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
Ozawa is an opportunistic, grandstanding politician in every negative sense of the word one can imagine. It's partly upon his urging that Kan has been having a devil of a time trying to get the opposition parties to set aside their political ambitions in favor of working on a comprehensive reconstruction plan, including the raising and allocation of monies.
On another note, that there hasn't been an angry backlash from the electorate in response to the opposition parties' near unanimous refusal to work with Kan in this dire hour is astounding. I just can't believe people aren't pissed about the blatant political opportunism that's going on in Tokyo right now.
Kan, on the other hand, would get my vote in a heartbeat (if I could vote, that is) if there were a snap election tomorrow. He's honest, pragmatic, and working hard to stay above the wild pack of jackals that make up the Upper and Lower Houses.
Posted in: Ozawa shows his disloyalty to Kan
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LFRAgain
Umm... No.
Posted in: One man killed, another seriously injured following subway quarrel in Osaka
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LFRAgain
I'd like to see more on the rebuilding efforts, as well as more information on how well charitable donations are making it to the affected areas.
I'd like to see infinitely less on the nuclear reactor situation. It's become abundantly clear there's not going to be any dramatic meltdown, nor is the area around the plant going to become an unlivable irradiated wasteland for the next 10,000 years. So the media jackals who were counting on just such an outcome to help prop up ad revenue are just going to have settle for something a little less horrific, as disappointing as that may be for some of those soulless bastards.
Posted in: Four weeks after the March 11 quake and tsunami, on what areas would you like to see the media focus their reporting?
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LFRAgain
The rolling blackouts make sense. TEPCO needs to be able to serve emergency services that are dedicated to helping those in the affected areas.
I can also see how it might be preferable to exempt Tokyo. It's unquestionably the economic heart of the Japanese economy, and this earthquake already knocked the market for a loop. Japan's going to need to keep the ball rolling to pay for all of this. However, it's still going to hurt many businesses that rely on the power, like ppayne mentioned above.
At this stage though, I think Japan's going to need to make some big sacrifices in the days, weeks, and months coming up. While more people were killed in the Kobe quake, this quake in Sendai dwarfs that one in the sheer scale of how broad an area was affected. It's nothing like Kobe. Entire towns were wiped off the map.
Posted in: Kan calls quake worst crisis since World War II; OKs power outages
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LFRAgain
This has gone leagues beyond ridiculous. It's now turned into a pissing contest for Walker. This asshat should be impeached.
The unions already accepted the proposed increase in member contributions to benefits, proving that unions aren't the immovable obstacles to progress that Republicans would paint them to be.
And yet Walker still insists on dilluting the ability of public servants to protect themselves against unfair labor practices. It makes no damned sense at all, unless, of course this all has nothing whatsoever to do with balancing a budget or doing the work of the people, but rather striking an ideological blow again unions, the wet dream of every Republican not protected by them.
If Walker's single-minded intent to cram change down the throats of the people of Wisconsin are any indication of the future, the people of Wisconsin would do better to shift their efforts towards getting Walker out of his throne before he decides to carry his little crusade to the private sector.
Posted in: Wisconsin governor rebuffs Democrats' request for meeting
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LFRAgain
It has nothing to do with Japan being on edge. ANY country in the world would react negatively to a military helicopter from another nation coming -- unannounced and uninvited -- to within 70 meters (226 feet) of their ship. That's really close, by any standard.
Posted in: Japan protests over Chinese chopper that neared warship
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LFRAgain
DS,
Just by saying it doesn't make it so. Last I checked, Moore was neither CEO nor member of the board of directors for any of the dozens of multinational coporations in the U.S. that rake in BILLIONS in salaries, stock options, and golden parachutes while they outsource American jobs to cheaper labor markets overseas. Nice try, but no, you aren't even remotely close to being accurate here.
Personally, I agree with Walker that state workers need to bite the bullet a bit to help reign in budget shortfalls. But stripping away collective bargaining rights in order to accomplish it is not the way to do it.
Honestly, I see both sides at fault here. The union won't budge on keeping the burden its members ay for benefits, but Walker decides to go for the scotched earth approach because he lacks the leadership skills and political acumen to bring people around to his reasoning.
And it doesn't help when his reasoning involves a pinpoint targeted assault on teachers' collective bargaining rights, while leaving other public workers' rights untouched. Not the best way to make friends and influence people.
But then again, it has long been the Republican strategy of using brute force where the application of reason spearheaded by the less-than-competent e tends to fail.
