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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LFRAgain
Because the industry leaders announced a few years ago that it would be making a concerted effort to limit the number of foreign films shown in Japan in order to give a booth to the anemic Japanese film industry. Fancy that Japanese films can't make up the shortfall.
Considering Japanese filmaking is light years behind its heyday in the 1950s and 60s, it's small wonder that Japanese films are unable to draw larger audiences. Japanese films are as predictable as Western action films -- always the same plot, i.e., two people in love and the relationship is torn apart tragically when one person succumbs to a horrific and incurable disease. That kind of recycled pathos got tired after the first half dozen times I saw it.
Posted in: Film box-office revenue down 17.9% in 2011
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LFRAgain
Japan isn't "getting by" with three. It's had to make up for the energy deficit with other energy producing means, namely coal, natural gas, and oil, all fossil fuels, all non-renewable.
Which, theoretically, should have the same crowd that flies into paroxysms of rage at the slightest mention of nuclear power frothing at the mouth and howling at the moon at the prospect of Japan falling back to an energy policy reminiscent of the free-wheeling pollution fest of the 1970s.
But then that would require the anti-nuclear crowd to admit that Japan doesn't really have much of a choice in lieu of nuclear power, considering the technologies behind alternative renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and geothermal are still decades away from being able a viable alternative to the current energy sources Japan uses and needs.
And we all know that sort of admission is not likely to happen, particularly when its those very same fossil fuels that lend power to the toys, gadgets, and knicknacks the anti-nuclear crowd uses to spread their markedly myopic gospel.
Of course, this will all change when -- not if -- pollutants from coal processing seep into the water table, causing untold illnesses in local populations -- as they have in the past. Or an oil tanker capsizes off one of Japan's coasts, wiping out indiginous life nearby, and thus killing off the area's fishing industry -- as has happened numerous times throughout the world. Then we'll see online petitions and endless Tweets to have coal plants shut down and oil products boycotted.
And the wheel will just keep on spinning.
Posted in: Chugoku Electric shuts Shimane No. 2 reactor, leaving Japan with only 3 reactors online
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LFRAgain
Just swap out "food critic" with a broad swath of people who live and breathe as if Tokyo is all there could possibly be to Japan. It's not by a long shot. There are some wonderful places all across this country that get short thrift because of Tokyoite myopia.
Posted in: Food critics need to look beyond central Tokyo
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LFRAgain
I wonder if this will result in any movements in the market?
Posted in: 8 men arrested for smuggling gold from S Korea to Japan in rectums
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LFRAgain
And the melodramatic fearmongering continues unabated.
Sigh . . .
Posted in: 'Radiation divorce' enters Japanese vernacular
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LFRAgain
Pizzaface,
I'm asking Anderson Santos what the main problem is and how it can be solved. He suggests that shutting down the website isn't the "right thing to do."
Since you saw fit to answer in his place, then perhaps you explain what the right thing to do is Also, what exactly is the "main problem" with piracy is and how it can be solved?
Posted in: Megaupload: a boon to users but a bane for copyright holders
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LFRAgain
And there are studies that indicate low levels of radiation do not lead to the problems you mention.
It's not as cut and dry as many make it out to be just by virtue of bandying about the word "radiation."
Radiation is nothing to mess around with. But at the same time, a reasonable assessment of a given situation is paramount. Many, if not most, of the information I've seen shared both in FORUMS like this and BLOGS (which are articles written largely by amateurs for random perusal -- and possibly comments like ours in a FORUM section) leans heavily towards bouncing-off-the-stratosphere, aluminum-foil-hat, bat-s#it-crazy misinformed paranoia reminiscent of hysteria during the 1950s~60s portion of the Cold War in America.
To be sure, there's a lot of good information available out there that is quite accurate. But when it comes to Japanese Internet content, the VAST majority of information is disseminated via those very same blogs written by amateurs that I mentioned earlier. And the VAST majority of the information shared in those blogs is grossly incorrect -- almost to a criminally liable degree.
And that's the garbage that gets spread by word-of-mouth, to the dismay of reasonable people the world over.
Some of the utter nonsense that my Japanese friends and coworkers have brought to me from the Japanese Internet has been enough to make me spit coffee upon hearing.
While it's easy to condemn this "Miki's" husband for not taking her concerns seriously, without knowing more details behind the story, I'm inclined to take her umbrage at his supposed inability to prioritize for his family with a very large grain of salt.
Posted in: 'Radiation divorce' enters Japanese vernacular
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LFRAgain
Which is . . . ?
Posted in: Megaupload: a boon to users but a bane for copyright holders
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LFRAgain
Yubaru,
It wasn't advice. It was an admonition -- One that made no mention of exaggeration, real or imagined. You're barking up the wrong tree here.
Posted in: Man hits woman with car in front of 10 police officers
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LFRAgain
Women were fighting in the parking lot of a convenience store at 3AM. The police reponded to a call for help, arrived in force, and were working to stop the fight. Out of nowhere, this idiot 20-year-old comes barreling in with his car to try and kill one of the women involved in the fighting.
How anyone here could take this as an opportunity to malign the police with these TRULY tired and boring "keystone kops" comments is a mystery. Get a new schtick, people.
Yeah, yeah, we get it already, for Pete's sake: You don't think Japanese police are a) tough enough, b) mean enough c) competent enough compared to the cops in your home country. We get it already.
