Monday May 28, 2012

Stephane Dauzat's past comments

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    Zolt

    The 2 masked guys creeped me out

    Posted in: Pachinko man

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    Zolt

    He didn't hear about the road to hell?

    Posted in: Maybe what Japan needs right now is a dictator, a dictator with good intentions. If you spend your time discussing issues, then for example the abductions issue will remain unsolved. Certain things can only be achieved by a dictator. He can act decisively within a limited period of time.

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    Zolt

    Oh yeah, I'd just forgotten. Members of criminal syndicates can and do register legally in Japan, and you can just look them up in the phone book.

    Article Unavailable

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    Zolt

    Wow, what a nice rant on someone who hasn't even taken office yet! I do believe his policy on Iraq and Afghanistan has been made clear, and the iraqi government is paving the way for it already. As for gun laws he also has mentioned repeatedly that he won't touch the subject.

    But sure, throw in some bits of conspiracy theory to wrap the whole thing up!

    Posted in: Where is Obama's change we can believe in?

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    Zolt

    Senior citizen get to be wooed back, yet at the same time the young part-timers get booed out. Talk about a country standing on its head...

    Posted in: Senior citizens being wooed back into workforce

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    Zolt

    Japan may not have an Obama around for the near future but they had their Hillary in the race for premiership along with Aso. Her names Yuriko Koike and I'm sure we'll be hearing more about her. Incidentally I think she's the only person running for LDP leadership who isn't nth generation from a big political. Granted, on her political view she's closer to Condi than to Hillary.

    Article Unavailable

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    Zolt

    What bugs me is that the companies will prefer hiring new graduates rather that people who have fended for themselves for a year or two through a difficult economy. So if you haven't got a job right after graduating, you're "spoiled material" and your career is ruined. Same if you're 30 or unmarried.

    Posted in: College students find job offers withdrawn

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    Zolt

    “Aso possibly thinks nighttime is his private time and he doesn’t have to tell the media what he does and where he goes.” That pretentious fart of a journalist seems to think Aso and the whole world revolves around him.

    If a country's prime minister can't have a bit of confidentiality when conducting business, who can?

    Posted in: Aso evasive about his schedule

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    Zolt

    Yeah when you consider that becoming a nurse in Japan is crazily expensive, like $30 000, and then you have to slave away for untold hours at low pay? Who would want that? I was in the Philippines recently, and a colleagues brother, a doctor in the Philippines, chose to go to the US and work as a nurse (It's quite common and actually a serious problem as it deprives the Philippines of doctors). But Japan just isn't that attractive even for Filipino nurses.

    Opening up to foreign caregivers is a temporary fix, but limited because of the langage barrier. Japan urgently needs to train more doctors and nurses locally, by giving student grants or generally making these studies more attractive and affordable. Currently only the (eldest) sons of doctors can afford the studies, and even they are turned away by the brutal working hours.

    Article Unavailable

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    Zolt

    Tried hitch-hiking from Kyoto to Tokyo once, and it was not an easy experience. Japanese drivers are just not used to hitch-hikers, so it took me 3 hours of gesturing to get someone to stop and pick me up - and that someone turned out to be a colleague who had a good laugh at me! He could only take me part of the way, so had to repeat the process near Nagoya where it took even longer. Departed from Kyoto at 6am wanting, arrived in Tokyo at 11 PM, well, at least I made it but for less than 6000 yen for an overnight bus it was a bit pointless.

    Posted in: Want to see the real Japan? Try hitchhiking

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    Zolt

    It is a fine line between an appreciative look and a pervy stare, or between a flattering comment and harrassment, but a line that a gentleman should know how to walk. ("How much?" is harrassment no matter what!)

    As a rule of thumb for most girls, if the one doing the staring is a good looking, confident man, it's not staring. If it's a balding nerd, call the cops!

    Posted in: Japanese girls go sexier in their fashion styles

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    Zolt

    Haah, they took the risk of assaulting 4 people and only got away with 2000 yen? They could have made better doing spiderman antics at a busy train station!

