JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
-
1
Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
-
2
Confrontation
-
3
U.S. Navy investigating how parts fell off aircraft near Atsugi
-
4
California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
-
5
Kuroki reported pregnant 2 weeks after denying relationship with Akanishi
-
- 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
-
- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
-
- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
0
LFRAgain
OpenOffice. It does everything you could ever possible need for office productivity, and despite small glitches here and there, it gets better with every update.
I don't begrudge software companies from making money for their labor. Who could? But I think the majority of anger is directed towards companies like Microsoft and Adobe that charge a small fortune for software suites that the free market in no way justfies.
It doesn't help that they price their "updates" and newer versions ridiculously high, to the point of putting them out of reach of the average consumer. And it especially doesn't help when those users who do own legitimate copies of the software are essentially held hostage by absurd interpretations of fair usage.
Posted in: Half of world's PCs use pirated software: survey
-1
LFRAgain
zichi,
"The deadly nuke disaster"?! What in the world are you going on about? Two TEPCO employees died at the plant, and that was because of the quake, not the reactor leaking radioactive meterial. They were crushed to death. Besides them, there are no confirmed deaths as a direct result of the radioactive material released.
This is not to say that the release of radioactive meterial into the environment wasn't disastrous, particularly with regard to livestock and farmland in the surrounding areas being rendered likely unusable for decades.
But to incorrectly characterize it as some sort of catastrophic bloodbath lends nothing useful to the debate on what to do next.
Posted in: Post-tsunami Japan sticking with nuclear power
0
LFRAgain
What an asinine premise for an article. Of course Japan is sticking with nuclear power. It couldn't stop using it overnight even if it wanted to. The nuclear reactors that power Japan are part of infrastructure that's some 50 years in the making. You don't dismantle that overnight. And when there clearly is no viable alternative, not to mention the kind of funding it would require to discover, research, and employ a suitable alternative, you're left with little choice in the matter.
Kudos to Germany for making a promise to stop using nuclear power, but how much weight does that promise really carry when the other side of it involves Germany, also an industrialized nation in need of large quantities of power, enjoying the luxury of being able to just buy that electricity from neighbor nuclear powerhouse France?
Posted in: Post-tsunami Japan sticking with nuclear power
1
LFRAgain
ubikwit,
I was working on a response to your posts, but stopped. Why? Because I was trying to comment on what I perceive to be a serious social issue, and I expected other posters to do the same.
However you seem more interested in trying to appear clever by being, yes, impolite, as well as dismissive and insulting, rather than actually addressing in a mature manner the points raised by myself and other posters.
Insinuations of connections to the Yakuza or suggestions of some sort of sinister pattern do not an argument make. They are simply childish efforts to divert attention from questions raised about your argument.
I'm too old anymore to indulge in your type of nonsense. If you want to discuss this topic like a mature adult, great. Let's do that. But if that's impossible for you, then we'll just stop here and be done with it.
Posted in: Police urge citizens to decline offers of help from yakuza at festivals
-1
LFRAgain
Regardless of whether one agrees with her position, the question still on the table is how to make up the massive gap in power provided by underdeveloped renwable energy sources, like geothermal, solar, and wind.
Bottom line, none of these renewable energy sources come even close to meeting the energy demands of modern societies. Not a single one of them. Even combined, they don't come close.
I would love nothing more than to see solar and wind supplant all energy sources in the world someday. But until then, what do we do to make up the shortfall? Burn more oil? Coal? Natural gas? The environmental consequences of effectively stepping backwards by replacing relatively clean nuclear power with sources gleaned from fossil fuels would result in a far greater and immediate impact the overall health and liveablity of this planet than nuclear ever has.
Posted in: Room for nuclear energy in the future: new IEA chief
0
LFRAgain
ubikwit,
Hardly. I cast them as people not breaking the law in the process of selling food and goods at festivals. The absurdity of your position lies not just a little in the presumption of guilt without a crime every having been commited simply for looking a certain part, which hardly speaks well to an enlightened society that prides itself on a just and impartial legal system.
The obvious flaw in your assemssment is that if simple affiliation with an illegal act or organization were enough to deny a member of Japanese society a constitutionally protected right to work, then why not mass arrests to remove these scourge from society, particularly if, as you suggest, their guilt is pre-established?
