JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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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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- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
2
as_the_crow_flies
Johannes, as always, I agree with you! You just hammered the nail that sticks out on the head, to mix a metaphor.If I was one of these care assistants, I would just leave the Japanese to drown in their own poop. Bearing in mind the average age of the Japanese politician, they will many of them be in line for the ministrations of care assistants in a very few years, so they're even more than normally short-sighted not to provide for their own future.
Posted in: First group of foreign care worker trainees take written exam
1
as_the_crow_flies
Profit first, Pride second. You know how I kNOW I'm right? If it were about pride then they would have built a safer nuclear reactor. You'd pride yourselves on attention to safety and detail. Pride would stop the dispersal of radiated food items.
You think those guys working at TEPCO are PROUD?? You think they are proud to wear that TEPCO mark on their uniforms? NOT!!! So why do they still work there? tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock...
You said it. Brilliant!
Bwahahahaahaaa!!! You're such a card!
Posted in: Foreign firms feel sidelined in post-quake rebuilding
2
as_the_crow_flies
I've got a better, cheaper idea than these troublesome and costly aptitude tests. Just adapt a load of pachinko machines, and for the one in 100 candidates who manage to win, there's a visa. The rest, get on that plane, and ask your relatives to come and sweat blood for peanuts. Practical, cheap, transparent (there's no pretence at the beginning that Japan actually expects to have to concede a real qualification at the end), and in the meantime, the trainees will keep coming in the Vegas spirit of I might just win.
Posted in: First group of foreign care worker trainees take written exam
1
as_the_crow_flies
I'm not ready to pass judgement on the doctor without knowing more. If you have looked on at dialysis, or you have already gone on dialysis and the life you're living is grim, it's understandable to become desperate. While I don't condone him going to a gangster to negotiate a kidney, desperate situations can blind you to the consequences of what you're getting yourself into. The first deal went sour, he got fleeced by the Yakuza fixer, and lost 10m yen. Maybe the doctor wasn't thinking too clearly, felt he'd gone in too deep, and wasn't asking enough questions about where the kidney was come from. Dialysis doesn't make for clear thinking, serious illness and financial pressure, and the knowledge you've done something illegal could have made it hard for him to back out at that stage.
Sure, he should have asked more questions about the donor, specially once he knew it was a young guy. But the whole thing might have got out of his hands by that stage. I think he wanted to legally "adopt" the donor (you can do that in Japan), but the wife was against it. It was all pretty convoluted.
I would hesitate to call the doctor scum, as I simply don't know enough about what went on. The Yakuza parasites who leach off of peoples' desperation (the donor and the doctor), yes, they are scum. They should get the book thrown at them. Personally I find more abhorrent the many Japanese over the years in the same situation as the doctor, who have gone over to China to buy a kidney harvested from an executed prisoner. That I find hard to stomach.
Personally, not having undergone dialysis, but having seen someone who has, for many years, I would hesitate to pass judgement without knowing more.
And yes, all the posters who say it's the system which is really the problem, are so right. Seems like the doctor will get a heavier punishment than the extortionists. And the lack of public awareness is indeed the cause of the ridiculously high, and growing, waiting list. To the point that if you don't have a live related donor to turn to, you might as well give up on the idea of a kidney transplant in Japan. Don't even waste your time signing up to the list.
Posted in: Doctor jailed for buying kidney from gangsters
2
as_the_crow_flies
No, we don't need nor want transparency. It is too much of a burden for us to know the inner working of government.
Japan: your faith in the Japanese government is touching. I think you are either a) a lone voice in a minority of one b) on hire from the government/TEPCO to post on forums like this. After all, they planted people at public hearings on nuclear power or paid them to send in pro-reactor emails or voice pro-reactor opinions at public meetings for years. c) joking
Posted in: Nuclear disaster task force kept no records of meetings
0
as_the_crow_flies
You've got to love how this article presented this. What happened was, members of the public turned up, queued up, got their tickets to the public hearing. Then the organisers of this public hearing decided that they'd rather the public went and heard in a separate room, not the hearing. The public were not impressed and protested. Does that make them activists? They didn't storm a conference room, they just tried to get into the hearing they'd queued up to get into.
Two experts on the panel were so disgusted at the shenanigans that they walked out, as they didn't want to be associated with such a travesty. This has been so watered down in the article that you wouldn't know this by reading it.. One of the experts is University of Tokyo metallic material scientist Hiromitsu Ino, who is quoted in the article.
Come to this site for the forum, but get your news elsewhere!
