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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NagoyaOya
Yoshiki, who splits his time between Los Angeles and Japan, is actually a voting member of the Recording Academy and so one of the people who decide the Grammy Award winners. X Japan are putting a lot of money behind their current effort to break into the US market. History would suggest their chances of success are limited, since the last time a Japanese artist even broke the Billboard Top 40 was more than 30 years ago. Who can name the artist?
Posted in: Grammy man
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NagoyaOya
Suggestions for questions anyone? I'll be able to pass them on to the participants for their consideration (seemingly the deadline for submissions has passed but I doubt this meeting will be as structured as they hope). The public may not be allowed access to the meeting but our tax yen are involved here so we all have a stake.
Posted in: Taiji meeting on dolphin hunt set for Nov 2; public to be barred
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NagoyaOya
The participants in this meeting can each ask 3 questions. If you were to attend, regardless of which side you stand on - if any - what questions would you ask? Here's three of the top of my head.
Are the officials of Taiji prepared to allow independent testing of its citizens for mercury and other poisoning and its effects? This testing would be paid for in full by (insert environmental group name). If not, why not?
What is the breakdown in revenue received by the Taiji fishermen/Isana Union, the Taiji Whale Museum and Taiji town related to the small-cetacean hunt in 2009? (to include live capture, the sale of meat, and any funding from local or national government)
Would Taiji officials be prepared to cooperate in a feasibility study, funded by (insert environmental group name), of alternatives sources of revenue for the town, its fishermen and those working in related businesses?
Posted in: Taiji meeting on dolphin hunt set for Nov 2; public to be barred
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NagoyaOya
A lot of the most commonly asked questions are answered here: http://www.savejapandolphins.org/faq.php
Posted in: 'Heroes' actress Hayden Panettiere gets chilly reception in Taiji
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NagoyaOya
SppedRacer, You don't have to go all the way to the top of the aquatic food chain to find high levels of mercury. The Cove director Louie Psihoyos relates how he was tested at the Minamata Institute and was found to have high levels of mercury from eating a lot of sushi. The doctors then did a bit of testing on themselves and found that their mercury levels shot up when they ate daily but modest amounts of the high-grade sushi tuna. they don't eat it anymore, nor allow anyone at the hospital to eat it, but are "too scared" to speak out about it.
Posted in: 'Heroes' actress Hayden Panettiere gets chilly reception in Taiji
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NagoyaOya
Just to add a bit more information missing from the story. The visit was sponsored mainly by the Whaleman Foundation (Jeff Pantukhoff is the founder), and Panetierre is the spokesperson for their "Save the Whales Again" campaign. Pierce Brosnan is another celeb who has promoted it, but bringing him to Japan is presumably a bit of a stiff order compared to a 20-year-old B-starlet.
The local organizer of the trip, as the article says, was Steve Thompson, a high school English teacher in Osaka who includes a union victory against Osaka governor Hashimoto on his resume.
And by the way, this story continues tomorrow with Panetierre & Co. attending the Dolphin Peace Picnic in Osaka tomorrow. http://vegansociety.jp/hayden-panettiere-dolphin-peace-osaka/
Posted in: 'Heroes' actress Hayden Panettiere gets chilly reception in Taiji
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NagoyaOya
What this reports leaves out is that the fishermen's union representative actually sat down and talked with members of the visiting group for a couple of hours yesterday, which I believe was the first time for them to agree to do so. Without going into details, one result of that talk was that Taiji officials decided not to deal with them anymore. So it seems that some good could have come out of this but it is more likely to simply strengthen Taiji's siege mentality.
Posted in: 'Heroes' actress Hayden Panettiere gets chilly reception in Taiji
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NagoyaOya
Posted in: Anger and defiance in Taiji after 'Cove' wins Oscar
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NagoyaOya
For anyone who thinks that the people who made The Cove would have better spent their time looking at abattoirs, circuses, zoos and the like, well that ground's being covered (see Food Inc, Earthlings, etc).
I will be interviewing the star (Ric O'Barry) and director (Louie Psihoyos) of The Cove tomorrow. If you have a question you'd like to ask either or both of them, please email it to thecove@japan-zone.com. Please provide a first name and country at least, but let me know if you DON'T want me to use your name. I'll be giving preference to people who are in Japan, and (despite my own views) I won't be choosing questions based on any bias. I'll be putting the interviews, along with articles about Taiji and The Cove, on Japan Zone as soon as I can.
