JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Core Developer - コアディベロッパー
- Midokura Japan K.K. - ミドクラジャパン株式会社, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥4.0M ~ ¥10.0M / Year Negotiable
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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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- 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
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Seiharinokaze
I think it formerly belonged to Mu and peaceful Mu. But Diaoyutai has become a keyword for Chinese citizens by which they can be "rightfully" and adamantly assertive with their government. Their political say excites more than unites the country and may stir the diastrophism of what China is or is not.
Posted in: Who has the best claim to the Senkaku Islands: Japan, China or Taiwan?
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Seiharinokaze
LFRAgain,
Wasn't it Hugh Byas who said that there were no dictators in Japan even during the wartime? If Tojo was a dictator, why didn't he know as Prime Minister of the time that the imperial navy would attack Pearl Harbor? And why didn't he know as Prime Minister and Army Minister until just before the Battle of Mariana that the navy had lost in the Battle of Midway two years before?
Posted in: U.S. vet who caught Tojo speaks out
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Seiharinokaze
The vet's action allowed Tojo to leave an affidavit, which I think is rather damaging to the war trial in historical perspective.
Posted in: U.S. vet who caught Tojo speaks out
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Seiharinokaze
So even with all-out cooperation of the media, the immune system of the harmonious society of Japan is getting dysfunctioning against reforming virus? Older period is really ending.
Posted in: Ozawa says he will challenge Kan in DPJ leadership election
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Seiharinokaze
It's rather a matter of how you see it. According to the study the world's best countries compiled by the Newsweek recently, though I don't believe the result completely, no permanent members of the UNSC rank among the best ten, and out of the top 10 GDP economies, no countries except Japan ranks in the best ten. So in terms of GDP as well as education, health, quality of life and political environment, I'm sorry to say and hope it's not a wishful thinking, Japan still performs fairly well.
Posted in: China overtakes Japan in 2nd quarter as world's No. 2 economy
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Seiharinokaze
Seeing as how the purchasing power parity GDP goes along (Japan vs China: in 1890, 39,016 to 233,517 million dollars; in 1900, 50,045 to 260,600; in 1938, 169,367 to 399,627; in 1950, 156,564 to 355,530; in 1970, 985,736 to 893,745; in 1992, 2,415,190 vs 3,615,603), China has been a bigger economy than Japan almost all the time. What bothers us, however, is that while the world gets to avail ourselves of modern day comforts (food, clothes, electric goods, cars and others) on the cheap, it is being realized without much regard for the rules of the day such as intellectual property and autonomous function of foreign exchange market. Not to mention democracy of its people. Something rather irregular seems to be carving for itself on some whole new ball game. That's what worries us more than GDP talk. Meantime deregulation of economy doesn't seem to make us happier and actually it made us poorer. Perhaps we may have to dare opt for another way of life based on sustainability, decentralization and contentment. Consume less, live and eat locally and be happy and yet culturally active as if in Edo period. Declining may not be so bad.
Posted in: China overtakes Japan in 2nd quarter as world's No. 2 economy
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Seiharinokaze
So the ceremony might include, if anything, references to the U.S. decoding of messages sent by wireless among the Imperial navy of Japan before the Pearl Harbor as well as between Tokyo and Moscow before the A-bombings.
Posted in: Do you think that ceremonies for victims of the A-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should include references to the victims of Japan's acts of aggression before and during World War II?
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Seiharinokaze
OMG, please correct. descent → descend; slush → slash. Anyway don't be fooled by lies floated by the Finance Ministry and mass media. The sales tax of Japan is levied broadly with the number of tax-exempt items very limited. So the percentage of sales tax in the total national tax is 22% and is not especially low compared with 22.5% of Britain and 22.1% of Sweden.
Posted in: 10% consumption tax will destroy Japan, argue some
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Seiharinokaze
Sorry again on the administrative corporate bodies that consume much tax revenue while doing useless business as we all know without regard for cost performance. They are kind of resort villas for bureaucrats who descent with budget from affiliated ministries for amakudari after retirement. More than 300 trillion yen of debt the the government has accumulated for these bodies are in other words the government's credit to them. So if you abolish them, you won't have to pay trillions of yen annually to them from the national treasury anymore and at the same time can liquidate what assets they have and reduce the government debt substantially. Slush on these corporate bodies as well as on the "special account" of this country (please someone lecture us on this weird deposit of pooled money) is what is expected of the new government. But Kan's leadership seems to have been beautifully brainwashed by the Finance Ministry or usurpers of the national wealth in Kasumigaseki.
Posted in: 10% consumption tax will destroy Japan, argue some
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Seiharinokaze
What Mr. Takahashi talks about is the independent administrative corporate bodies and quasi-non-governmental organizations. 300 to 400 trillion yen was borrowed for these "independent" organizations. The government should carry out a reform on them, which the former governments neglected due to the opposition by the bureaucrats. He says it's where they should take drastic measures before raising sales tax.