    Posted in: Two men wearing Spider-Man masks assault pedestrians in Osaka

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    Zolt

    My girlfriend has been working through a haken gaisha for quite a while, and I can check out all myths except possibly #4

    1 - She once lost 3 jobs in a 2 month period (one of those was because her haken gaisha violated some laws regarding dispatch work and got busted.

    2 - Yeah, she got offered increased responsibilities after she had spent a couple years in the same haken company (not on the same job note) - because 2 years is a huge time in the haken world, most people drop out within months.

    3 - She has some skill in IT and design, but never got any job that came even close to that line of work. Skill or preference didnt seem to be a factor in her haken gaisha's dispatching policy. I have to add an exception to that because our haken worker at my office is oustandingly skilled and sharp. But then it's a woman who could have had a great career if she hadn't chosen to marry and go part time.

    4 - OK, hourly wages were a bit better than entry-level regular employees (about 20%), but were still damn cheap, and the only way for her to save any money was to work night shifts or overtime 6-7 days a week. Considering she had to pay for her own health insurance and would frequently find herself out of a job and with no pay for weeks at a time, I'm pretty sure she didnt come winning out of the situation.

    5 - See above. Sure National health scheme is mandatory. That just means she had to pay for it out of her own bucks. Of course she never qualified for unemployment insurance.

    oh, and paid holidays.?. HA HA HA, good one!

    Not only the legal protection for part-time and contract workers is extremely weak in japan, but most haken kaisha are operated by real sharks who can and do bend every rule in the system in order to make a buck. Considering how hard it is nowadays to raise kids on a single income, our new birth minister Ms Oguchi might want to try making that sector a bit more attractive.

    Posted in: Top 5 contract employment myths

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    Zolt

    I don't think the financial mess is going to be half as bad in Japan as it is turning out to be in the rest of the world. They already went through the whole subprime thing once, and the trauma was bad enough that they played it safe this time around. Notice that the stock market is flopping, but yet the Yen is about the only currency that stays strong now.

    The companies we see suffer the most are the ones relying on export, but ultimately exports are not all of the japanese economy. Then you've got funds all over the world who financed investment with low-interest yen loans, and are now scrambling all over to closes these positions. As a result, I can imagine that Japanese banks and companies, even though they face a gloomy market outlook, find themselves sitting on tons of cash at the moment.

    Posted in: Nikkei plunges 9% to 5-year low on panic selling

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    Zolt

    Yeah even on my DSLR which has 14 megs, I often use only half unless I want a crazy amount of details... Damn I wish I could shoot 40 frames per second at any resolution!

    Posted in: Casio brings slo-mo to the masses

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    Zolt

    What brave new world we live in! Sex addiction is now considered a disorder! We're heading straight for the alternate future of Zardoz!

    Posted in: Duchovny's visit to Japan up in the air

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    Zolt

    How to ruin a date: "Have a US serviceman drop through the ceiling", although it could be a nice starting line for an adult movie.

    Posted in: U.S. serviceman breaks into love hotel room

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    Zolt

    Well, you have to remember those who vote in LDP elections are just LDP party members, which means basically a bunch of 60-ish more or less disgruntled ossans. You can't expect drastic, ground breaking choices from these guys... Koizumi was a freak.

    Posted in: Aso elected LDP president

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    Zolt

    More than her experience, ability or temperament, it's her record and hillbilly stance on abortion, creationism and such that scares the hell out of me. Even as Veep she'd be a nightmare.

    Posted in: Palin says she's ready to step in as president

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    Zolt

    I kinda liked what she did as defense minister, started a big cleanup (for once before the scandals happened), but some of the guys she tried to fire had some major backup in the LDP, so in the end she got fired instead. 6 month later those same guys got hit in the defense procurement scandal, so she got the last laugh.

    However she's know to be a pretty hardline conservative, so I wish there was a more moderate alternative to her and Aso.

    Posted in: Koike emerges as contender for prime minister

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