Posted in: Anger and defiance in Taiji after 'Cove' wins Oscar
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NagoyaOya
BTW, their inane tagline of "We bring you the best!" was born out of a phone conversation I had with one their guys. I can't remember what they had before (but it was awful) and I suggested they start by changing it. "You know...We bring you the best Japan has to offer...or something like that, but snappier." Voila!
Posted in: Japan Online Shop English portal site attracts 200 shops in 1st month
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NagoyaOya
Shouldn't Japan Today mention that JOS is (or at least was) a sponsor/advertiser? I run one of the stores that JOS links to and it has led to absolutely zilch in new business. I mean, fair play to them in trying to build a business but their lack of understanding of how to communicate with a non-Japanese audience is astounding. I'd love to know how much money is being wasted on all this (including that given to JT).
Posted in: Japan Online Shop English portal site attracts 200 shops in 1st month
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NagoyaOya
I'm a lifelong PF fan and Rick Wright's loss is a sad one indeed.
But I have to say to Taka - making a mental note to a co-worker?! Syd Barrett would be proud of you.
Posted in: Pink Floyd member Richard Wright dies age 65
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NagoyaOya
Without knowing what the full list of factors are, we can argue ad nauseum about their objectivity. But having just come back from a trip to Ireland, I can affirm that the cost of living there is astronomically high for the quality of life you get. I arrived in Japan at a time when, compared to Ireland and the UK, living here was very expensive. But it was compensated by lower taxes and safer streets, plus a host of more subjective benefits to being a gaijin in Japan. Not much has radically changed here, prices included, in the last 20 years. But in that time, the cost of living has increased several times over in Ireland, to the point where it's now more expensive than Japan. This country has its faults, but it's only when you visit a supposedly fellow first-world country like Ireland that you see the many things Japan has done right.
Now as to whether I prefer the cold, rainy Irish summer or the hot, humid Japanese one...I think the cold and rain takes it by a whisker.
Posted in: Britain, Ireland lowest in Europe in quality of life: study
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NagoyaOya
I think you'll find the answer in the word "sueing" a few comments up!
Posted in: British employee of Merrill Lynch Japan among 10 busted over cocaine use at nightclubs
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NagoyaOya
Some interesting circular posting going on here. Is it okay to post a link to a site that DOES name names? (URL changed as the original one set off the naughty word alarm)
http://tinyurl.com/3m8tpy
Posted in: British employee of Merrill Lynch Japan among 10 busted over cocaine use at nightclubs
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NagoyaOya
I see the comments mentioning his name and age have been deleted, even though they're on the Asahi newspaper's Japanese website.
But anyway, barring a positive blood test, the "the drugs just found their way into my pocket" defense is solid, isn't it? If I were in possession of some coke when the police raided a bar, I'd be looking for some securities company employee's pocket.
Moderator: At this stage, we ask all readers to refrain from publishing the suspect's name.
Posted in: British employee of Merrill Lynch Japan among 10 busted over cocaine use at nightclubs
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NagoyaOya
Oh, and while I'm picking holes, the KISS show at MSG was in 1996.
Moderator: The mistakes have now been corrected. Thanks for pointing them out.
Posted in: X JAPAN to perform at Madison Square Garden
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NagoyaOya
Jeez, JT still think that Yoshiki is the singer? Two people pointed out the error on the previous story. These entertainment "stories" aren't credited to Kyodo so are they being translated in-house? The quality is pretty poor, either way.
I started translating the Jpn entertainment news over on japan-zone.com many years ago simply because no one else was doing it. There are a few alternatives now, but JT certainly isn't a decent one yet.
Posted in: X JAPAN to perform at Madison Square Garden
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NagoyaOya
I'm looking at this page and I see...ads. Lots of ads above the fold on a full-screen laptop view: (Site logo), a big leaderboard ad, (the navigation bar), two side-by-side Google AdWords blocks, an HIS affiliate ad, (the search box), and the top of the directory listings (sorry, ads).
At least until people have recovered from the shock of the new, I'd cut back on the ad over-exposure. Though I'm also wondering why almost no one else is saying this...ad blindness, perchance?
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NagoyaOya
Disappointed. This relaunch has been coming for what, six months? And it's pretty much business as usual in terms of what the site has to offer.
I suppose it looks a bit more "Web 2.0" but that's supposed to be about function more than form. But then again, now I don't have to suck my finger and stick it out the window to get the latest wind speed.
So anyway, what is the wind speed of air leaving a rapidly deflating balloon?
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