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
1
Kreza23
Just to add to my earlier comment, I haven't said anything about Japan being the only victim of the war, nor have I ever condoned any of the atrocities that Japan committed during the war. All I am saying here is that this story is just one of numerous unfortunate results of the war, and I don't see the need to relate it or compare it to others that aren't directly related. There were without a doubt many others who suffered worse, and I would never play down any suffering that others have endured. I just don't think this article has anything to do with history lessons in Japanese classrooms.
Posted in: Japanese return to Canada's WWII internment camps
10
Kreza23
Ivan Coughanoffalot - Oh come on, give me a break! This is a short article about the POWs in Canada, with interviews of Japanese Canadians who were stuck in an unfortunate situation. If this were a full-blown thesis on WWII internment camps, I would agree that this is a terribly one-sided account, but it's not. It's a short piece on a slow news day.
And you think "these people" are wallowing in unjustified self-pity? You think it's unjustified for "these people" to think that they were unfairly taken from their homes and lost their own businesses? Allow me to remind you that these people who are "wallowing in unjustified self-pity" are Japanese Canadians, and not the people in charge of making history textbooks in Japan, so I don't see why you're pointing out the whitewashing of history. And in all of the quotes you see in the article, there isn't a single one where there is any hint of whining or wallowing in self-pity. You're mixing unrelated issues because of your anti-Japanese bias, and it's quite sad.
On another note, I know a lot of people lost a whole lot by having to go to these camps, but my late grandfather was actually in one of these internment camps, and I remember him telling me that he had a blast playing baseball every day with the Canadian soldiers at the camp. I'm sure it wasn't like that for everybody and it really was ridiculous that these people were considered spies and lost everything they had, but I was relieved to hear from grandpa that they weren't beaten down and treated like animals inside the internment camps.
Posted in: Japanese return to Canada's WWII internment camps
0
Kreza23
tmarie - You think he's arrogant because he says he wants to play for the Mariners? He's a FREE AGENT!!! The purpose of free agency is to allow a player to go to a team of his choosing. Whether the player chooses a team because of the money, or because they have a shot at winning, or because they would feel comfortable is entirely up to him. If this were the draft, I would agree. I absolutely hate it when a teenage athlete pouts about what team he gets drafted to, but free agency is a whole different ball game.
sfjp - I agree, the starting pitchers for the US at the WBC were obviously not the best. But Oswalt wasn't the only notable pitcher on that team. Peavy's a CY young winner in 2007, and that bullpen, especially with Bell and Broxton (in 2009) is full of star relievers. And as for the rest of the team, this year's MVP Ryan Braun, 2007 MVP Jimmy Rollins, David Wright , Derek Jeter, Evan Longoria, Curtis Granderson, Brian McCann and another former MVP in Chipper Jones. That team is stacked. There is no way around it. The US came with a cast of all-star hitters.
The WBC is not without its flaws, but it is the only tournament where major league players can suit up for their country. To me, that makes it more of a legitimate competition than the Olympics. Really I think it's silly to suggest that the NPB is anywhere near the MLB in terms of talent. But at the same time, I think it's silly to suggest that Japan didn't win the NPB legitimately. The rules were set, and most of the best players in the world played. If the US wins the next WBC, then they could claim to be world champions. Until then, Japan is.
Posted in: Free agent Kawasaki only interested in Mariners
0
Kreza23
So nothing on the ridiculously tasteless sign that some of the Jeonbuk supporters were proudly holding up at the game?
Posted in: Jeonbuk Motors beat Cerezo Osaka in Asian Champions League
1
Kreza23
Had a feeling the game would turn out like this. I'm glad they were able to win it at the end though. Kagawa had no space to make his runs without Honda there to attract defenders, and I'm afraid of the next game against Uzbekistan. Hoping for another win (and also hoping that Kashiwagi doesn't start next game).
Posted in: Late winners spare Aussie, Japan blushes in World Cup qualifiers
7
Kreza23
There is nobody on TV that I hated more. He was a narcissist, and he used a bunch of young talento to boost his ego in exchange for giving them a career. Granted, if I wanted to be on TV, I probably would've sucked up to him as well, but you could tell for every good deed he performed, there was something cold and calculated about it. I suppose you could say that about most people in the world, but something about him always rubbed me the wrong way, not to mention the assault that many posters have already mentioned, and the way he would insult people non-stop for laughs. Oh, and the music he produced always made me want to puke. So long Shinsuke.