This might bear consideration were it not for the irrationality of appling it equally to 12 or 13-year-olds, which, as I believe, is where this counterculture (as you call it) begins. Kids don't sit around one day and say, "Hey, I'm going to seek to be ostracized from my peers. I'll start by piercing my nose or dying my hair and see where things go from there."
Oh, is it now? So Japanese who join becme criminals, or speaking more broadly, Japanese who fail to fit neatly into the societal mold of what constitutes acceptable do so because it's in their nature? Talk about insulting.
Posted in: Police urge citizens to decline offers of help from yakuza at festivals
0
LFRAgain
Oh, what a startling newsflash . . . Not. This is no secret, and has never been.
Quite honestly, I've got no problem with "The Yakuza" selling food in a safe and legal manner at festivals. What, exactly is wrong with this? They apply for the permits to do business at the festivals, just like anyone else. They maintain food safety no better or no worse than most "respectable" ramen shops I frequent. They are generally polite and peaceful, and with the exception of one incident I witnessed about 5 years ago, have never instigated a single altercation at the countless festivals I've attended.
They came to sell food and goods, and that's just what they do. It's not like these vendors set up shop and refuse to leave their patch of grass unless residents pay "go away" money. They're gone as soon as the festival ends, heading up the road to the next one. So what's the problem, exactly?
If it's a tax evasion issue, then sick the law on them. But to "urge" localities to shun these people for being "gangsters", even when the act of operating a street cart during festivals in no way constitutes a crime, doesn't make and sort of rational sense. By forcing these groups out of the countless festivals that mark the summer holidays, it's essentially leaving a whole LOT of young people unemployed, young people, mind you, who you wouldn't be given the time of day if they sought emplyment with "respectable" businesses.
Which leaves these young people with a whole lot of time on their hands to do far worse than charge 500 yen for a cob of corn or a soft drink.
Seriously, it's this kind of attitude that allows organized crime in Japan to thrive, and it starts in the public school system, where anyone who doesn't fit the mold is effectively written off forever. I can't count the number of kids who get relegated to "Hopeless" status because they died their hair once, or didn't relish every moment in class. The stigma society paints on the nail that sticks up never goes away, and leaves outsiders in Japan with little other choice than to either join organized crime families, or face destitution.
Posted in: Police urge citizens to decline offers of help from yakuza at festivals
0
LFRAgain
Landline telephone?
In a nation that arguably has the highest mobile phone usage in the world, this means the survey only sought out the opinions of primarily home-bound housewives and retirees.
Which isn't bad in and of itself, if those were the opinions the survey designers were seeking to uncover.
However, the survey makers present the data as representative of the general Japanese population, and that is not only grossly inaccurate, but also irresponsible.
Posted in: Japanese support for U.S. bases grows: poll
3
LFRAgain
Because we all know that being crushed to death when a rain-soaked hill slides down on your home is thoroughly preventable.
Feeling a bit myopic, are we?
Posted in: 2 dead, 5 missing as typhoon slams into western Japan
0
LFRAgain
We can certainly hope.
Posted in: Kan, cabinet resign en masse ahead of vote to install Noda as PM
1
LFRAgain
Apparently that's what everyone thought Kan was capable of too -- magic. The electorate apparently has forgotten that no great obstacles are overcome without hard work and sacrifice.
And from what I've seen so far in Japan since the quake, hard work and sacrifice are the last things on people's minds.
Magic is apparently how they believe all of problems facing Japan now will be solved, and if the Prime Minister doesn't possess a magic wand, he gets booted out of office.
Posted in: Kan, cabinet resign en masse ahead of vote to install Noda as PM
1
LFRAgain
Effin' unbelievable that any poster here could in any way find justification or rationale for using the deaths of 20,000 people as fuel for "jest" in a lousy soccer match, much less in ANY situation.
Disgust is all I'm left with after reading some of the trash in this thread. Some folks really need to re-examine their priorities in life.
Posted in: Belgian soccer match halted after Fukushima taunts
0
LFRAgain
Wisconsin is calling, Breirbart. Got an answer?
Wait. What's that? Nothing? Change the topic? Pretend you have no idea what I'm talking about?
Man up and admit you were wrong -- as you often are -- after you browbeat the thread with unfounded junk in order to convince yourself that the GOP has answers to the current economic crisis.
