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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Lizz
I suppose low levels of radiation are in circulation for commercial or general like medical research and have been widely used in areas such as factories and agriculture. But levels of this magnitude would likely have to be legally reported and it isn't like this is a storage warehouse that has come into sudden disuse...
Posted in: Radiation likely came from radium in bottles beneath floor of empty house
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Lizz
I think you can use the term 避難命令 but it includes both 避難勧告 (advisory)/避難指示 (directive) and is not a 強制的な避難命令 like we have in the US.
Posted in: 1 dead, 2 missing, over 1 million urged to evacuate as typhoon nears
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Lizz
When it comes to health benefits tea will ultimately beat anything, especially white and green tea; and drink away ! - more than 4 cups doesn't raise blood pressure like coffee. :)
Posted in: Coffee's anti-cancer link explained: study
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Lizz
"I am happy that you "feel" for these people, but that will not put them to work. Investment of money by governments in education, retraining, job creation and internal investment will put them back to work. But first we have to overcome the backwards thinking of people who feel that such investment is charity. When in reality is it a necessary social investment to secure the future of our nations.
As for US politics. To be honest I am disgusted by both the parties in the US. They excell at infighting and dogma and utterly fail to achieve anything meaningful. The polarization of politics in America is your downfall, one that has become increasingly dangerous to our economic future and that of the world."
We need a president who exudes confidence and moderation and understands the limitations of government intervention. The recession officially ended six months into the Obama presidency. Unemployment, however, has worsened, going from 7.8 percent in January 2009 to 9.1 percent last month. Obama's policies made the economy worse than it needed to be and because of that (reckless spending, avalanche of regulations, healthcare debacle), the downturn lasted longer than it might have under another president.
What is imperative is that next time Americans garner more information than a few soundbites to base their votes on.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
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Lizz
"Roosevelt got it right in the 30's with programs to put people to work. This stimulates demand and also rebuilds the labor classes. The US and UK both need to consider this option. And consider the investment one that will pay off over time. It can begin with labor for infrastructure projects (roads, bridges, schools etc...) but it must also extend to programs to re-educated workers who have seen their jobs leave or diminish so that they can again become strong contributors to society."
True, the unemployment rate did improve under the New Deal programs. I’m sure many workers actually appreciated working instead of looking for handouts even if it was government work. Having a few bucks for food gave people a sense of dignity instead of soup lines. What it didn't achieve was to spur a sustainable economic model of growth. The GDP in fact only improved when the programs were in effect. When the government started cutting back and trying to balance its budget, growth took a nose dive.
Following a similarly failed pattern, between the Federal Reserve and the Obama regime, over 5 trillion has already been spent trying to "stimulate" the economy since 2009. Money we didn't have to begin with. It has had little impact on the U.S. economy besides keeping the GDP and markets artificially high, weakening the dollar and helping U.S. exports. $2 trillion in quantative easing has gone to financiers, Wall Street bankers and to repay the base that elected the president, but done little to loosen credit and boost the economy.
Government spending to stimulate a stagnant, high unemployment economy is exactly the wrong medicine.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
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Lizz
"Your argument assumes that there is viable work for every person who wishes to work. But there isn't with a 10% plus unemployment rate in the US and much of Europe, many who want to work and contribute and grow your definition of wealth cannot."
Borrowing endless amounts of money and consuming massive amounts of wealth with that borrowed money is a road that leads to economic oblivion. An economy that consumes far more wealth than it produces is a system designed to fail. Like I said, the only way to have a healthy economy in the long run is to create wealth. America cannot create wealth if our industrial base is being absolutely destroyed. China uses every trick in the book to win trade battles which cannot go on forever, but the end result is still millions of high paying jobs are being lost and the ability of America to create wealth is being compromised. The only reality no one wants to admit that it has slid past a recession into a depression; one that will last for years before we come out of it, if we ever do.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
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Lizz
I am not denying the wealth of the world is more concentrated now than before the recession. 400 Americans control more of the America's wealth than the bottom 150 million. The top 1% control more wealth than the bottom 90% etc. Those are not the statistics a functioning Democracy. they are the statistics of a Plutocracy. I also believe that Obama is taking what is a long-term structural problem of globalization to help engineer the collapse of the American economy.
No one is arguing we don't need an overall correction of the imbalance between wealth production and wealth redistribution. It is not an not ideological preference or game anymore. Believe me, I understand that 90% of Americans are getting crushed. My own job as a public librarian is on the line. This entire problem of budget shortfalls and a shrinking tax base comes to us because of the private sector.