Posted in: 10% consumption tax will destroy Japan, argue some
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Seiharinokaze
Mr. Takahashi Yoichi, a former bureaucrat of the Finance Ministry, says that out of Japan's government debt totaling to 800 or 900 trillion yen, true debt is 300 trillion. 200 trillion were spent on building roads and other concrete/steel things (assets). And the remaining 300 or 400 trillion were what the government borrowed for the independent administrative corporate bodies and quasi-non-governmental organizations. So if they abolish these organizations, 300 to 400 trillion yen of debt will vanish. They have things to do before swallowing Kan’s and the Finance Ministry's “propaganda." Financial crisis may be similar to what they talk on deterrent. Their aim is to waste the tax money paid by the sweat of our brow.
Posted in: 10% consumption tax will destroy Japan, argue some
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Seiharinokaze
If Kan suggests China be invited to an economic summit, he should not sound as if sucking up to China but make it a point at issue that China's accumulation of huge foreign reserve while keeping its currency depreciated is contradicting and distorting its own economy which needs to be rectified. Despite its rapid economic growth, China has renminbi depreciated by one third in the last 30 years. It means that manipulation of RMB is bringing about its economic growth. Kan should raise an issue of it, but he is already past his freshness date and will hopefully be dumped by September. Nobody should take heed to this swindler.
Posted in: Kan suggests China be invited to G-8 summits
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Seiharinokaze
I mean the sentiment of the ordinary people. They witnessed or at least have got the image that the U.S. didn't listen to what the GOJ had proposed out of the voices of the local people. Relocation of the Futenma air base with only 2000 something of USMC is a Pandora's box that not only have scandalized the men in the street of the mainland but also may let the anger and sense of discrimination against GOJ and the US among the people of Okinawa get out of control.
Posted in: What do you think Yukio Hatoyama's legacy as prime minister will be?
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Seiharinokaze
Actually the ordinary people frowned at the U.S. arrogance/avarice over the base issue. Pandora's box has been opened which the former governments had tried to leave well alone.
Posted in: What do you think Yukio Hatoyama's legacy as prime minister will be?
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Seiharinokaze
In this day and age who believes seriously that we need deterrence against North Korea? How many nukes does the U.S. or China have in comparison? Better cool down and take off the loudspeakers along the 38 the Parallel and start talks. Rather we need deterrence against war mongers.
Posted in: Hatoyama backs Seoul's U.N. bid to punish N Korea
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Seiharinokaze
Ms Fukushima honorably didn't sign the bit of paper, which the bureaucrats of the Foreign and Defense ministries as stooges of the U.S. manipulated the cabinet to endorse without agreement of the local people of Okinawa, catering for the US necessity to prevent the federal budget for the relocation from being eliminated by the Congress. By letting herself dismissed, Fukushima made it clear that she is unperturbed by the myth of "deterrence" which can be allegedly maintained by having the Marines air base at Henoko by all means instead of accommodating it elsewhere like Kadena when the bulk of the Marines in any case will move to Guam as part of the realignment of the U.S. forces. Consequently she won the game and perhaps Hatoyama will have to resign after DPJ loses in the next election.
Posted in: What do you think of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's decision to kick SDP leader Mizuho Fukushima out of the cabinet because she disagreed with his plan to relocate the U.S. Marine base at Futenma within Okinawa?
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Seiharinokaze
OK let's condemn the attack. But why does the international community except South Korea have to take sanctions against North Korea? China's stance is appropriate: “Relevant parties should calmly and appropriately handle the issue and avoid escalation of the situation.”
Posted in: Again, Obama seeks China's help on Korean crisis
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Seiharinokaze
The former Public Security Intelligence Agency investigator, Mr. Suganuma Mitsuhiro gave a talk at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan a few years ago that the right wing bodies are mostly managed by Yakuza, and that 60% of them are Dowa-related (historically discriminated people), 30% Korean residents (Zainichi) and the remaining 10% is non-Dowa Japanese and Chinese. What seems to be the alienated part of the population worrying about the decline of this nation while revering the emperor seems rather intriguing. I sometimes wonder if they are out there to derogate what they have to advocate. BTW I think it's Shinpu-Juku (kamikaze or divine wind school).
Posted in: Now hear this
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Seiharinokaze
StarCom wrote:
It may be true. And my understanding of Shintoism is about not forgetting the sense that we owe our lives to the whole world and nature around us. The sense that we are being let live by a whole lot of givers brings forth the sense of thriftiness and conservation, which we have almost forgotten. We may look back on this age half-wistfully as the rare time in history when we can eat whatever we like in abundance.
We may have to east small in future. The traditional Japanese food is good for such days: Germinated half-milled rice, fermented foodstuff, vegetables and sea shells/small fry are enough to keep us going healthy. Better forgo animal meat too. Cattle breeding consumes much feed grains and water and actually gives a heavier load to the environment than other foodstuff.
Posted in: Japan's food culture is an endangered species
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Seiharinokaze
North Korea won't attack Japan even if US bases are gone. Koreans are basically decent with Japanese. China may try to take the Senkaku islands but probably the US won't deploy its troops when it comes to a real showdown. So practically not much sense to host US bases. They are rather here to bluff Japan into buying more US treasury bonds and ammunitions and providing a workplace for US military personnel. So Japan's best policy is to Taiwanize China as early as possible and mitigate the aforementioned need through peaceful measures.
Posted in: Does Japan need to host any U.S. bases at all?