But don't take a situation that has absolutely nothing to do with the above criticsms and try to make any of this sound like the fault of the police in this situation.
Posted in: Man hits woman with car in front of 10 police officers
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LFRAgain
With an annual salary in the US$200,000 range, supplemented by non-performance based annual bonuses of $16,000, in a society experiencing deflation and stagnant median annual incomes of $30,000, he's rich by most estimates.
No, he may not be rolling in it, but to have the wherewithall and luxury to made 2 million yen with a just a couple of phone calls is something I think a very scarce few of us can claim from personal experience.
Posted in: Senior METI official arrested over insider dealing
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LFRAgain
What?! A wealthy person seeking to skirt the law in order to become even wealthier, even in an economy where honest people are barely making ends meet?! Say it ain't so!!
Posted in: Senior METI official arrested over insider dealing
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LFRAgain
Based on what a police officer explained once, you can be arrested for either and/or both. Being under the *influence *of a drug is enough for prosecution, depending on the circunstances.
Posted in: Teacher busted for drug use
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LFRAgain
Ozawa is an engorged pimple on the heinie of Japanese politics and in desperate need of being popped.
Posted in: Ozawa: Nothing unusual about keeping Y400 mil in cash at home
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LFRAgain
He locked a woco-worker, a woman, in a dressing roomwith him, slapped her around repeatedly, and spit on her for not being motivated enough on the set of his show.
Make no mistake, he's a real jerk. Being a real jerk doesn't necessarily mean one can't be popular on television.
Posted in: Yoshimoto Kogyo president says he hopes Shimada will return to showbiz
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LFRAgain
Why do people believe in any religion? The line between "cult" and "religion" is a fine one distinguished only by the number of paying members, while the motivation for joining remain constant: It's a rational decision to embrace the irrational in an effort to avoid the very real possibility that the only entity on this planet with whom we have a responsibility to not be asshats before we die is ourselves.
Posted in: Why do people join cults?
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LFRAgain
After the incident where he assaulted a co-worker (and didn't do jail time, amazingly. Had it been me, I would've been deported at the very least), it's abundantly clear that Shinsuke Shimada is an utter tool.
Whether the public wants him back or not will not change that immutable fact, but I don't think they will. He's damaged goods and a liability.
Posted in: Yoshimoto Kogyo president says he hopes Shimada will return to showbiz
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LFRAgain
If a police officer makes the decision to fire his or her weapon, it's with the intent to kill. There are no other circumstances in which they would or should fire a weapon.
Shoot to disable? That only happens in the movies, and anyone believing that it's a simple matter of aiming for a hand, arm, leg, or weapon has obviously never fired a weapon in their life, much less been in a situation where they had to make a choice between firing or not firing when someone was pointing a weapon right back at them.
The kid was waving around what appeared to be a real handgun in a junior high school in the middle of the day while class was in session. That's what's at the heart of the matter. What real choice did the police have? Shoot and maim the kid, giving him an opportunity to pop pff a few shots before the police attempted to wrestle the weapon away from him? That's a great way to get a few innocent bystanders killed, and possibly also a couple of police officers.
The police had a legal and moral obligation to protect the lives of the other children being threatened, NOT take time to consult with their colleagues in the hallway, a la, "Hey, Frank. You wanna' shoot him or should I?" in order to make sure they didn't shoot him too much (I'm rolling my eyes that anyone would even suggest this).
I'm as staunch an advocate of gun control as you're likely to find. Hate the damned things. Wish they were taken -- yes, pried if necessary -- from the hands of every civilian in the United States.
But I'm also pragmatic. The guns are already out there, leaving police little choice but to respond the way they had to with this clearly disturbed 15-year-old. Some posters would do well to spend less time viewing the world through Hollywood-tinted glasses.
Posted in: Texas police kill 8th-grader carrying pellet gun
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LFRAgain
The father committed suicide later, according to the article.
Posted in: Comatose hospital patient suffocated with wet towel in Mie
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LFRAgain
One, it needs to be pointed out that these are 54 reactors located at some 21 power stations located throughout Japan.
In other words, no, there are not more nuclear power plants in Japan than there are prefectures.
Two, Japan isn't functioning on just 6 nuclear reactors. It's had to bring back online a number of coal-burning power plnats to meet the shortfall in energy no longer produced by the now shutdown nuclear reactors. It also has a diverse enough array of energy sources as to not have to rely entirely on nuclear power.
It bears noting that with the exception of hydroelectric, geothermal, and solar sources which represent but 6% of Japan's total energy output, virtually all of Japan's energy resources are imported, including the nuclear materials to fuel its reactors -- and at great expense.
Three, in 2001, nuclear energy represented only 14% of the total amount of energy being produced and used in Japan. That number hadn't changed significantly up until the tsunami that crippled the Fukushima plant. Imported oil continues to provide some 50% of Japan's energy needs, with coal accounting for nearly 17% of Japan's energy production.
In short, it's not altogether accurate to suggest that Japan can function just fine on 6 reactors, as if the energy produced by the now shut down other 48 reactors was simply extravagant excess demonstrating the lack of necessity for nuclear power in Japan. The 48 reactors represent only a piece of a very complex energy pie that seeks to create and maintain energy security for a nation that has very few natural energy resources of its own besides coal.
Posted in: Genkai No. 4 reactor shut down; only 6 reactors now operating in Japan