JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
-
- Translator
- ZAIHON, Inc. (日本財務翻訳株式会社), Tokyo
- Salary: ¥6.0M / Year Negotiable
-
- 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
-
- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
1
ThonTaddeo
So happy to see so many loving couples; a welcome break from the doom-and-gloom regarding divorce, child custody, and the Hague Convention that have been in the news lately. Let's not forget how happy people can be together!
My own Mrs. and I see each other as individuals first, members of each other's families second, and representatives of each other's countries a distant third. We almost never argue, and if one of us gets upset about the other one, the big pile of happy past memories quickly drowns out whatever trifling problem is getting to us today.
I ilked seeing how affectionate Makoto's husband is to her. On that point I envy you, Makoto. My own better half tells me I'm too "betabore" if I hug or kiss her too often; she doesn't want a lot of affection. You know how some people are メタボリック and get fat and have to watch their diets? Well, some people are ベタボリック and can't get enough love (and there's nothing wrong with that!).
Posted in: International marriages
1
ThonTaddeo
Hold on a minute, Cleo -- if they do that, we taxpayers will be paying pension money to them for all those years while we wait for the city hall bureaucrats to notice how unusual it is to have 120-year-old pensioners who never leave their homes!
Posted in: Government backtracks on tobacco tax hike
1
ThonTaddeo
Sometimes prison terms of "a year and a day" are given because sentences of up to and including one year are served a local jail, as opposed to terms of more than a year which are in state/federal prison. It could have been phrased "more than one year and up to 18 months", but the point is that it has to be more than, not exactly, one year.
Posted in: Auto parts firm execs to forgo pay after $200 mil price fixing fine
-1
ThonTaddeo
It sounds form the note like the donor has already committed, or soon will commit, suicide.
I hope this isn't the case.
Posted in: Y10 mil 'for Tohoku' left in bag in Saitama municipal bldg restroom
1
ThonTaddeo
Ramzel, you are cherry-picking the parts of the US with the highest sales taxes, and not accounting for how most US jurisdictions don't charge sales tax on essentials like clothing and unprepared food. Add to this the fact that states can compete to atract residents with lower taxes, and you have some checks in place that prevent governments from ratcheting sales taxes too high. (They're still doing it, but more slowly than they probably would like.)
New York State sales tax is 4%. It's only in NYC that they can get away with gouging the populace for 8.875%. Some states have no sales tax at all.
I can't understand why the individual prefectures allow the national government to set a uniform sales tax rate nationwide. Imagine the economic benefits that could be brought to the poorer prefectures if they could eliminate consumption tax or lower it significantly!
Back in my home states of New York and New Jersey, there's a healthy competition. NJ doesn't tax clothes whereas NYC does, so big outlet clothing stores have set up shop in NJ, where sales tax is already lower, and attract customers from NY who love saving that big 8 7/8%. (NY counters with the occasional tax holiday for clothing.)
NJ has a system where sales tax is cut in half in economically-depressed areas, so you can save 3% on anything you buy there. Store owners in these "enterprise zones" would go bankrupt if the state capital (or Washington, DC) were to siphon away all their money!
Imagine something like that being tried in Japan? No consumption tax if you buy something in cash-strapped Okinawa or in tsunami-ravaged Tohoku? No, I can't either.
Posted in: Gov't, DPJ settle on tax increase plan
0
ThonTaddeo
I'm very happy that my home state doesn't have the death penalty.
You can free a wrongly-convicted person and pay them compensation, but there's no bringing a wrongly-executed person back from the dead.
Posted in: Troy Davis executed in Georgia amid international outcry
2
ThonTaddeo
A blind person should visit the TEPCO offices and say he'd be happy to fill out the form, but he needs someone to read that 156-page manual to him, in its entirety, out loud.
Posted in: TEPCO compensation hotline overwhelmed by 3,000 complaints per day
1
ThonTaddeo
This story seems really suspicious. It pains me to say it, but Ithink this mother is hiding something. If someone entered the car to kidnap the child, wouldn't there be fingerprints on the door handle? And how would an abductor know that this car in particular was unlocked? You can't see that until you get right up next to the door.
Whoever the culprit is, I just hope the little girl is alive and unhurt.
Posted in: Police continue search for baby girl feared abducted from car in Oita
0
ThonTaddeo
Not necessarily. Rather, people in good health and with good genes are able to find partners to marry more easily than unhealthy people who will die sooner.
Posted in: Over-50 first-time marriages increasing
2
ThonTaddeo
I'm with you, HumanTarget. Ever since the 28-degree-hell "Cool Biz" was introduced, each summer I'm left think that this one will be my last. Changing clothes multiple times per day; not getting anything done; being lethargic all day long.
At least back when we had air conditioning, you could step out of a building and spend three or four minutes walking to a train station in the heat and not start sweating yet. You ad a buffer of a few minutes before the heat would really get oppressive. Now it's hot indoors, and hot outdoors, and hot inside the stations, and the sweat never stops!
Posted in: Heat wave continues across Japan
1
ThonTaddeo
Not even the coldest winter can be as tough as this summer was. If I had a choice of wearing a heavy winter coat indoors every day or enduring the sweaty hell that went on nonstop all through this summer, I'd choose the cold every time.
Obviously he's speaking to the tyrannical lizard-like samugari who think that even 30º indoors isn't warm enough!
Posted in: Kansai Electric warns of power shortages this winter
0
ThonTaddeo
This man is amazing. Hats off to him!