Posted in: Comedian Shimada quits show business over reported ties to yakuza
2
Kreza23
vg866 - I know how frustrating it is to not have your team at full strength, but you seem to be conveniently failing to mention that Korea still had 6 players from Europe, including star members of the national team like Park Chu Young, Koo Ja Cheol and Ki Sung Yeung (my apologies if I didn't spell the names correctly), not to mention a number of players playing in leagues outside of the K-League (5 players who have chosen to play in the J-League, and another player who plays in Qatar). Japan was also missing Nagatomo who plays for Inter Milan, and they still haven't even called up youngsters like Usami (Bayern Munich) and Miyaichi (Arsenal).
I completely agree that the loss of Park Ji Sung is huge, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Japan lost Nakata to retirement when he was still in his 20's, but nobody was sympathetic towards the Japanese team when they struggled after losing him. It may take a bit of time, but Korea will be strong again in a couple of years.
bicultural - They're not only missing Nakazawa and Tulio, but Kagawa wasn't a regular member for Okada either (although he really should have been). I think if you look at the starting members for Okada's World Cup squad and Zaccheroni's starting lineup yesterday, only 5 out of the 11 remain the same.
smithinjapan - What's with the Honda bashing? He's playing very well in Russia this year with six goals. He may not be the quickest of players or the flashiest with his footwork, but he's ridiculously strong on the ball and he does very well to keep possession and allow other players to make their runs into space. He's an extremely important part of the national team, as well as CSKA Moscow.
Anyways, I think Japan was still a little sloppy with their short passing game at times (although they were fantastic for most of the game), and their defending wasn't great (granted it was after scoring their 3rd goal), so there's still room for improvement. Looking forward to the World Cup qualifiers next month!
Posted in: Japan beats S Korea 3-0 to extend unbeaten run to 13 matches
0
Kreza23
papasmurfinjapan - Fair enough, BUT (and I'm not trying to say the A League isn't a good league, so don't get me wrong)an average of less than 10,000 a game for only 11 teams still isn't a great figure.
And when you factor in total attendance for both leagues (and obviously there are people who went to more than 1 game) it was 5.8 million for the J League and 1.3 million for the A League, so that figure is closer to being equal to the 6 times population discrepancy than it seems at first glance. And this doesn't even factor in figures for J2 teams and JFL teams.
Posted in: Australians putting hopes on Asian Cup
0
Kreza23
smithinjapan -
In 2009, before Japan's somewhat successful run at the World Cup, Japan's average league attendance record for the J League was around 19,000 fans per game, while in the A-League, it was less than 10,000. Attendance figures don't mean everything, but you're really underestimating Japan's passion for the game.
Posted in: Australians putting hopes on Asian Cup
0
Kreza23
vg866 - Is it Japan's fault that Korea decided to send those three players to take the penalties? Why didn't Park step up and go for it? He was there in line with the rest of the team.
Koo, Lee and Hong are very solid young players. You keep saying that they weren't good enough to be on the 2010 World Cup squad, but neither was Kagawa for Japan, and he's one of the central players for Japan now.
Injuries suck and they're a part of the sport, but everybody deals with them. Japan's staple at the World Cup was Honda and their defending. Japan is missing their top two central backs in Nakazawa and Tulio, plus their next choices Kurihara and Makino. So you're basically getting Japan's "C-class" defenders.
Korea is a fantastic team, and I don't see them making excuses, so why are you?
On another note, there's big news about Ki Sung-young because he made mocking monkey faces after his PK in the first half, and it looks like FIFA might step in because of their hard stance on racism.
Posted in: Japan beats South Korea to set up Asian Cup final clash with Australia
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Kreza23
Who was it that said that Japan was lucky to make it because their group was easier? Well, the two semi-finalists from Japan's ended up (Russia and Japan of course) ended up winning 3 of 4 games against the two semi-finalists in the other (Brazil and the US, the only loss obviously was Japan going down to Brazil 3-2). Anyways, congrats to all the teams, especially the three medalists!
