JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Full-time English Teacher - Osaka
- Epion English Language Schools, Osaka
- Salary: ¥200,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month Depending on your ability and experience
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- Part-time English Teacher - Osaka
- Epion English Language Schools, Osaka
- Salary: ¥10,000 ~ ¥15,000 / Day Depending on how many days a week are worked
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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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Simon_Foston
Emperor Palpatine.
Posted in: Who gets your vote for the most evil movie villain of all time?
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Simon_Foston
I don't think that could happen in Japan, as I believe there are US Occupation era laws that limit the amount of land that can be owned. The law could be repealed, of course, but large-scale farming would be disastrous for the small-scale farmers, whom the LDP milks for votes (typically worth double the votes of urban residents) and repays with lots of subsidies and protection against foreign competition. Staying in power is much more important than making any sort of positive changes, after all.
Posted in: Gov't warns low food self-sufficiency, global shortages may lead to drastic diet changes
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Simon_Foston
Agreed, but personally I cancelled my SkyPerfect subscription because the shows I liked were all moved to 3am to make way for crap like American Idol and Temptation Island. If that's the real world, show me a fantasy land I can escape to quick.
Moderator: Back on topic please.
Posted in: PTA says 'London Hearts' is worst TV program
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Simon_Foston
A very fair point about Japan throwing stuff away. But standard stereotypes? From Wikipedia:
I shouldn't have exaggerated, but tell me the problem doesn't exist.
Posted in: Gov't warns low food self-sufficiency, global shortages may lead to drastic diet changes
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Simon_Foston
Once again we see a civic group pointing fingers in the wrong direction. "London Hearts" might be bad for kids, but it is on late at night, and parents should have some control over what their young kids are watching to begin with.
You're absolutely right that kids shouldn't be watching those kinds of programmes at that time of night. I'm not aware of any content advisory system, e.g. warnings about violence, sexual content or language in TV schedules, in Japan either, unless you count Shinzo Abe telling NHK what they can't put in their documentaries.
Posted in: PTA says 'London Hearts' is worst TV program
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Simon_Foston
Why do Japanese people have to go with less? Some Americans (and some Britons too, to be fair) eat just about enough in one meal to feed a Japanese family for a day.
But it's true the farming industry needs radical reform in order to get big business involved. Farming in Japan hardly seems to have changed at all since the Middle Ages.
Posted in: Gov't warns low food self-sufficiency, global shortages may lead to drastic diet changes
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Simon_Foston
Silence does indeed have a vote, but silence in the countryside is worth double silence in the city.
Posted in: Dumping Fukuda won't solve LDP's problems
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Simon_Foston
People can decide whether to vote or not. They can't decide how much their votes are worth.
Posted in: Dumping Fukuda won't solve LDP's problems
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Simon_Foston
This is a quote from a Japan Times article prior to the 2003 House of Representatives Election, but I don't think much has changed:
I think that's a big problem. This is from the New York Times, again please tell me if the situation has changed at all:
The Grand Bench of the Supreme Court, the highest judicial authority, has tread a peculiar path around the problem. First in 1976 and then twice after that, it ruled various national elections unconstitutional because of the disproportionate value of a vote. But it has always permitted the election results to stand, arguing that a nullification would create chaos.
The elections, in short, are unconstitutional but valid.
Is it a coincidence that the main beneficiaries in this situation are LDP Diet members representing conservative rural constituencies? This is how they've maintained one party rule for virtually all of the past sixty three years, and no one shows any signs of doing anything about it. Dumping Fukuda certainly won't solve this problem. Yes, there's a lot of area to cover, but how can you say the countryside needs more representation when there's hardly anyone living there?
Posted in: Dumping Fukuda won't solve LDP's problems
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Simon_Foston
Of course, not all ultranationalist right-wingers are so crazy as to do those kinds of things. But they do spend a lot of time marching up and down in front of Yasukuni Shrine in WW2 uniforms or driving around in big black trucks with music and slogans blaring out of loudspeakers, and I think there are much less offensive ways to demonstrate how much they love their country. Incidentally, if they did the same kinds of things in Germany or Austria they'd get arrested and put in prison for being Nazis. I wonder why that never happens in Japan. But anyway, back to the topic...
