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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- ALT - Mie Prefecture - Yokkaichi City - June start
- NPO法人グローバル教育推進機構（GLAD), Mie
- Salary: ¥230,000 / Month For a full working month. Some months differ.
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- Business Teaching Positions - Part-time - Kanto Region
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥3,000 ~ ¥5,000 / Hour
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Loose Cannon
Forgot this is Japan, where free speach is just a saying.
Posted in: A smoke-free country? New Zealand aims for it with 40% tobacco tax hike
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Loose Cannon
I just love the comments here about banning tobacco from high and mighty self important blowhards who belive that the world should revolve around their beliefs and that they should not have the slighest risk to their health from a whiff of smoke. Most of the self rightous here are living in large cities that just walking to the station gives you more carcinogens than standing next to a smoker. Most will stand up for the freedom of choice, yet refuse smokers that same freedom. Non-smokers have had the right to not frequent resturants, bars, ect. that are "so thick with smoke that you could cut it with a knife" as one comment here said, that freedom has been here since the beginning. I would find it hard to belive that some owners would not make their business smoke free if their was enough interest in it. These people will instead take away my right to smoke nearly anywhere regardless if the owner cared or not. And this BS about taxing morality, which is what these taxes are really, and using it to cover the costs of smokers health problems. I will cite how the big tobacco settlement that American companies paid, and continue to pay, to individual states have less than 10% of those proceeds being used for the purpose that was agreed to in the settlement. Politicians took the money for their own pet projects, and will take any and all taxes made by tobacco sales for their own devices. So taxpayers will still have to foot the bill for smokers just as they do for drunk drivers, drug addicts, prostitutes, homeless, illegal immigrants, and any other non taxpaying people who need medical help. America tried banning alcohol and it caused far more problems than it solved. So after a hundred years they forgot how bad it was and now want to try with tobacco? Anyone here know which nation first banned smoking in public offices? Hm? 1935 the Nazi party in Germany was the first to ban smoking in any public building and started a campaign to have public workers stop smoking. Has the non-smokers become so arrogant as to belive that the polluted air that they breathe in crowded industrial cities is cleaner without the smell of tobacco, so much so that you make it against the law to smoke in public? Remember, you always had the choice to walk away from smokers, but you deny smokers that same right.
Posted in: A smoke-free country? New Zealand aims for it with 40% tobacco tax hike
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Loose Cannon
Well... As an American I want our troops gone from Okinawa as well. Along with ANY troops stationed outside of the U.S. border. I have grown so tired of seeing and hearing all the complaints about our bases and involvement in international affairs. I'll not go into the LONG list of things that could or should have happend if America had not been an active participant in world affairs since WW2. Whether or not you agreed with their methods, the fact that you can openly criticise the Government of the U.S. or Japan should be noted that China does not take the same level of criticism at all. I would like to see all American military pulled back to our own borders and for America to return to the isolationist ways from before WW2, but, thanks in part to Pearl Harbor, Japan helped to create this Frankenstein. How much $ would your nation have spent in national defence if America had left in say the 50's? How would your economic progress have been mitigated by defence spending? How much would it be now if we pulled out? Do you belive that China would not forcefully claim the disputed islands if America did not have a strong footprint in the area? We have become, whether we wanted to be or not, the world's policeman. Are you ready to have China take that position? Or Russia? How about yourselves? Ready to travel to disparate parts of the world and fight for another nation? And not one word about the U.N. They are as ineffective as the League of Nations was before them. So the choice is the monster you know, or the monster you don't know.
Posted in: Okinawa marks 40 years since return to Japan
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Loose Cannon
I hate to say this but my beloved country has forgotten the lessons that were learned in WW 2. That lesson is how the Nazi's had far superior tanks, planes, and personal weapons than the allies, but their equipment was to complex to be effective on the battlefield. Complex designs that were mechanically unreliable and difficult to repair in the field. The allies had weak tanks but for every 1 Tiger tank, the allies fielded 100 Shermans. America now seems to think that technology will solve all the military's problems, when all it really does is make it more difficult to maintain operational readiness. The defence industry in America has too much influence on politics, and we get overly complicated aircraft and other vehicles for a conventional war that looks more and more unlikely in the future. Japan, get out of this debacle now before your air force becomes techno-dependent like America.
Posted in: Spiraling F-35 costs have Japan, other potential customers worried
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Loose Cannon
ROFLMAO! That was a great one liner there! Expecting Dems and Reps to "play nice" is like expecting rain in the desert. It almost never happens! It is a systemic problem derived from career politicians, the ones who can lead their constituants around by the nose and will always get re-elected. Until term limits are in place, and the power of congress is severely contained, coupled with a true set of laws against powerful lobbyists. America will continue to slowly spiral down into the dustbin of history. Just remember this one liner for next time. If the word pro is the opposite of con, then the opposite of progress is Congress!!!