Posted in: Japan to let some nuclear plants operate after 40-year limit
2
as_the_crow_flies
In a move described by sources familiar with the topic as "unprecendented", a spokeswoman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police confirmed to AFP that officers have in principle ruled out suicide.
I swear I was just being flippant when I wrote this the other day! Is this a case of Life imitating Art? Anyway, whatever the police say, I still think it's a toss between a yakuza assisted suicide, and an enraged lover/partner/partner's significant Other. And however it happened, what a horrible way to go. RIP
Posted in: Police haven't ruled out suicide in severed penis case, media report
0
as_the_crow_flies
In a move described by sources familiar with the topic as "unprecendented", a spokeswoman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police confirmed to AFP that officers have in principle ruled out suicide.
As for who did it, some of you are almost as quick as the police to draw a conclusion that this is a crime of passion. It could equally be a yakuza job. I personally know of someone who was pushed down a flight of stairs by the yakuza for non-payment, and as far as I know noone was ever convicted of his death. Only last month someone was killed in a hit-and-run, and it has turned out he was murdered. It probably happens a lot, and considering 30,000 officially declared suicides a year in Japan and the low autopsy/investigation rates, is actually quite a scary thought.
Anyway, RIP. Noone deserves to go that way.
Posted in: Body of naked man with genitals sliced off found in apartment
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as_the_crow_flies
Net Ninja, I couldn't make it to any of this, but I'm really interested to know what was said. Any report, videos, due to come up online that you know of? This would be really good to spread the message. I would have loved to hear the Governor's angle, though we already know what fumbling, bumbling liars the bureacrats and ministers and spokespeople all are. You might think they're basically decently blokes, like Edano, but their job has been to lie and fudge, and that's exactly what they've done.
All I can say to this is, I feel the government's pain. It must be very stressful for them indeed to keep saying this one with a straight face. Takes a thick skin, and a good dose of detachment from everyone around you.
Erm no, not just "fears", radiation. Translators don't seem to understand the difference. Fears might not be good for your heart long term, but they're not a major health risk. Radiation on the other hand, can kill you short, medium or long-term, whether you're worried about it or not. This simple, scientific distinction is deliberately fudged in Japanese.
The government has been at pains to stress the lack of an “immediate” health risk. .
Posted in: 2,000 protest against nuclear power in Yokohama
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as_the_crow_flies
I think he means a cash only economy is completely normal in the circles he moves in. After all those pesky anti-money laundering laws do so cramp one's style when one's just trying to earn an honest buck. And what's with all the damned impertinent questions of this cheeky judge. Just who do they think he is?
Posted in: Ozawa: Nothing unusual about keeping Y400 mil in cash at home
1
as_the_crow_flies
Not sure why this guy is even being given column inches to give his opinion, as Jake Adelstein pointed out in "the Daily Beast" that
So here we have
and
Only in Japan, huh?
Posted in: Yoshimoto Kogyo president says he hopes Shimada will return to showbiz
6
as_the_crow_flies
>
Olympus did so. It just wasn't a problem until suddenly someone made a molehill into a mountain.
Not sure what size the moles are where you come from, but US$687 million paid to a middle-man as a fee – a sum equal to 31 percent of the purchase price, and which ranks as the highest ever M&A fee, sounds like quite a big molehill from where I'm sitting.
Posted in: Woodford to sue Olympus, citing lack of investor support to get his job back
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as_the_crow_flies
What do you mean, Mabodofu-san? I want to believe yurekuru is going to give me reliable warnings, so this is a good test. How does Yurekuru "shut down"? My alarm didn't go off on my phone, but maybe because it was on silent. Tho there was no screen warning. I checked yurekuru a minute or two after the quake and it registered a "saidai shindo" which I took to mean "large earthquake, but no accurate measurements yet." I take it that it's because it's out in the middle of the sea and therefore there are no accurate measurements. Turned on the TV and most programming was uninterrupted! Just the text announcement at the top of the screen, suggesting the epicentre was on land in Ibaraki. As i wanted to know if there was a tsunami warning and I was glued to the TV for a bout 10 mins trying to make sense of it, very confusing! One of those deep sea tsunamis coming in from the south could roar in straight up Tokyo bay, and this epicentre was directly south of Tokyo according to Yurekuru.
Posted in: M7.0 quake rocks Tokyo, eastern Japan; no danger of tsunami
3
as_the_crow_flies
The headline tells you everything to know about the height of the bar. I reckon even the world's most flexible limbo dancer would have trouble getting under it.
I say "take a Flying Get".
