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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TheQuestion
If New Zealand dropped wouldn't it just be AUS?
Posted in: U.S. to expand military presence in Australia to counter China
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TheQuestion
Some nations have resources, some have history, and some nations have guns. And in a world with an increasingly uncertain future everybody wants the assurance that if push comes to shove they have the biggest, ugliest guy backing them up and who's bigger and uglier than a nation that’s been fighting since it's inception?
Posted in: U.S. to expand military presence in Australia to counter China
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TheQuestion
As other posters have noted Hamas is the ruling party in Palestine and what is their militant arm if not the military of Palestine if it should become a recognized nation? If they want the respect of statehood they need to behave as befits the heads of a state. I don't see that happening.
Like I said, this can go in a number of unsettling directions and I don't think theres a person on this site that would be willing to put money on which.
Posted in: Diplomatic flurry ahead of Palestinian U.N. bid
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TheQuestion
If Palestine gets statehood and a rocket fired by Hamas, that country's elected leaders, kills some Israeli’s it's no longer an act of militants or terrorists, it's a full-blown act of war. Without a standing peace agreement respected by both sides the recognition of Palestine will only aggravate the situation. At best nothing will happen, the blockade will remain in place and Hamas will brood over their hollow victory. At worst a misstep will lead to open war.
Nothing good will come of this. I just hope nothing awful happens either.
I recall those peace activists descending on Israeli troops with clubs and knives the second they got on the ship. They knew the Israelis would come to inspect the ship, that's what happens in a blockade, but their actions prevented what should have been a routine search.
Posted in: Diplomatic flurry ahead of Palestinian U.N. bid
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TheQuestion
I thought the purpose of a passport or any kind of identification is to, you know, identify people. I can respect a transgender individuals desire to be viewed and judged as a member of gender that they identify most with but the point of having stuff like height, eye color, and sex as descriptors is so that an inspecting officer can reasonably determine whether or not you're the person on the card.
Your identification should indicate what sex you are at this point in time. If you should change that sex at a later date you can re-apply for an updated one.
Unisex bathrooms are not fun. Either they're set up like a women’s rest room and i have to wait for a stall to open or its set up like a men’s room and women crowd the open area behind the sinks because there are less stalls. The transgender can go in the restroom they most identify with and use a stall, nobody will be the wiser. Alternatively businesses could start having a third bathroom, like a single occupant kind, that could be a unisex and serve as a handicapped restroom.
Posted in: 'X' now a gender option in Australian passports
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TheQuestion
Vernors ginger ale, the option to put cheese on everything, lake perch, the ability to eat Mexican food in a restaurant run by actual Mexicans for lunch and drive 3 miles to eat Greek food at a Greek family restaurant for dinner, and my lakes. I spent my summers on lake Huron, God it's beautiful.
Oh, and micro-brewed beer. I been stone drunk in more countries on more types of alcohol than I care to remember but I'll trade all the wine I ever had in France for a pint of stout made down the street from me.
Posted in: Living in Japan, which food or drink item do you miss most from your home country?
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TheQuestion
I'm at a loss. America used to be the world’s most stalwart advocate of free trade and now we're engaging in protectionism and need our neighbors to the north to remind us how dangerous that line of thinking can be to growth. Free trade helps everyone, protectionism only hinders.
Posted in: Canada denounces Obama 'buy American' proposal
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TheQuestion
All things considered it was rather ineffectual. Suicide bombers sometimes kill dozens of people, these particular beasts shot a few police officers and civilians before being killed. It showed some glaring security problems to be sure but this kind of low intensity display won't do much aside from correcting some outdated guidelines about not checking women (the attackers were dressed as women to bypass checkpoints)
Is there an active effort to divert that oil? No. Most of the pipelines go through Kazakhstan. Afghanistan is plays host to a few token lines but those have never faced anything but a passing threat before or after the invasion.
Posted in: Kabul attack over; assailants dead
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TheQuestion
It kind of looks like the typical red sun is moving really fast. It keeps the sun but adds some flair to it.
It's not the re-branding of the century but at least they're giving it a go. I remember when all my co-workers in the States used to fight to sublet my apartment during the 8 months out of the year I was either in Europe or back in the U.S. The interest has really died down and considering how vibrent the culture is it's kind of sad both for the lack of tourism to a truely lovely nation and the fact I'm not making money off sub-letting anymore...
It took me years to get that spot and I'll be damned before I have to go back to the flat my company maintains.
Posted in: 'Cool Japan'
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TheQuestion
American Psychological Association. (2003, February 19). Amicus Curiae brief submitted in Stogner concluded that the rate of recidivism for child molestors in the U.S was roughly 10%. So I don't know where you're getting your assertion from. And even 10% is unacceptably high.
My original post was in reguards to why a sex offenders list makes more sense than a list for those convicted of murder. Crimes that are sexual in nature have a much higher rate of repeat offenses than homocide does (only about 2% or less).
Posted in: Osaka governor wants authorities to keep track of convicted pedophiles
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TheQuestion
How delightfully vague. I'll keep an eager eye open for developments.