The GOP has no better answers than the Democrats, and to pretend otherwise is just plain silly. The fact that the GOP had no answers to bring to the table beyond a recalcitrant, "Nope. Won't raise taxes. The debt will magically go away without actually paying it down" is why S&P downgraded the U.S.
Posted in: U.S. credit rating cut for first time ever
0
LFRAgain
Re: Wisconsin
Nearly half of the 9,500 jobs created were in the tourism, hospitality and food services indistry, which are overwhelmingly temporary, low-pay positions with few, if any, benefits. Meanwhile, it turns out your claim that Wisconsin led the nation in new job creation in June, was (not surprisingly) wrong.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (and not a conservative rag of a website), Texas, California, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Massachusetts, in that order, all came out ahead of Wisconsin as far as net job creation is concerned.
Wisconsin saw unemployment rise from 7.4% in May to 7.6% in June and is still a long way from replacing the 171,000 jobs lost to the 2008-9 recession.
And since you so enjoy playing tit-for-tat:
#2 California's governor: Democrat
#4 Minesotta's governor: Democrat
#6 Massachusetts' governor: Democrat
Which isn't to say that Democrats have a better handle on how to create jobs. But rather that Republicans don't. Otherwise, we'd have seen far greater gains under the unwavering solidarity of Republican governors who would never withhold the secrets to their success from fellow conservatives.
In other words, job creation comes down to (how did you put it?), "the choices that individuals and entrepreneurs make, not stats cooked up for talking points."
Posted in: U.S. credit rating cut for first time ever
0
LFRAgain
And some states where there is high per-capital-spending due to a higher tax base also see higher test scores. Correlation does not imply causality. The contradiction in your argument is that private school do well specifically because they can throw a whole lot of money at the challenges of educating children. And clearly it pays off.
It also helps when private schools can restrict their student body rolls to only those students who can A) perform well on standardized tests, and B) afford to attend. Nothing beats stacking the deck.
You're right: Education funding can't simply be dropped. If conservatives wanted to see an explosion in the "welfare state" they so revile and fear, then effectively eviscerating education funding for the non-wealthy, non-bright demographic of the country -- which is the majority, let's be honest here -- would be the fastest way to that end.
I absolutely agree that reforms are needed. But starting the dialogue regarding reform with the premise that fleeing and circling the wagons are the best options is a poor way to get things done.
Posted in: U.S. credit rating cut for first time ever
-1
LFRAgain
So-called fiscal conservatives won't touch the S&P document in any other capacity than to wave it around proclaiming, "See what Obama did?" Never mind the actual content which points a finger of blame almost exclusively at Republicans.
Apparently, the 'responsible' part of fiscal responsibility got left behind somewhere along the way to getting filthy, filthy rich. US corporations posted a record $1.68 trillion in profits last year while the nation stumbles along. And it's the same champions of these corporations that had the gall to hold unemployment benefits under the gun while trying to enact some piddling bit of moral legislation.
At the end of the day, it isn't the wealthy who are hurting at all in the current economic climate. They have little to worry about while the rest of the United States battles a 9.1% unemployment rate caused in part by these same rich folks who, while *STILL enjoying the benefits of Bush era tax cuts, somehow can't seem to find the cojones to invest into their own companies to create jobs.
And they go one step further by outsourcing an OBSCENE number of jobs overseas, all in the name of maintaining profitability, and cap it all off with the punchline of blaming federal regulations, unions, or a poorly educated work force for their decision to effectively betray a diligent and dedicated American workforce to who they owe a debt of gratitude for putting them in a positon high enough from which to urinate all over that same workforce -- all in the name of profits.
And imagine our surprise when we find out these same "fiscal conservatives" exploit loopholes in or ignore the federal regulations, seek to weaken unions further, and lambaste the public education system, working tirelessly to de-fund it and push a wholly inadequate "voucher system" that will all but ensure that only the wealthiest Americans have access to a proper education. Gee, who could feel any anger or acrimony over that?
And imagine our greater surprise when fiscal conservatives are called to task for their obvious failure to hold up their end of the Supply Side Economics bargain with questions of why they continue to outsource, why they aren't investing in their companies, why they aren't paying their taxes, why they are crying poor-mouth when their Bush-era taxes are more than intact and profits are the best they've ever been.
Their answer is always the mealy-mouthed refrain, "Who, us? Well, Democrats control the Senate."