Having Fukuda as PM is really not so bad. The reason why dumping him wouldn't solve the LDP's problems is that they're deeply ingrained. LDP politicians don't have a vested interest in solving Japan's problems, because the status quo allows them to stay in power and fill their pockets at the same time. Why do you think they lost so badly last year in the House of Councillors election? Koizumi stopped the flow of pork barrel money to the rural areas, which the LDP depended on for its majority because they're so over-represented. Whether Fukuda goes or not, the LDP will remain the same corrupt, self-selving bunch of dynasts it's always been, and hopefully it'll be consigned to oblivion at the next election.
Posted in: Dumping Fukuda won't solve LDP's problems
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Simon_Foston
By the way, I checked the Japanese and you're absolutely right about the mis-translation. People's Freedom Party or something like that would be closer to the mark. But "Liberal Democratic Party" is the term they use themselves - just check http://www.jimin.jp/jimin/english/.
Posted in: Dumping Fukuda won't solve LDP's problems
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Simon_Foston
Yes, when they murder politicians who disagree with them, send them bullets in the post or set fire to their homes, I want to say they're bad.
Posted in: Dumping Fukuda won't solve LDP's problems
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Simon_Foston
Jiyu (liberal) Minshuto (democratic party). That's right, isn't it?
The LDP's very low opinion polls may indeed be a reflection of the fact that the populace would prefer them to sort things out rather than an indication of how well the DPJ are doing, but if they were listening to the DPJ would they really be using their supermajority in the House of Representatives to ram through anything the House of Councillors rejects?
I really don't mind Fukuda that much, he seems a decent sort of man. But the LDP... where to start with all the purposeful wrongdoing. Pandering to right-wing ultranationalists, using yakuza as union busters, maintaining big voting disparities between rural and urban areas and then flooding the countryside with massive pork barrel projects to keep the over-represented rural voters on their side... if Fukuda does something about all that I'll be impressed.
Posted in: Dumping Fukuda won't solve LDP's problems
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Simon_Foston
The LDP don't know what to do with their majority either except use it to line their pockets and ignore what the people really want. They have no idea how to fix anything because they're at least partly responsible for all the problems in the first place.
Posted in: Dumping Fukuda won't solve LDP's problems
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Simon_Foston
If you look at all the people in Japan doing absolutely pointless jobs, e.g. showing you where the ATMs are in the bank, waving on traffic at roadworks (no one's ever heard of temporary traffic lights, it seems) or standing around in crappy little shops identical to all the others ones on the block, it's fairly obvious that Japan needs to use its existing workforce more efficiently before worrying about getting more immigrants.
Posted in: Gov't looks to immigrants as population shrinks
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Simon_Foston
He didn't fail to get 71% disapproval ratings in recent opinion polls either (http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/01/bush.poll/index.html), if anything those liberal media people say matters to you. That election was the Democrats' to lose, which they did in their usual fine style.
Posted in: White House says it has paid a price for 'Mission Accomplished' banner five years ago
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Simon_Foston
Americans don't have to; the British PM always does whatever Washington wants him to do anyway, no matter who it happens to be. A very long time ago an expert appeared on a UK daytime TV show and suggested that the CIA had something to do with that, just like they were funding the LDP in the 1960s. But I take that with a big pinch of salt personally.
Posted in: British PM faces tough questions after election 'massacre'
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Simon_Foston
Pretty much - no one supervises parents at all and a lot of them clearly need it. I'd say the same of any country, mind you.
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Simon_Foston
Parental supervision in Japan? I think it would be an excellent idea.
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Simon_Foston
An admirable sentiment. But these horrific stories about relatively innocuous people doing dreadful things to their relatives are definitely part of a very disturbing trend in Japan. Moreover, if the reports aren't about psycho family members, they're about corrupt, useless or pervy cops, so it's no wonder not much is getting done about all the bad stuff that's going on.
Posted in: Woman arrested for beating sister to death with rock in Yokohama