Posted in: AKB48 wins top Japan record industry award
0
as_the_crow_flies
Well written article. Virtually free of Japanglish double-speak, apart from that “It is difficult to say that whistleblowers are effectively protected". Good to get something with a bit of analysis.
Posted in: Weak laws let firms hide fraud and punish whistleblowers
1
as_the_crow_flies
Noooo, Kentaro, you've got your priorities all wrong! The panda should be top of the agenda. It's all about pandas. Isn't Kim Jon-Un part descended from a panda?
Posted in: Noda, Wen discuss N Korea, abduction issue, pandas
3
as_the_crow_flies
potentially deadly and little understood even by experts
What a non-sequitur! How can it be potentially deadly and not understood at the same time? Actually, a lot is understood by experts about radiation, most arguing that it's basically Not Good For You. The disagreement comes on how much is not good for you, and in estimating what damage it's likely to cause to what percentage of people exposed to a given dose. For example, whether there is a safe level of exposure. But the vast, vast majority of radiation experts agree that nasties like strontium and plutonium are definitely Not Good For You, and can lead to a whole array of diseases. Period.
Posted in: Radiation fears affect New Year meals
2
as_the_crow_flies
The mother has agreed to stay in the US for three years as part of the court's decision. (I would guess that this will be at Karina's father's expense, unless she has sellable skills to offer in the US. If this is the case, it goes to show how hard he's prepared to work to make this work). I saw her lawyer interviewed on TV following the ruling, and this lawyer stated that everything would be done in the best interests of the child having access to both parents. Sounds like, Finally, a victory for sanity. Let's hope the parents can work it out so each can spend time with Karina and are a part of their little girl's life, free of mindgames or conflict. That's got to be the best possible outcome. If the Japanese grandparents can also buy into this version without feeling that they are losing face after stating that Karina didn't want to be with her dad, then she has a chance of a happy family life. The father sounds like he is pulling out the stops to make this work out for everyone, and seems to be choosing his words carefully so as not to further hurt feelings on his wife's side. Let's hope the Japanese side of Karina's family also know how to be generous and be part of the new arrangements. And please, Inoue-san, don't try it on and try and abduct your daughter again!
Posted in: Girl reunited with father in U.S. 4 years after being taken to Japan by mother
8
as_the_crow_flies
Some leading food distributors, the journalist explains, have grasped this, and conduct their own tests, results of which appear on their labels. Their standards are far more stringent than those of the government – 40 becquerels per kilogram instead of 500.
There you have it. It's not about panic. It's about a cover-up, and people trying to protect their health. And their children's health. And their grandchildren's health. Dressing it up as "panic" is twisting reality and blaming it on the victims. We will be victims of Japan Inc, hand in hand with the government's, coverup of true radiation levels. This country has a long history of coverups and mislabelling when it comes to food safety of Japanese food, (while using stringent standards for imported food as a way of reducing imports to a trickle), and the public acts accordingly. For months, MONTHS, we have been calling for accurate and full information about radiation levels in food. And what happens? Jgov, to bolster TEPCO, encourages farmers on contaminated land to grow food, in order to avoid TEPCO having to compensate them, and the food mysteriously "finds its way" onto the market. Supermarkets, out of "respect for the feelings of farmers", take the place of origin off the labels, so you can't even control where you get your food from. Buy "blended" rice and you can be fairly sure some of it will come from somewhere contaminated. Ditto for food at a chain restaurant, in a school, in a hospital.
Stop slipping contaminated food onto the market. Stop guilt tripping people into eating food from contaminated areas. Give people trustworthy, accurate, full and timely reporting of radiation levels, and they will start to believe that the government will act to protect their health, even if it damages Japan Inc. But they have so comprehensively destroyed public trust with their behaviour so far, that it will take a long time before many are prepared to believe them.
Are they concerned about people eating contaminated hakusai? No, just about sales.
It would be nice if the writer had the balls to just say it clear. To make rational judgements, people need rational information. They DON'T need emotional blackmail about producers' "feelings". I would love to support producers, but the government's and Japan Inc's lies are preventing me from doing so without risking my own health.
Posted in: Radiation fears affect New Year meals
-1
as_the_crow_flies
Nope, not a misprint. The way it works is, you are forced to stop working, simply because of your age. Then you sit and wait for five years for your miserable pension to kick in at 65. It's a total injustice, to deny people the opportunity to continue working, while at the same time giving them no means of support until five years later. what happens is that people are forced to destitute themselves in order to receive seikatsu hogo, and arrive at pension age with no savings. How would the rest of us manage to support ourselves for five years with no income? Right, I thought not.
Posted in: Gov't, business groups discuss raising retirement age to 65