinions of those who were in Tohoku who gave me thumbs down as to what they would have done diferently. But I fear it would be a very short conversation.
Posted in: Foreign firms feel sidelined in post-quake rebuilding
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Heda_Madness
Illsayit, if I know nothing about construction then you know nothing about the ability to read English...
I was highlighting a point in the article about clothes being refused at shelters.
Actually, you know nothing about finance either if you think that 120 plus yen to the pound makes the pound expensive.
Posted in: Foreign firms feel sidelined in post-quake rebuilding
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Heda_Madness
Blair is spot on. There was a massive surplus of some supplies and simply not the demand or the storage areas for it so they had to simply refuse it. And that didn't matter whether you were foreign or Japanese.
As I mentioned in one of my hugely popular posts. I don't see the relevance of that in an article discussing how difficult it was for foreign companies to do business in post 3/11 Japan.
Posted in: Foreign firms feel sidelined in post-quake rebuilding
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Heda_Madness
What is there to correct. Germany has gone on record as saying that it intends to be nuclear free but will continue to import electricity from France which will come from nuclear power. It's immaterial that Germany is an exporter as well because if they had sufficient energy capability they wouldn't need to import it. I stand by my initial statement that Germany is the perfect example of a NIMBY.
Posted in: Fukui 'Nuclear Alley' conflict: reactor danger vs economic reality
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Heda_Madness
Where is this area? Miyako? Rikuzentakata? or Tohoku?
Tar... brush... same old
Posted in: Should prefectures outside the Tohoku area accept tsunami rubble for incineration or disposal?
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Heda_Madness
In the early days, it was preferred to donate directly to the local distribution centres so that they could ensure that the correct amount were distributed to each shelter. If you went door to door to shelters they would, mostly, take what matched their requirements - no more or no less. The distribution centres would take everything and distribute it accordingly. If one shelter had 190 gloves and they needed 10 more it's quite possible that they would never get those 10 pairs of gloves. Too much bureaucracy? Quite possibly. But you need to have a system or some shelters would have missed out all together.
And there was nothing remotely 'easy' about the first couple of months up there. Nothing.
Posted in: Foreign firms feel sidelined in post-quake rebuilding
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Heda_Madness
Cletus,
Perhaps you could tell me what the current radiation levels are in Miyako in Iwate? or Rikuzentakata in Iwate etc, etc, etc.
Too many people try and tar this disaster with the same brush.
Tohoku = Radiation.
Posted in: Should prefectures outside the Tohoku area accept tsunami rubble for incineration or disposal?
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Heda_Madness
Scrote. Imagine how you would feel if you were in that shelter and the person next to you got gloves. But you didn't. Imagine how that would affect your morale.
This was a policy amongst ALL shelters from the very earliest days. If there were 200 people and you had only 190 packs of noodles they would politely decline. No system is perfect but the mental welfare of the people 'stuck in the gymnasiums' must be considered.
There has also been a surplus of deliveries in some areas and companies like Uniqlo have literally flooded the area with warm clothes.
I really don't understand the relevance between this part of the article and the rest though. The housing situation could have been dealt with quicker and more effectively thanks to people like Colin Shea etc however the government/local authorities were very inflexible.
Posted in: Foreign firms feel sidelined in post-quake rebuilding