What irritates me the most about this entire debacle is that Republicans relentlessly stage these half-baked attacks on "Big Government," constatnly bleating about how government workers are overpaid, underworked, and largely unnecessary. Yet I can't think of a single instance in which these hypocrits chose not to belly up to the table to collect their share of the generous tax payer-funded public worker salaries and benefit packages once they landed a city, state, or federal job.
I'm just waiting to see when Scott Walker decides to lead by example rather than mandate by devoting a portion of his nearly $250,000 annual income (salary plus benefits, using the asinine formula union opponents do in claims that Wisconsin educators make an average of $100,000 per year). to the cause. With the 19th largest compensation package in the U.S., Walker needs to to look in the mirror before making demands of the people who make Wisconsin work.
Posted in: Michael Moore rallies pro-union protesters in Wisconsin
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LFRAgain
No, not only in Japan. Child porn is not a Japan-only problem. It's a worldwide problem. I could write a disertation on the topic, but that would bring the thread off-topic.
Posted in: Woman arrested for selling pornographic images of 4-year-old daughter
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LFRAgain
nandakandamanda,
You're taking some interesting liberties with the available information. Few = some? Eighty-one scientists choosing not to watch the film did so because the oppose it? Mighty leaps of logic, I must say.
Okay, how about the 81 who didn't watch the film likely felt it unnecessary to view a layman's film regarding a topic with which they are more than well acquainted?
The film wasn't made for climate scientists. It was made for people like you and me using terms, descriptions, and information that the average non-climate scientist can wrap his or her brain around.
Sabiwabi,
Are you serious?
The glaciers are in fact melting, and the one issue you bring to the table is that Gore didn't have to the forsight to plant dedicated cameras at the ice caps from 100 years in order to create a spiffy, time-lapse sequence of melting glaciers for your entertainment?
This is precicely what Charles is talking about: Foolish, spurious arguments that only appeal to those with but a passing interest in the real science behind the phenomenon.
Posted in: Prince Charles blasts climate-change skeptics
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LFRAgain
Skip,
I direct my post at the same people Prince Charles directs his comments towards: The nonbelievers.
I'm not sure what my personal consumption habits have to do with anything, unless you're suggesting that by consuming meat or taking a shower somehow invalidates my sincere belief that human-influenced global warming is real. If that's the case, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Also, I don't think Charles or I are speaking in any way, shape, or form to how working to reduce carbon emissions should be approached.
You are.
Which is a tad off-topic, to be honest, although a perfectly valid concern.
As for your comments regarding Gore’s film, an inconvenient truth, you’re being more than disingenuous in stating that the film was “proved to be a fake.”
No, it wasn’t.
And I presume you mean to say that the data presented in the documentary was faked, and not the actually documentary itself.
The film bases its stance that global warming is a real phenomenon, likely human-caused, on no less than the following verifiable facts (from Wikipedia):
1) The Keeling curve, measuring CO2 from the Mauna Loa Observatory.
2) The retreat of numerous glaciers is shown in before-and-after photographs.
3) A study by researchers at the Physics Institute at the University of Bern and the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica presenting data from Antarctic ice cores showing carbon dioxide concentrations higher than at any time during the past 650,000 years.
4) Temperature records since 1880 showing that the ten hottest years ever measured in this atmospheric record have all occurred in the last fourteen years.
5) A 2004 survey, by Naomi Oreskes of 928 peer-reviewed scientific articles on global climate change published between 1993 and 2003. The survey, published as an editorial in the journal Science, found that every article either supported the human-caused global warming consensus or did not comment on it.
6) Gore also presented a 2004 study by Max and Jules Boykoff showing 53% of articles that appeared in major US newspapers over a fourteen year period gave roughly equal attention to scientists who expressed views that global warming was caused by humans as they did to global warming skeptics, creating a false balance.
7) The Associated Press contacted more than 100 climate researchers and questioned them about the film's veracity. Of the 19 climate scientists who had seen the movie, all of them said that Gore accurately conveyed the science, with few errors.
This isn’t data that can be faked. It’s data that resulted from verifiable research. Now, you can argue about the methodology of the data collection, analysis, or interpretation, but to call it “faked” is just the kind of “corrosive effect” Charles was talking about. In other words, your exaggeration, in being untrue, contributes to the obstacles in the way of developing cohesive public policy on the subject.
Now, while I certainly wouldn’t quote Wikipedia for a doctoral thesis, it bears noting that a community-edited encyclopedia like Wiki would most certainly make some mention of this fakery you mention, brought to light by a concerned reader, complete with footnotes that cite evidence.
But it does not.
Why would that be, if the documentary were indeed, as you say, “faked”?