And having more people riding upon than pulling the wagon is not the answer. That needs to reverse if we are to survive. But the fat has to be pruned back sensibly. Not just paying for entitlements. Lift suffocating regulations and no more massive capital injections into Fannie Mae. Massive bailouts of Wall Street megabanks and legacy auto manufacturers...even saving large Chinese insurers like AIG etc.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
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Lizz
It would be interesting if the OECD report breaks down differences in social mobility by region (liberal/ conservative, industrial/rural) My prediction would be that what drags down social mobility in the US is largely the disastrous system of education in downtown urban areas in states with liberal leadership. Republican run conservative states or cities should have higher social mobility.
Basically wealth is not a zero sum game. It is created. Redistribute it from the producers, to the parasites, and you can destroy it, too.The basis of wealth is work. If everyone works hard at producing goods and services, wealth increases. If everyone works hard at suing people, giving handouts, and redistributing wealth, rather than producing it, wealth diminishes.
Recessions come when limited resources (land, labor and capital) are poorly allocated in the economy. Real growth (not the credit expansion kind) occur when those limited resources are allocated in a more efficient way (less resources are consumed to produce more goods). You can indeed increase wealth by increasing productivity and decreasing waste.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
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Lizz
Crime is a potential or likely byproduct of poverty but poverty and low quality of life are also direct consequences of crime. Violence in communities lowers property values, chokes out business enterprises, siphons off taxes for police, courts jails and security over schools etc. All of which have the effect of reducing the number of jobs available to the poor. The vast majority of poor people are obviously honest, law-abiding citizens. Give them back their property, their stores, their freedom to walk the streets at night and economic intervention may stand a chance. Opportunities for advancement are meaningless to people being terrorized by drug dealers, murderers and thieves.
Sensible regulations definitely have a legitimate place to stabilize the financial system, avoid predatory capitalism and ensure that both sides are playing fairly and by the rules. But regulation to achieve political objectives inimical to the good of the majority is an abuse of power. The American economy is in the dumpster largely because under the Obama regime imposes unreasonable restrictions that stifle small businesses and job growth while lack of meaningful governance.enriches his Wall Street Friends through crony capitalism. It is the worst of both worlds.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
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Lizz
"The US has utterly failed to deal with gang violence. Only a brain dead conservative PM would resort to importing an American cop to deal with rioting which had little or nothing to do with the kind of gangs the US cop would be familiar with."
OK, so he hasn't singlehandedly transformed the entire country. Next question. Chief Bratton does happen to be the face behind highly successful gang reduction programs and innovative policing management strategies in Los Angeles and New York among other places. Besides the British police are not asking for help from the "US." They are looking to a particular individual with an international reputation as a tough crime fighter who has a strong track record of accomplishment and who has presided over a record drop in crime in cities where he has worked. More power to them.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
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Lizz
"but just think about all of the labor involved in transferring the wood and covering up the wood, and then what do you do with radiated wood, and so on."
Their first mistake was outright non acceptance of the first batch of pine which didn't show any radiation. Kyoto should have had it retested by independent experts and, if clear, followed through with the burning. If the samples did show unacceptable levels, offer it either as a return or promise to store them in a protected location as a memorial to the victims. There is no substitute for problem solving. Of course Kyoto is not famous for its humility either. :).
Posted in: Kyoto rejects ceremonial bonfire wood from Iwate over radiation fears
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Lizz
No matter what Kyoto bonfire organizers or city officials thought of the gift, from a humanitarian standpoint they should have smiled graciously and accepted it with thanks. Switch the actual pieces for the bonfire if necessary to allay health concerns, but an outright rejection is unimaginably rude under these circumstances. .
Posted in: Kyoto rejects ceremonial bonfire wood from Iwate over radiation fears
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Lizz
"Are you sure about that? I figure between 20-30% of our various taxes are being wasted/stolen/kickbacked at least in present times, do you think it was worse prior to say 1990....."
It is still endemic but at least the legal system has been strengthened to deal with bureaucratic corruption and dangō etc and the electoral reforms of 1994 reduced the quantity of funds required by candidates for election campaigning.
Before the collapse of the machine in the early 1990's and the 1994 strengthening of the Political Funds Control law. it was probably one of the worst in the world judging by frequency of scandals, prominence of those involved, amount of money, etc. Look at the data by groups like Transparency International. Measures of less (perceived) corruption have been going up steadily in Japan every year since at least 2002.
Posted in: Nuclear safety agency under fire over fake questions
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Lizz
I would never support a candidate that signed one of those idiotic no-tax pledges or campaigned on no debt level raise under any circumstances. The pledge may prevent what signees otherwise would want; but the politicians that sign these pieces of paper are now bound to policies that may not be in the best interest of the country, and only used for their own personal financial support and political gain. A lot of Tea Party folks are even suspicious of a Balanced Budget Amendment. That is extreme.
The Tea Party caucus deserve tremendous credit for moving this debate to the forefront but taking the fringe of the fringe and calling it the only game in town is dishonest. There are plenty of other very successful fiscal conservatives that prove otherwise.