Posted in: Obama falls short of meteoric expectations abroad
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Loose Cannon
And why remove one of the main tourist attractions for a nation that has little else to offer a tourist. Windmills, tulips, and wooden shoes are not things that most people on holiday are going to go out of their way to see. "Coffee houses" and the red light district were unique things that put Amsterdam on people's "bucket list" of travel destinations.
Posted in: Dutch roll out 'cannabis card' to stop pot tourists
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Loose Cannon
The Netherlands seemed to forget how most of the western world has tried unsuccessfully for DECADES to try to put an end to illegal drugs. On how they have collectively spent billions to go to "war" against drugs. Can anyone show me what progress has been made with all that money? Other than a few percentage point swings back and forth, the overall drug usage has neither increased nor decreased dramatically because of any grand plan or strategy. The Governments fill up their jails with convicted dealers, yet you can go to the same places that had police raids the night before and get whatever drugs you want. You can kill or capture all the drug cartels operating right now, and it will barely make a dent in the overall volume of drugs available. The Netherlands seemed to be the one nation that had gotten it right with a drug policy based in reality, not neo-con pipe dreams. Now they are just like all the other nations that bury their collective heads in the sand and say its a criminal issue, not a medical issue. Alcohol is a drug, and alcoholism is a disease, yet you do not hear the same words being used for illegal drugs. I guess the illegal part means they do not get the same consideration as those addicted to legal ones.
Posted in: Dutch roll out 'cannabis card' to stop pot tourists
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Loose Cannon
There has been a trend recently in Hollywood to "reboot" many old movie and TV franchises, with an emphasis on "humanising" rather flat charactures of the past. The Star Trek reboot, the recent blitz of super-hero movies, even the Three Stooges film tries to give depth to charactures that were previously as flat as the screen they were projected on. While some, like Bond, could use this "reality check" to give new life to dull, dead charactures. There are others that should stay "flat" like comic superheroes. Just my two bits.
Posted in: New 007 film to depict spy's inner demons
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Loose Cannon
@ NinjaDave: "no benefits to society." If that is your criteria, what else should be banned? Drinking, any food product that doesn't give nutritional benefits(bye bye pocky), automobiles are for only the select few who can afford them, not society in general so they have got to go. According to vegans and vegitarians meat is not necessary for society to survive, so by that and your standard meat is not necessary. I know this is going to extremes, but to blindly fall into the trap that America tried about 100 years ago with alcohol without remembering what a fiasco for about 20 years that had become is to be just as rediculous as back then. Why do you think they repealed an amendment to the US constitution? Because it doesn't work. Niether will a ban on tobacco.
Posted in: New York law would identify buildings with smokers
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Loose Cannon
“They have a high sense of ethics,” said the shareholder, identified by only his surname Yamaguchi.
That proposal was soundly defeated by clapping - a common way shareholders meetings are run in Japan. Such orchestrated meetings are called “shan shan,” referring to the sound of hands clapping.
Shan shan? sounds more like sham sham.
Posted in: Woodford demands to know why he was fired as Olympus CEO
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Loose Cannon
It seems to me that most people have missed the point that even if these reactors are no longer producing power. There is, and wiil be for a LONG time, fuel rods in all the reactors and spent fuel pools at all the reactors including Fukushima. I have not heard of any plans to dispose of all the fuel rods that are in fukushima alone, not to mention all those at the other reactors. Even if these facilities are not producing power, they can still have an accident as bad as Fukushima. So at this point, Japan has 40+ reactors not producing power yet still just as dangerous. Hmmmm...... what's wrong with this picture?
Posted in: Japan down to one nuclear reactor after Niigata shutdown
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Loose Cannon
The answer is to tie the food to the inspections. If they allow unfettered access to the facilities, and the inspectors find no violations, then they get enough food to last until the next inspection. Any violations or restriction to any facility, no food. Dangle the carrot and be ready with a big stick when dictator jr or his lot start to rattle sabres.
Posted in: Should the international community provide food aid to North Korea?
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Loose Cannon
@ Cricky: Then do some reading because there are tales of Japanese whalers reaching Antartica in the !500's or early 1600's. What you think the Japanese can't sail well? Their an island nation for pete's sake.
Posted in: Whaling fleet off to Antarctica with beefed up security measures
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Loose Cannon
@ Swiss then If Norway, for example, says they are hunting whales purely for their meat. Then why is there no condemnation from other European nations? Would not Sweden, or the British enviromentalists, or Ireland and Scotland try to stop the whaling near their waters ala Australia? America has its eyes turned towards the Atlantic, not Pacific ocean, yet we hear only of the Japanese activities. If Japan would drop its supposed pretext of scientific research, and said it was hunting whales for meat. Would that lessen the impact of their whaling? What would make them any different fron those Atlantic nations that continue to hunt whale. I also bring up the Inuit indian tribes who are allowed to hunt whales as per their traditions. The Japanese can show whaling has been a part of their culture for several hundred years. Are their traditions any less relevant than the Inuit?