Posted in: Russia beats Brazil in final at volleyball worlds; Japan gets bronze
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Kreza23
Qatar IS an Asian country (or at least it is in the eyes of FIFA). And given there is now one less competitor, saying that the Asian countries have a better shot now is simply stating the obvious. Simple mathematics will tell you that. It's not exactly a "believe it or not"-worthy statement.
Posted in: England pulls out of 2022 World Cup bid race
0
Kreza23
sfjp330 - You couldn't be any more wrong. I grew up on baseball and captained my high school baseball team. Your views on intentional cheating vs. subtle cheating confuse me, because you can be subtle about the way you cheat but intend to do it. What exactly constitutes subtle cheating to you, that isn't intentional? And why is cheating OK to you if it's subtle?
If you think the other team is stealing signs, you can throw them a brush back pitch. If that's not your style, you get your pitcher to talk to the catcher and change the signs up. If you're worried about location, and not pitch selection, you get your catcher to set up outside, and have the pitcher throw inside. There are a lot of things you can do about it, and they happen often. If I were a coach, I wouldn't encourage sign stealing, but it's a lost art, and if people can do it, I don't see anything wrong with it. You just have to do a better job of hiding your signs.
Posted in: Tokyo beats Hawaii to take Little League World Series title
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Kreza23
If stealing signs was seen as such a serious offense, then why would catchers hide their signs so deep between their legs and try to hide what they want their pitcher to throw? Why would third base coaches develop a complex system of signs for the hitter to take in? If baseball were such a gentleman's game, why wouldn't they just leave their signs out in the open and assume the other team wouldn't look to gain an advantage?
sfjp330 - "In baseball, there is the official rulebook, which teaches kids how to play. And there is the unofficial, unwritten rulebook, stored in players' heads and psyches, with boundaries determined only when crossed. And there is one more rule in baseball: The unwritten is always more important than the written. There is a saying in baseball that if you aren't cheating, you aren't trying. What this means is that manager of the Japanese teams approved what their kids were doing and teaches kids that cheating (unofficial) is ok to get ahead. Japanese team should've forfeit from this international competition."
I see you're not crazy about stealing signs, but what's the rule on stealing material, cuz the first bit of your post is totally from a website. I felt like I had read that somewhere before and looked up, and sure enough, word for word.
Posted in: Tokyo beats Hawaii to take Little League World Series title
0
Kreza23
ElJeffeEnJapon - "How many LL teams are there in Curacao or Chinese Taipei? Granted Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka will have proportionally larger numbers of teams fighting for the right to represent Japan but how many inaka prefectures are there where the number of LL's are much lower? Thus making their route to a national championship and a ticket to the LLWS that much easier? Baseball is America's national sport. LL's are everywhere in every state, including Alaska (they get to play a lot of baseball up there due to the extra sunlight in summer). My point is that there is a lot more baseball being played in the US and usually at very high levels. That's why we have a separate tourney and get an automatic birth in the LLWS championship game."
Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) used to dominate the Little League World Series when I was growing up, so I have no idea how many teams or little leagues there are there, but I do know that baseball is immensely popular there and that they are extremely strong, especially for that age group.
The little league world series is made up of 16 teams, 8 from the US and the other 8 from around the world. So to make the LLWS, a team from the US has to be the best team in a group of about 5 or 6 states. For a Japanese team to make it, they have to be the best team in the entire country. For a team from Taiwan to make it, they have to be the best in Taiwan, plus make it out of another group of countries including Korea and China. That team from Curacao had to beat teams from all over Latin America. I'm definitely not saying that it is easy to make it to the LLWS for a team from the US. Like I said, I'm not trying to downplay the accomplishments of these kids. But it DEFINITELY isn't much easier for a lot of these other teams to make it. You are completely underestimating how popular baseball is in these countries, and you are underestimating the process they have to go through to make it to the tournament.
Posted in: Tokyo beats Hawaii to take Little League World Series title
0
Kreza23
Branded - This team from Tokyo, Edogawa Minami is one of MANY teams representing one of the many leagues in Tokyo. So they don't simply have their choice of players from all over the prefecture. In fact, over the past decade, there have been three different teams from Tokyo that have represented Japan. If you really believe that the population base was such a big factor, why wasn't there a team from New York city in the finals for the American side? How about a team from California? Why is it so hard for you to simply congratulate the Japanese team without making any snarky remarks? All the kids in this tournament played hard, and they should ALL be proud of themselves, no matter where they are from.