I wonder how much money these journeys cost him. It can't possibly be cheap.
Posted in: Minoru Saito, 77, nears finish of his 3-year, 28,500-mile 'wrong way' voyage
-1
ThonTaddeo
If there's one good thing about living in Tokyo, it's that you can find all kinds of food from back home -- if you're willing to pay through the nose for it!
I like to go to the Seijo Ishii stores; there's one in Bunkyo-ku near LaQua that has all kinds of foreign snacks. I'm addicted!
Cheese - Japanes stores have little variety, and the costs are through the roof! When back in the US I'll stock up on the good stuff, seal it up in my luggage with those frozen gel packs, and carry it back to Japan.
Two things that are hard to find in large quantities are root beer and Mountain Dew. Why can't you get them in 1.5-liter bottles? I hate paying 120 yen per can. Whenever I'm back in Okinawa I see the big PET bottles, but can't be bothered to carry them back because of the weight. If only Tokyoites could appreciate the great taste of these two drinks!
Last item: beer! Very little variety here, and what there is is overpriced. I shouldn't be paying more for a single bottle than I'd pay for a four- or six-pack back home! So many small microbrews that you can't get here, particularly European ones. I really miss them.
Posted in: Living in Japan, which food or drink item do you miss most from your home country?
0
ThonTaddeo
I agree with Ranger; it's hard to measure the productivity decline of having to work in 28º+ temperatures. More mistakes on the job; more lethargy; your brain moves a lot slower.
Where I disagree -- and I admit to probably being in the minority -- is that I'm not a big fan of the super-casual business wear that companies started promoting so that they could keep ambient temperatures higher. I prefer the degree of formality that has long been a hallmark of Japanese service. I like wearing a tie to work and looking professional, and I like seeing professional-looking people around me. This summer it was men in T-shirts and women in tank tops and flip-flops; I felt like I was back in the US!
Keep the temperature at 19-21º so that people can be productive and quick-thinking. There are many ways to save energy without -- work in smaller spaces; work shorter hours and send people home on time; don't use excess PCs that generate heat; insulate the walls; let people open windows and get a breeze blowing in; etc., etc.
And at the very least, conserve power in the winter also so that it's not stifling hot all year round. My company kept things at 25-26º in the winter!
Posted in: Gov't lifts restrictions on power use in and around Tokyo
4
ThonTaddeo
If 'gaijin' were truly a neutral word with no negative connotations, Japanese people would never get upset or defensive when people point out (as in Ty Neilson's example) that when outside of Japan, they are the 'gaijin'.
But they do get upset and defensive on occasion. Clearly, 'gaijin' is not something that a lot of Japanese want to be called.
Posted in: Gaijin -- just a word or racial epithet with sinister implications?
1
ThonTaddeo
Ivan, once again I agree entirely. Down with samugari tyranny!
Article Unavailable
1
ThonTaddeo
@kwbrow2
Indeed, this poor innocent boy's biological father must be heartbroken. His wife gets custody of the children, marries an abusive monster, and his son dies. This case is yet another argument for some form of joint custody for divorced parents.
Posted in: Parents arrested over death of 7-year-old son
1
ThonTaddeo
Hiko, I agree completely with your views on Noda. Being the most outspoken proponent of taxing the people even more, he (I suspect) will ram through his beloved 10% shouhizei and then be discarded, but with his tax hike intact. If I were a Japanese voter I would feel so powerless on this issue -- politicians just keep repeating the sales tax hike talk one after another until the public accepts it as shouganai despite there being no essential connection between consumption (particularly of essential non-luxury goods and services) and the things he wants to fund.
Consumption taxes hurt the poor and middle classes the most. They have to spend the greatest percentage of their incomes, and younger voters in particular have big expenses coming up in the next few years. If these politicians really wanted people to have more kids, as they profess to, they'd stop pursuing policies that are an inimical as possible to child-raising. Instead, they expect cash-strapped, job-strapped younger folks to keep no lining the pockets of the baby boomers and their seniors.
Japan's "silver tyranny" has taken another step forward with Noda. This nation desperately needs a tax revolt.
Posted in: Noda to become Japan's next prime minister
2
ThonTaddeo
Will you folks forgive a little Schadenfreude? Now the shoe's on the other foot for those heat-loving samugari who smiled as we sweated through the heat of summer without air conditioning, unproductive and lethargic all the way.
A normal ambient indoor temperature is about 21 degrees C. Since we had things at 28-29 this summer, I say go down 7 or 8 degrees in the winter, and set the thermostats at 13-14 degrees.
They can bundle up if they feel cold -- that's a lot more than we coolness-lovers could do in the summer, when coming to work sans shirt or pants is hardly an option!
Wear an extra layer, get a hot cup of tea in hand, and get ready for your half of setsuden, heat-loving lizards! We've already paid!
Posted in: Freezing winter looms for Tokyo post-Fukushima
0
ThonTaddeo
@Elbuda - it means "in my humble opinion".
Kan seemed sincere enough but I agree that there wasn't much he could have done differently, and his party shackled him with ridiculous vote-buying, budget-bankrupting "promises" that he didn't have much choice but to back away from.
Koizumi may have been a nationalist who got away with it because of his charisma, but at least the nation performed well financially durnig his term. These days the government is spending three times what they take in, with the deficits presumably to be paid by today's younger workers. All I want from the next PM is a promise of a balanced budget.
Posted in: Kan resigns; says he did all he could, given difficulties he faced