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
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LFRAgain
sarahsuz25,
Thanks for the explanation. You make a very good point about the costs associated with throwing things away here. It can certainly cut into the bottom line of any organization. And I agree with you that donations should exclude items of clothing that are better suited to a garbage heap.
But this isn't a case of people donating wrecked clothing. In in the case of the jackets I mentioned, there was nothing wrong with them; They were clean, in good condition, and I wanted to donate them because I realized there were people who needed them more than I did.
But there was no system in place in my area to donate them. At the donation collection area set up in my city after the quake, I saw scores of people turned away with near-new clothing because the officials didn't knwo what to do with it. The only things they were taking then were blankets, sanitary napkins, and baby food. Everything else was refused, and remained so even a month later. Now, almost all donation collection efforts have ceased, largely due to what's mentioned in the above article, and never once did any organization in my city ask for clothing. Which is just astounding, considering how many communities were completely and utterly obliterated by the tsunami.
Again, I understand it involves different mindsets and cultural viewpoints when it comes to charity. But it still saddens me to see so much potential for goodwill squandered for lack of a distribution system based on the premise that charity is a matter of course, rather than the exception only in cases of the extreme.
Posted in: Quake-hit areas stuck with huge amount of unwanted donated items
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LFRAgain
As far as I can tell, there isn't really a very strong tradition for receiving used clothing in Japan. It was like pulling teeth to find out a way to donate things like jumpers and jackets that I no longer needed, in the days after the quake. Hence the mountains of donated goods that nobody knows what to do with.
I’m genuinely surprised that after the Kobe quake, someone in Japan didn’t take it upon themselves to set up a system of non-profit used goods stores like the ones administered by the Salvation Army or Goodwill in the United States. Seems like a tragic waste. The closest thing Japan has to this sort of system that I’ve seen so far is the recycling program set up by Uniqlo in which it will receive unwanted Uniqlo clothing. The rub, of course, is that none of those clothes are destined for families in need within Japan. They’re all sent to charity networks in Southeast Asia.
It seems that the only way many Japanese are willing to wear something used is if it was procured at one of the ubiquitous "Recycle Shops," like Off House, that pay a pittance for used goods brought in, then turn around and resell them for 50~75% of full retail price. It also seems clothing goods to be found in used shops here are only of the brand name variety, which makes their utility in times of crisis and charity a bit impractical, if not impossible.
Posted in: Quake-hit areas stuck with huge amount of unwanted donated items
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LFRAgain
Obama made the right decision. The United States is not a nation that mounts the heads of its enemies on pikes and parades them before the cheering crowds. As thrilling as that may have been 1000 years ago, it's not quite the hallmark of civilization as I know it. Some might pine for a return to those halcyon days, but I'm not one of them.
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LFRAgain
Okay, now you guys are just being silly. Playtime's over. Can we get back to real issues, like getting the economy going again? Just sayin'...
Posted in: Obama releases full birth certificate to end controversy
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LFRAgain
arrestpaul,
Okay, so you accept that Obama is actually a U.S. citizen with every legal right to be President, but take issue with his initial refusal to entertain absurd claims to the contrary?
Posted in: Obama releases full birth certificate to end controversy
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LFRAgain
manfromamerica,
Seriously, nerd jokes? Your username might be due for a overhaul. Nothing major, mind you. Childfromamerica seems more appropriate considering the level of maturity in that post. I mean, seriously, nerd jokes?! Has it finally come down to this for die-hard conservatives?
Posted in: Obama releases full birth certificate to end controversy
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LFRAgain
arrestpaul,
Uhh... Last I checked, Mr. Obama was our President. Or are you again trying to make some sort of mind-blowing point via poorly constructed inuendo? Seriously, what's your punchline? Get to it, man. Stop playing coy here.
Posted in: Obama releases full birth certificate to end controversy
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LFRAgain
And you still keep flogging away.
I'm with yabits: Where exactly are these "...surprising number of..." Democrats you keep mentioning?
Would it be the same ones who give Obama a 77% job approval rating (since you put so much stock in the pollsters)?
And if so, what's your point then? I'm really not understanding what it is you're trying to accomplish here.
Posted in: Obama releases full birth certificate to end controversy
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LFRAgain
arrestpaul,
The biggest gun the Birther loons had for this lost cause was Donald trump, and even he has let the matter rest. Instead, Trump is now directing his apparently considerable free time to acquiring Obama's school record in a attempt to somehow prove Obama's, what? uneducated?
You're flaying a very, very, VERY dead horse here.