Posted in: Whaling fleet off to Antarctica with beefed up security measures
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Loose Cannon
This is as polorizing a topic as abortion, or gay/lesbian rights. Neither side of this belives they are wrong and the opposing side is right. Makes me belive the truth is somewhere in the middle. I would ask the "esteemed" panel here one question. Japan is not the only country left that hunts whales correct? How come you do not hear of their troubles with the IWC or the enviromental movements? Not getting any "airtime", or do they operate in some way that appeases the whale protectors? Why does the SS only attack the Japanese whalers if there are other nations operating whaling fleets?
Posted in: Whaling fleet off to Antarctica with beefed up security measures
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Loose Cannon
Thanks for telling us where NOT to drink. No bar is worth visiting if the ownership and/or the waitstaff have a superiority complex. I prefer places where you CAN talk with strangers, because is that not what is part of the enjoyment of a vacation? I like to meet new people and learn things that you don't get from a travel guide, or a tour. In the rest of the world, the pub/bar is one of the key social junctions of any neighborhood, town, ect. Yet, according to the article's description, Japanese bars are exclusive "locals only" domains that have more customs and rules than a Catholic school! I'm definately not interested in "bars" in Japan anymore. Thanks for the lesson.
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Loose Cannon
Let's also not forget the attack on the Madrid train station 7 1/2 yrs ago. Spain and Japan both have reasons to mourn on March 11. May God give peace to all the families touched by tragedy.
Posted in: Son of Japanese 9/11 victim speaks at ceremony in New York
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Loose Cannon
As bad as American movies and television is right now. Japanese animation is'nt that bad. At least the anime networks have not begun re-working old movies and TV shows like America (case in point, the new spider-man movie reboots a series of movies less than a decade old). Maybe American movie producers should finally look to Japan's anime for some fresher ideas than the regurgitated garbage they have made recently. Some of their better movies have come from American graphic novels, so it would not be that difficult to adapt some of the better anime of the past.
Posted in: The freefall of Japan’s anime industry
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Loose Cannon
So... for some of you, the age difference is to large to overcome? Do you have the same belief that race is to large an issue to overcome? That same sex couples are not truely happy? There is an article on this site from Aug. 3 that talks of the 68 year old Cha Kato getting married to a 23 year old. Are they really not happy? Age, so long as it does not go younger than the statutory age, is one of the least troublesome obstacles to overcome nowdays. There are countless stories of large age differences between couples with no marital strife. Are they all "happily ever after" endings? Far from it, but there are enough of them to lead me to belive it is not as big a problem as some of you belive.
Posted in: Kumi Koda to sing theme song for 'Second Virgin'
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Loose Cannon
1 The bomb had been tested a mere three months before and only seen by the military and scientists at Los Alamos. There were a few high ranking officers from Washington, but no field commanders to observe the effects. The scientists understood some of the effects of radiation, but were either unable or unwilling to make the government understand the long term effects to organic tissue. The military saw the bomb as just that, a bomb. To many it was the same as a standard bomb with a different chemistry. They did not understand what the device truely was and how it effected people long after.
2 President Harry Truman served in the military and fought on the front lines in WW1. He saw first hand the terrible carnage that war brings. He had been given reports on the bitter and bloody fighting in Berlin and the huge volume of casualties on both sides to take the last outpost of Fascism in Europe. He had long heard from commanders about how the Japanese soldier would not surrender, and rather take their own lives than surrender(Partially why the Japanese treated POW's so poorly was rooted in this ideal). He had been given estimates for the invasion and capture of Japan at 1 million allied, and 12 to 15 million casualties to the Japanese (both military and civillian). He had already known of a "wonder weapon" that could do as much damage with one plane and one bomb, as an entire air armada. He looked at the circumstances and made an executive decision to authorize the use of the bomb.
3 As already stated by others, the firebombing raids over Tokyo earlier in the war caused many more deaths than both A-bomb attacks combined. Even the bombings of Dresden and Hamburg near the end of the war in Europe caused almost as many deaths each. Also stated is the fact that heavy civillian casualties were the standard operating procedure for all nations fighting this war (except the US), they had all suffered the loss, and also caused such loss to their enemies. Bombing was far from the pin-point accuracy that is the focal point of air operations today. American accuracy during daylight raids usually averaged around 15% to within 1 Km of the target. The Brits in their night raids averaged about 5%! The Allies needed large armadas of aircraft to actually hit what they were aiming for.
4 As to these attacks being war crimes because of the weapon used, then why is there not a clamor for war cirmes to be placed on those nations who used chemical weapons in the first world war? Mustard gas ruined many lives because of its effects on lungs in particular. Many who survived the actual attack had their lives severely limited by lung damage or blindness, and most lived a very painful life (usually much shorter lifespan as well). Although many different treaties have been signed by "civilized" nations, that has not stopped chemical or biological weapons developement by most of these same "civilized" nations who signed those treaties.
5 Can we all agree that war is itself a crime against humanity, and not try to limit "crimes" to specifics.
Posted in: Do you consider the A-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to be war crimes?