Now, you claim you're a skeptic about how we should clean this mess up, which indirectly suggests that you believe humanity-influenced global warming is real. So what then are your objections to what Charles said?
Posted in: Prince Charles blasts climate-change skeptics
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LFRAgain
Heh! Indeed he does. All the way to the bank.
Posted in: It's moving to watch down-to-earth young girls who can't sing or dance gradually improve over time by diligently rehearsing. There's nothing like that overseas.
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LFRAgain
Bravo, Charles. You called it dead on. With the greatest single motivating factor behind skeptics' denial of global warming being the unimpeded acquisition of wealth, it's not too hard to figure out which side of the issue to fall on.
Particularly when one considers the boom in cottage industries that would occur if nations made a concerted efforts to take better care of the way we use the environment. There is nothing anti-capitalist about these burgeoning industries in the least. However these are technologies that aren't beholden to the old guard or status quo, and thus are flatly rejected.
Mark my words: As soon as it become clear to skeptics just how profitable it van be cleaning up this mess we've made of the planet, they'll do an about-face that causes whiplash and sing the praises of global warming research from the highest rooftops.
It's sad, really, that human beings can be so completely consumed by unmitigated greed for material wealth that we would tap dance glibly into self-destruction, but there you have it. And Charles is just another public figure to make the cardinal sin of pointing out our never-ending stupidity.
Posted in: Prince Charles blasts climate-change skeptics
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LFRAgain
Japan currently has the lowest food self-sufficiency ratings of any industrialized country in the world. Meaning it has to import a whole lot of food into the country to feed the population.
While it may seem preferable in the short-term to ensure consumers are able to buy food at rock-bottom prices, the long-term reality is that a trade agreement that forces Japanese farmers out of business due to unprofitability will further increase Japan's dependency on foreign food imports, which from a national security standpoint, is suicidal.
Sure, Japan has painted itself into a corner by putting most of its agricultural eggs into one basket, i.e., farming primarily rice, but considering rice is the Japanese staple food, it makes sense that Japan would want to do everything in its power to ensure that it can produce enough of its own.
In a tech economy where fewer and fewer Japanese are choosing to farm, it makes sense that Japan would have to subsidize rice to a degree that would make it possible for farmers to produce it and put a roof over their heads.
Yes, the subsidization scheme is sometimes abused and some rice farmers are making what seems to be more than their fair share off of the subsidies, but that's got nothing to do with American consumers. It's Japan's inte
Posted in: J-League vows to keep yakuza out
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LFRAgain
There is more comedy in this one quote than I've seen in an entire morning's worth of news.
For someone to admit that their prize flavor-of-the-moment group can neither sing nor dance, while further gushing about hopes to see a cookie-cutter version of this specific brand of corporate mediocrity-farming flourish is simply astounding. He's essentially celebrated everything the entertainment industry is reviled for.
Well done, Mr. Akimoto! Let "Average" rule the day!!
Posted in: It's moving to watch down-to-earth young girls who can't sing or dance gradually improve over time by diligently rehearsing. There's nothing like that overseas.
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LFRAgain
I'll second the comments here about safety, but I've got no problems whatsoeverw ith the number of anouncements on train platforms. Sure, they may be numerous and repetitive, but when I can't find information I need, I can't count the number of times it was thankfully provided by an announcement.
"...tyrants"
"...zealots"
"...maddening"
"...infantile"
"...infuriating"
And the zinger of the entire article when talking about something as serious and non-joke-worthy as suicide:
"... I have never felt more like topping myself than when I’m standing on the platform..."
Sure, hyperbole certainly can put some zing into what might otherwise be a boring, irrelevant fluff piece, but Mr. Patrick's obvious pleasure with his Thesaurus skills aside, it sound more like he needs to cut back on his morning cup o' Joe than anything else.
Posted in: Why must Tokyo’s railways engage in aural assault?
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LFRAgain
A school I work at put out one of these, ahem, "questionnaires," asking students to name names, places, and incidents of bullying.
And right down at the bottom of the questionnaire was a nice, neatly prepared area for students to write their own name, grade, and class.
. . . . . .
Yeah.
Here's a thought: How about offering a little bit of annonymity to the kids? The teachers might uncover a little more truth when they don't force the kids to open rat out bullies.
Posted in: 8 graffiti messages pleading for help against bullying found in Shiga
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LFRAgain
It'll be next to impossible to sit in the back of a movie theater and make a useful HD digital copy of a film with a handheld device when all that will be recorded is a mishmash of out-of-synch blue and red images. You're right; this is how the industry is planning to combat piracy.