Posted in: Obama releases full birth certificate to end controversy
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LFRAgain
arrestpaul,
There comes a point when you have to sit back a bit, assess all that you've posted so far, and come to the realization that you're trying waaaaaay too hard here.
There's really no way you can dress this up as anything more than a very small subset of foolish people being made to look even more foolish by what most educated Americans already understood to be the truth well before Obama was sworn into office: He's an American citizen.
Let it go.
Posted in: Obama releases full birth certificate to end controversy
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LFRAgain
. . . says one of the most vocal conservative posters here at JT. :-)
Global warming isn't a political debate. It's a scientific one. Your take on it as a political one speaks volumes about precisely why conservatives are loathe to accept the science -- their political donors won't have it; It would cut into their corporate profits too much.
Meanwhile, Fadamor makes a valid point -- These storms, which will go down as the worst on record so far, were indeed predicted by climatologists and seem to be unfolding, just as anticipated.
Since we seem hell bent on ignoring global warming, man-made or otherwise, we're going to have adopt some different strategies to deal with these severe weather systems.
Posted in: Tornadoes kill at least 290 in six U.S states
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LFRAgain
Umm... If you were to do that, it would stop being called a "monarchy" and would instead be a "democracy."
If monarchies have any role in society, it's solely to generate tourist revenue from people wishing to see firsthand the quaint absurdity of some divine presence bestowing the right to rule a people upon a solitary person or family.
It's an offensive concept with no role whatsoever in the modern world outside of being a carnival attraction, no matter how hard one tries to wipe away the grime and put a fresh coat of paint on romantic notions of benign kings and queens and the fairy tale kingdoms they almost always ruled justly, if only in the faulty and selective memories of the old or ignorant.
Posted in: Do you think there is a role for monarchies in this day and age?
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LFRAgain
It's from the Shukan Post. What else should we expect but this silliness?
Posted in: Is U.S. military relief effort Operation Tomodachi really about friendship?
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LFRAgain
Nope. Sony presented the first prototype in 1976, and Philips followed with their own prototype in 1979. The two companies then collaborated to create a consumer product standard that they annnounced a year later in 1980.
Philips was, however, ahead of Sony in its development of Laser Disc technology, which Compact Disc tech was ultimately based on.
Either way, CDs are sheer genius and revolutionized how people hear music. Kudos and a big thank you to Mr. Ohga for his vision and inspiration.
Posted in: Sony chairman credited with developing CDs dies
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LFRAgain
Yeah, just saw that. Rest in peace.
Posted in: UK woman dropped into sea in botched cruise rescue
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LFRAgain
Glad she survived.
Posted in: UK woman dropped into sea in botched cruise rescue
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LFRAgain
Unfreakin'believeable...
The kind of intellectually challenged, morally bankrupt personality it takes to abuse a child in this manner is simply unfathomable to me. Doesn't matter what his upbringing was. Doesn't matter how hard his financial situation might have been. Doesn't matter what kind of rough childhood or abuse or bullying or maladjusted home life this [insert expletive here] endured to make him think it was acceptable "discipline" to bite a child, then punch her in the stomach, I cannot -- I do not want to -- understand how someone could possibly rationalize doing what this [insert lengthy expletive here] did. I'm hard pressed not to feel he's earned being erased from society.
Posted in: 23-year-old man arrested over death of girlfriend's 2-year-old daughter
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LFRAgain
Sad that this step would even need to be taken. One unfortunate reality about disasters is that they don't discriminate between sparing the lives of normal folks or predatory scum. Would that natural disasters only targeted the worst of society.
Posted in: NGOs warn evacuees of possible sexual assaults in shelters
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LFRAgain
I feel for the guy as weel, but his lawyers are going to have a heck of a time proving the airline did anything "wrongful, " when there are no policies in place mandating that airlines do any such check as far as parental permissions are concerned.
Also, in order to present a successful argument that they helped the wife escape a California court order, the lawyer would have to be able to prove the airline was aware of her legal situation, which I doubt very sincerely they were.
And in an age of Homeland Security-mandated safety checks bogging down airports, I also don't believe any government agency or court is going to be willing to force airlines to take on the added burden of acting as police in domestic disputes.
Posted in: There is a long list of red flags that existed in this case that should have caused the airline and travel agency to do something.
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LFRAgain
Yes, because changing the entire government from the top down right smack in the middle of the worst crisis to hit Japan since WWII is the smart thing to do.
Or perhaps not...
The abject political childishness of this country never ceases to amaze me.
Posted in: Gov't under fire for disaster response; TEPCO chief heckled in Diet