Posted in: Blast at French nuclear site kills 1, injures 4
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TheQuestion
I call 14% unacceptably high. Murder and like crimes have rates that are a fraction of that. Children that these people target need to live with the trauma their entire life and releasing these people into the general public without a proper tracking system is dangerously irrisponcible.
Posted in: Osaka governor wants authorities to keep track of convicted pedophiles
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TheQuestion
Murderers and other perpetrators of violent crimes have a relatively low rate of recidivism while pedophiles have an incredibly high one.
The U.S sex offenders registry is flawed in many ways but it's existance is not something I'm opposed to.
Posted in: Osaka governor wants authorities to keep track of convicted pedophiles
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TheQuestion
I'm guessing the crowd was pretty big, most of the injuries and likely the deaths were probably caused by trampling. Unpleasant way to go, maybe next time they can just protest if they feel the urge instead of devolving into a mob, but you know, that would only make sense.
Great, thats a few dozen some odd comments that I don't have to read.
Posted in: 3 killed, 1,000 injured in attack on Israeli embassy in Egypt
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TheQuestion
How is government enforced stress by any stretch of the imagination reasonable? Brazil is also a rapidly expanding economy but you don't see them offing themselves by the thousand.
Look at the list of nations by their suicide rates and you'll find at least one very stiking similarity. The nations with the highest suicide rates are those that exert the most control over their population either through explicit application of force like Russia or China or through implicit requirements like South Korea or Japan.
Some of these countries really have to take a chill pill, and I don't mean xanax.
Doubtful, if you're not a massive consumer China has little interest. Plus the long term economic models get a little bit sketchy for china. The only thing they have going for them is cheap labor, if Chinese workers get it into their head that they should have better pay, working conditions, or the right to be treated like actual human beings the labor competitivness goes out the window real quick.
Nobody really knows what the world is going to look like in 20 years...hopefully some of will still be around to find out.
Posted in: China's suicide rate among highest in world
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TheQuestion
Oh joy, another seven days war. Because that worked out so well for the region last time they tried it. Israel has been preparing for just such an occasion for decades now.
Without the veto right none of the big players would join. Considering the UN has little/no authority now it would have even less without the U.S, Russia, and China. In all likelyhood it would just break up and we'd have a number of small clubs instead of our much beloved clusterduck that is the U.N.
Posted in: Palestinians launch PR blitz for U.N. recognition
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TheQuestion
There is already a registry for handguns in California as there is in most states. Additionally there is already a Federal registry for Title II weapons so I don’t know where you’re getting this idea that there are no firearm registry programs.
There is on constitutional right to vehicles. Gun laws are subject to tests of undue burden and the courts have already stuck down a variety of gun related programs.
Problem is it’s vey unlikely that a log gun registration would save anybody. Money is a factor as well, California is flat broke. If anything California is a poster child for how most firearm legislation doesn’t work considering its high crime rate.
Posted in: 4 dead, 8 wounded in shooting at IHOP restaurant in Nevada
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TheQuestion
Hockey and boxing are the only spots I watch. RIP hockey players, you’ll be sorely missed.
Posted in: Ice hockey world in shock after Russian jet crash kills 43
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TheQuestion
Actually if you look at murder rates in countries like Australia, the U.K, and other heavily controlled nations the murder rate wasn’t significantly impacted by the implementation of strict gun control laws. In most nations, U.S included, murder rates have been on a steady decline for decades even before the implementation of gun control legislation. The Australian government has even admitted that their own bans have not had a significant effect of violent crime.
Australia: a massive buyback of low-risk guns. Evaluating Gun Policy: Effects on Crime and Violence. The Brookings Institution, Washington.
Violent crime has been on the decline across the board whether it’s in the U.S, Europe, or Australia. The decline has actually been sharper in the U.S despite its loosening gun control legislation. The U.S still has a higher murder rate, that’s not in dispute, but it has always had a higher murder rate even when gun control in the U.S ad Europe were comparable in the early 20th century. A more diverse nation is bound to have more conflict within its borders simply due to the conflict that actually arises when differing cultures are forced to coexist.
Long guns are used in an incredible minority of gun crimes, less than 4%, the registration program would cost millions of dollars to both taxpayers to set up the long gun registry and the gun owners that would have to register them and would not likely have any impact on gun crime.
Posted in: 4 dead, 8 wounded in shooting at IHOP restaurant in Nevada
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TheQuestion
But not to force them which you seem to avdocate.
The free market forces no one to believe anything. You may operate as you see fit so long as you don't violate anybody elses body or property, under such systems people of any faith may operate.
Really? What truely free market supresses anybody. If suppression is possible than it is not a free market, what part of 'free' are you having a problem with.
And that would be their right under a free market system. They may serve each other as they see fit, help each other, donate to the poor, and perform any public works that they desire. Under a free market that is their right, under a social system they wouldn't have a choice in the matter.
Charity, public works, and any other good task should be voluntary. Why are you so repulsed by the idea of letting people act as they will? This way the faithfull may act and the those that lack faith may go about their business. I won't force beliefs on others though you seem content to.
Posted in: A hot issue on the U.S. campaign trail: theology