And the average consumer gets screwed in the process. Go figure.
Posted in: 3D means headaches to many, yet companies push on
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LFRAgain
Can't stand it. Can't stand having to wipe fingerprints off the glasses the staff hands out. Can't stand that the tinting of the glasses reduces the clarity and brightness of the image on the screen. Can't stand that there's no appreciable quality difference between the 3D of today and watching 3D back in 1985 on regular analog TV using red and blue lens cardboard glasses purchased at a local convenience store. And I really can't stand that I have to pay extra for all of this.
But we're not going to see this 3D boom die down while the movie industry uses it to help mitigate illegal filming in the theaters. The more films that are run in 3D, the fewer pirated copies that go out on the web, 'cause you can't film a clean version of a 3D film -- at least not with consumer electronics. I honestly think this is where this mediocre techology is finding its greatest value to the film industry.
Posted in: 3D means headaches to many, yet companies push on
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LFRAgain
RomeoRameII
It's amazing. Amid a much-needed wake-up call for Americans to cease with the endless vitriol that has become part od parcel of day-to-day politics, you still spew this garbage.
Why are you so insistent on making certain the labels "uneducated" and "ignorant" continue to dog the rank-and-file that make up GOP support? Do you really think that mentioning Obama's middle name carries political weight any more?
Which is it?
"Oooohh! Obama's an Islamic terrorist!"
Which obviously isn’t true.
or
"Oooohh!! Obama's a secularist military dictator!"
Which obviously isn’t true either.
or
"Oooohh! Obama's a (gasp!) Socialist!"
Maybe a bit closer to some truth, but still not enough to rile the “and this is bad because” vibe, particularly when the Health Care bill ushered in by Obama was the collaborative effort of duly elected Representatives and Senators.
So again, Romeo, which label were you suggesting when you decided to throw Obama's middle name out there like a taboo word?
If you want to continue to be the poster boy for every negative connotation the GOP currently engenders, go for it, but know that not everyone is gullible enough to buy your nonsense.
Posted in: U.S. House votes to repeal Obama's health care law
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LFRAgain
That's easy. China is fibbing.
Possessing only a third of the world's supply of rare earth minerals, yet producing nearly 97% of the entire world's supply, China between 2009 and 2010 cut rare earth exports by a whopping 72%, then cut that level by an additional 35% for the first half of 2011, causing rare earth stocks to spike dramatically, prompting the United States to threaten to drag China before the WTO for unfair trade practices, and effectively freaking out any modern economy in the world that relies on these materials to supply the manufacture of high-tech goods.
Now, to be fair, there's no real reason China should be sitting in the driver's seat as far as rare earth exports are concerned and it doesn’t really seem fair to be able to demand a nation share its resources, particularly when you’ve got those same resources in abundance yourself. After all, “rare earth” is a misnomer: It's not rare in the least. Russia, Canada, Australia, and the U.S. have millions of tons of the stuff. In fact, up until the 1990s, the United States was the world's largest exporter of rare earth materials.
However, American and other companies were forced to abandon mining them because China undercut world rare earth prices by ignoring pesky things like, oh, massive environmental pollution and, uh, what was that? Ah, yes, worker safety. After all, when you've got a workforce of half a billion impoverished people living in rural areas looking for work, it's not too hard to find a steady supply of cheap labor willing to risk radiation sickness and mine collapses for a few yuan to buy food for the family.
Sadly, companies like Toyota will continue to be forced into corners like this in order to cope with China's growing obnoxiousness. While China innocently maintains that it’s been asking other economies for years to share the burden of mining rare earth, it’s a bit disingenuous to make such requests when your economy is one in which environmental preservation and worker safety, considerations that make the cost of mining these materials more expensive outside of China, are ignored regularly in the name of “advancement.”
And with a firm grip on the market, China has gone so far as to claim that because it is the world’s leading supplier of the materials, it should have every right to dictate world prices. More worrisome and despite claims to the contrary, China has already leveraged rare earth as a political weapon by cutting off rare metals exports to Japan as punishment for rightfully arresting a Chinese fishing trawler captain who blatantly rammed his boat into a Japanese coast guard cutter last year.
From every indication over the past two decades, China seems determined to show the world that brute force is a perfectly acceptable alternative to the hindrance and inconvenience of international law and convention, a position evident in the rare earth row. However, this could all come back to bite China in the butt, leaving it behind yet again politically, socially, and economically, as other economies adapt and adopt in economic systems that by their very nature are designed to innovate in the face of market demands. It’ll be interesting to see what comes of this.
Posted in: Toyota developing alternative electric motor