Posted in: It's a deal: Obama, Congress will avert debt default
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Lizz
"This is not entirely bad, though, as the effect of the spending cuts on the erosion of the safety net will be felt - and change attitudes - before any long-term damage can be done."
There is room to save and to be sensible about the savings... don't pay for diabetes patients to have their nails trimmed by a doctor, or anyone to use brand name over generic drugs, etc....nobody needs to help granny off a cliff. Take steps like Increase the retirement age, expand means testing, raise co-pays and change the benefit structure of Medicare to get back to addressing the original goal that Pres Kennedy laid out of "preventing people from “suddenly [finding] all their savings gone because of a costly health problem.”
It's amazing how spending that didn't even exist 10 years ago is considered impossible to cut out of the federal budget now.
I don't see how Obama faces a primary challenge from the left unless liberals can change the terms of the debate. They like to talk in terms of specific losses to programs, needs and services -- not numbers or budgetary targets; but the magnitude of the debt is so crippling it is like a cancer that is metastasizing which threatens the very existence of this country. So conservatives now have the momentum now to crowd out safety net concerns or support for policies that "stimulate" economic growth. These negotiations have shown a great deal of Republican unity and there is no real indication it is done yet. It has also shown that by building upon this base in the next election we can take control. We have just won the first quarter not the game.
Posted in: It's a deal: Obama, Congress will avert debt default
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Lizz
Conservatives don't yet have enough political power to get just what they want. But even if President Obama emerges from the struggle in stronger political shape than the GOP, the fiscalization of American politics -- meaning the focus of debate on deficits and debt -- is here to stay.
Dealing with the debt crisis and budget deficits and Obamacare and other issues is a war that will have many battles.The debt ceiling debate has become a distraction and if it continues, it could damage the TP and conservative causes. Declare partial victory and prepare for the next significant fights. The most important task is to elect more conservatives and to defeat Obama in 2012.
Posted in: It's a deal: Obama, Congress will avert debt default
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Lizz
The media needs to hammer these nuclear issues home like it did during the Recruit scandal in 1989. That wrecked a conservative government because of the vigilance of the press. They never let up. A homegrown scandal pursued to the end by a homegrown press. Every night for nearly a year television had accounts of Recruit stock and cash finding their way into politicians' accounts. Eventually LDP beneficiaries of Recruit favors had to give up and resign, including the prime minister. The new men were cut from the same conservative cloth as those they deposed. But it did reveal that public pressure from below could bring down the ruling establishment.
Of course the State will appear to win in the short run because seismic shifts in mindset towards greater reform and review take decades to accomplish. There isn't even a mechanism in Japanese courts to bring a class action lawsuit. In a very real sense harmony and paternalism is the price (or priviledge) of living in the country. But earlier scandals shattered old assumptions of their times and modern Japan is far more open, welcoming of self-criticism and politically less corrupt than even 30 years ago, So I am still optimistic.
Posted in: Nuclear safety agency under fire over fake questions
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Lizz
The political system in Japan even under the DPJ does isolate the ordinary citizen and in some respects guarantee a lack of civic involvement. There are still legal and cultural barriers between the individual and the system that create a feeling of powerlessness. But back room manipulation was the rule in LDP politics, which was one reason it was cast off. A cultural explanation ignores historical periods of enormous agitation, such as early post-war, when public interest in the government was extremely high.
So I don't think Japanese lack a concern about politics, and they are certainly not thinking "shouganai" when it is a matter of life and death; it is just difficult for them to put their concerns into action. We will see how far the detachment carries in the face of food radiation and nuclear power. But every small step, like grassroots initiatives that have taken root in Fukushima and elsewhere to provide a check and accounting on the official version of events, is cause to be encouraged.
Posted in: Nuclear safety agency under fire over fake questions
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Lizz
Kudos to Chubu Electric Power for resisting the temptation to play stooge in another government hijacking of free and open debate. When the Town Hall Meeting scandal came to light a few years ago, I think it turned out around 60 members of the public had been paid or gifted to lob pre-arranged softball questions at cabinet ministers. Who knows how many had to be approached to get it that high ? Scripted queries was normal practice according to the cabinet secretary, so an official report would never be fully released.
Posted in: Nuclear safety agency under fire over fake questions
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Lizz
"I really hate that the trains stop at midnight, seems like the government wants everyone in bed by this time and the taxi union can gets some much needed money."
I'm happy when I have to stay in a hotel next to the station. So there may be noise regulation laws as well. Actually overnight trains are not common anywhere in Japan. Have you ever seen an official sleeping car ? They may only be available on some of the long-distance trains to Hokkaido and Kyushu.
Posted in: JR West punished staff with toilet duty, cutting weeds