Posted in: Tokyo beats Hawaii to take Little League World Series title
0
Kreza23
ElJeffeEnJapon －"Then you get state regionals, state championship, regionals and THEN you get a ticket to Penn. to play the best in the country before facing the international champs. No discredit to Japan but countries like Japan, SK, Curacao and other Latin American countries definitely do not have it as tough to get in."
And I certainly don't mean to discredit all of the hard work that it takes for American teams to make it, but what makes you think that it was any easier for the other teams to qualify? I'm sure there were tons of tournaments that the Japanese team (as well as the other teams involved) had to advance through to even qualify for this event.
Branded - "Gee- where to begin ? How about, well... Tokyo has a population of well over 12 million compared to Waipahu at just under a million. Considering the huge talent base to draw from its hard to imagine how Japan hasn't won this for better than 7 years now !"
Gee, where to begin? If you are considering population and talent base, then the population of the US is higher than that of Japan, which I'm sure you were well aware of. So you might want to re-think that point.
But then again, the population of Tokyo compared to Waipahu is completely irrelevant as well. They didn't choose the best players from all over Tokyo to compete. These are club teams, and this team had to beat other teams from Tokyo as well as the rest of Japan (and the world) to make it this far. A larger Tokyo population probably means they had to face more teams to qualify, rather than having more players to choose from.
Posted in: Tokyo beats Hawaii to take Little League World Series title
0
Kreza23
Wow, I didn't think the term "hafu" was that awful. I grew up in Toronto (which for a while was regarded the most multicultural city in the world), and when people would meet, they would always ask "What's your background?" and you would get replies like "I'm half Scottish and half Chinese" or "I'm half Irish, and a quarter Swedish and a quarter Filipino". It was like asking people their sign. I grew up using the terms "half" and "quarter" and I never thought it was racist at all.
Posted in: The Hafu Project: Exploring the question of what it means to be Japanese
0
Kreza23
Branded - "Many of you, horsefella, kreza23,roomtemperature, etc seem to think Americans are in agony over "winning" the Silver."
When did I ever say anything about the US being in agony? I congratulated Team USA and haven't made a single negative comment towards them. Nor have I been here trying to rub it in anyone's face. All I've said is that you were wrong in blaming Miller for being out of position on the goal. I said that he had very good position, and that Crosby just shot it sooner than expected and snuck it between Miller's legs. That's just the way the game goes sometimes. You can have perfect positioning and still get beat.
And again, your comment about the World Championships determining anything is just plain ridiculous. A lot of the best players in the world can't play in that tournament because it goes on during the NHL playoffs. If you're looking for another tournament outside of the Olympics that means anything, the World Cup of Hockey is where it's at. The States won in 96, and Canada in 2004, and the next one will be held in 2011. This tournament is organized by the NHL, so all the best players are eligible for this one.
"ha- hardly Buddy ! We got NBA playoffs, The Final Four, The Masters, The WC soccer tournement, ML baseball, and of course the NFL ! See why Americans have no time for this "Own the podium" BS ?"
I don't know what kind of preconceived notions you have about Canada, but TV's DO exist there. There are plenty of Canadians (including myself) who have grown enjoying some, or all of those sporting events you've mentioned.
"Seems things in Canada haven't changed much; you all can dish it out but hey, can't take much of your own medicine."
Again, I haven't done any trash-talking, but judging by your comments, it looks like it goes both ways.
Posted in: Canada beats U.S. 3-2 in overtime to claim ice hockey gold
0
Kreza23
Branded - Please, you've already said previously that you're a hockey newbie, and now you're claiming to know how a goalie is supposed to play? Miller had good position, he had his angles well covered, but Crosby just snuck it five-hole.
And these World Championships you speak of? Are you serious? This tournament goes on every year, and it's right in the middle of the playoffs, so only players from NHL teams that didn't make the playoffs, or have been eliminated early can participate. Nobody brags about winning that tournament.
Posted in: Canada beats U.S. 3-2 in overtime to claim ice hockey gold