You can only pass the buck for so long before the onus of responsibility comes home to roost. The question is whether Republicans have the intestinal fortitude to accept their responsibility in the current mess. My bets are on no, judging by how well they steered the US into an S&P downgrade with their childish intransigence.
Posted in: U.S. credit rating cut for first time ever
0
LFRAgain
BreitbartVictorious,
And yet no one forced banks to bundle up this risky debt as tradable assets to bounce around the financial markets in a game of hot potato, trying to make as much money as quickly as possible before the bottom fell out. That was the banks' decision and theirs alone based purely on unmitigated greed.
So-called fiscal conservatives love to pin the blame on the government for forcing banks to make it easier for the American Dream to not be so exclusive, but these same conservatives stare off into the distance with a glazed look when asked to explain how banks could behave so irresponsibly with such toxic assets.
Do you have an answer? After all, you do seem to fashion yourself a master of all things economic here.
Meanwhile, your obvious disdain for "underrepresented" (gee, who could that thinly-veiled racist barb possibly be aimed at?) members of the community doesn't quite jibe in the face of reality. Credit cards companies have spent the past 30 years raking in untold billions by pitching their products at those underrepresented people. Why? Because they understand that the vast majority of those with trouble paying back debt still make honest efforts to do so, which translates into guaranteed profit garnered not only from payments made on the principal, but also from outrageous interest rates and crippling late fees.
Companies like CitiGroup, which posted $3.3 billion in profits in 2011, wouldn't play this game with the "underrepresented members of the community" if it weren't profitable. And the proof in the pudding is that credit card companies aren't mandated by federal law to extend credit to people who shouldn't be getting it. Oh, no. They choose to do it because they know there are huge profits to be had.
If consumers defaulted on their credit card debt with anywhere near the frequency necessary to make your "let's blame it on the poor" a legitimate defense, credit card companies wouldn't be in the business of throwing their cards at anyone with a pulse. They do it because it's where the money is at.
Banks extending loans to people who are unqualified operate on the same principle. And go one better by rolling that risky debt up into assets that can be traded on the understanding that huge profits can still be squeezed out of late- or slow-payers in the form of fees, fees that roll straight into company coffers as separate from the unpaid principal. It's a game perfected and played for the better part of four decades, to the glee and delight of stockholders and board members alike.
You want a fall-guy? Look at banks, the flagship of this unregulated capitalism you seem to champion, and start asking yourself how those SOBs got -- much less deserved -- to be bailed out with our tax dollars, despite exhibiting financially irresponsible behavior that would make the worst home loan defaulter look like Mother Theresa.
Posted in: U.S. credit rating cut for first time ever
4
LFRAgain
These riots are absolutely mind-boggling.
Okay, New Rules:
1) Anyone who possesses the means to "Tweet" about anything automatically loses any right to claim poverty and/or economic oppression.
2) Anyone who organizes "protests" via a personal PC/ iPhone/ Blackberry/ iPad, et al, loses the same.
3) Anyone who stands at the forefront of riot police lines taking digital video of the police trying to manitain some semblance of order loses the same.
This isn't a case of the downtrodden proletariat rising up against the bourgeoisie. From the news clips I've seen so far, it's blatantly obvious that the vast majority of people instigating the violence and destruction are young asshats and losers with entirely too much free time on their hands, latching onto an opportunity to go @peshit for absolutely no other reason than the amusement factor.
If I could expand on FireyRei's excellent 01:11PM post, if you want change, entertainment, or something to do, you don't destroy other people's lives to get it.
Posted in: British PM promises action to restore order in strife-torn cities
2
LFRAgain
It's not half, but still, a startling number of Americans qualify for tax exemption based on their annual income. The question shouldn't be one regarding fairness, but rather why such a large portion of the American population lives at or below the poverty line.
That should cause greater concern than anything else.
Posted in: U.S. credit rating cut for first time ever
0
LFRAgain
Would you be so kind as to stow the cutesy word play?
"Entitlement Program?"
Medicare is payed for entirely by the peope who use it in the form of payroll taxes collected over the course of a person's working lifetime.
You throw around the word 'entitlement' as if it means people are demanding something which they haven't earned, but the truth of the matter is that's it's their money to begin with. You can relate to that, right? After all, isn't that the battle cry of conservatives who want to shirk their tax responsbilities? And most people work on average 40 long years to get it back. Your suggestion that it isn't their money is ignorant and offensive.
Posted in: U.S. credit rating cut for first time ever