JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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To be healthy, live in the big city
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Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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From carnivores to herbivores: how men are defined in Japan
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Japan's nuclear safety standards flawed, says commission chief
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Teacher nabbed for using miror to peek up girl's skirt
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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
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- FT English Teachers for Kids - Osaka
- Kohgakusha Co., Ltd. （株式会社興学社）, Osaka
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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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cleo
Rotten butter, bad music and standing in the way? Yes.
As for retrieving the three boarders, if the cost to the taxpayer is a problem, then Australia should bill Japan for the costs. The Shonan Maru #2 had no business in Australian territorial waters, had spent days just hanging around and could easily have spent another few hours offloading the men to accommodate their friends the Australian government. Instead they chose to steam off full-speed down south, thus increasing the cost to the Aussie taxpayer to have a boat chase off after them. Add in the YM3 presently continuing to violate Aussie waters in the Macquarie Island World Heritage Area, and what we have here is sheer bloody-minded bad manners and bad faith on the part of the whalers.
If the government had acted quickly instead of believing the false coordinates given to them by the Japanese whaling industry then the three men could have been taken off the ship close to shore at very little cost. Perhaps Madame PM could send the bill to Japan. It's only a tiny fraction of the whaling 'research' budget.
Can't say I'm up to date with Aussie politics, but I have read claims that the cost of picking up the three men will still cost the taxpayers less than the PM's recent pay raise. Any Aussies care to comment?
Posted in: Aussie PM criticizes antiwhaling activists after Japan decides to free them
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cleo
Blowing holes in the bodies of living animals is obscene.
Posted in: Aussie PM criticizes antiwhaling activists after Japan decides to free them
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cleo
Sack him, he's in the wrong job.
Posted in: 20-year-old cop arrested for allegedly molesting girl in Yokohama
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cleo
Wrong. It was hanging about the coast after coming up from Antarctic waters.
Raise public awareness of GOVERNMENT OF JAPAN security vessels hanging around the Australian coast, delay the SM2 to get it off the SI's tail.
Instead of sending an Aussie ship out thousands of miles to pick them up, the three could have been transferred to the SI, which is close by, at no cost to the Aussie taxpayer. Doing idiotic things and wasting tax money cuts both ways.
Posted in: Aussie PM criticizes antiwhaling activists after Japan decides to free them
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cleo
They were released because they had no weapons. No harm was done (except to the 'security' boat's pride) and no one was hurt. There has been no suggestion of any intention to harm anyone.
Posted in: 3 Sea Shepherd activists detained aboard Japanese whaling vessel
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cleo
USNinJapan2 - The 'onus' in the first instance is surely on those who made the mess in the first place? Since after being rescued from a fire they're likely in no fit state, I would hope all those with the ability to help and in the vicinity, would help.
Posted in: 3 dead, 37 rescued in Antarctic fishing boat fire
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cleo
And the 'researchers' are not? They've got scientists and military on board, much better prepared to deal with an oil spill.
Assuming they're not too busy spilling whale blood.
Posted in: 3 dead, 37 rescued in Antarctic fishing boat fire
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cleo
Cletus, I agree - the SM2 should have been ordered (and made) to remove itself from Aussie waters before any activists had a chance to breach its 'security'. Japan appears to be keeping as low a profile as possible about the whole thing, presumably because they know making a fuss and having everything out in the open would show them in a much worse light both legally and morally than anyone else involved.
Posted in: Aussie PM criticizes antiwhaling activists after Japan decides to free them
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cleo
Because the SM2 was skulking with its AIS turned off.
Before it turned it off - http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?oldmmsi=431934000&zoom=10&olddate=1/5/2012%2010:58:00%20AM
Posted in: Aussie PM criticizes antiwhaling activists after Japan decides to free them
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cleo
He's telling her not to take his word for it but to check the SM2's GPS.
The fact that a senior official in Australia is clearly swallowing the whalers' coolaid is what speaks volumes. Just check the GPS, already.
arrestpaul - the Good guys are the people trying to stop the lying, cheating sutra-copying thugs shooting barbaric exploding harpoons into marine mammals and indiscriminately killing mothers and babies in a sanctuary.
Posted in: 3 Sea Shepherd activists detained aboard Japanese whaling vessel
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cleo
Cute. I know I don't need to spell it out for you.
Good guys hindering the bad guys = Good
Bad guys hindering the good guys = Bad. Extra bad when they lurk around the edges of the territorial waters of countries that object to their presence and their activities, with AIS switched off to make themselves invisible to legitimate coastal authorities. Obviously up to no good and clearly aware of their own dodginess.
Posted in: 3 Sea Shepherd activists detained aboard Japanese whaling vessel
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cleo
It's part of the whaling fleet. Claiming it's not strictly a whaling vessel is simply more sutra-copying.
? Inwood says one thing, Watson says another.... how is that 2 to 1?
Heda - 'Ms Roxon said such and such' does not mean that Watson thinks what she says is correct, or that he doesn't dispute what she says. Elsewhere Watson has challenged Roxon to actually check the SM2's GPS. He has also pointed out that the SM2 did not have its AIS system activated. If it did, Roxon would be unable to claim she had 'no idea' where the ship with the men on it was and would have no need to contact Tokyo to confirm the ship's location.
Posted in: 3 Sea Shepherd activists detained aboard Japanese whaling vessel
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cleo
So, will the SM2 now return to the nearest Aussie port/rendezvous with an Aussie vessel to offload the three? Either way the SI has the chance to get rid of its tail. Mission accomplished.
Posted in: Aussie PM criticizes antiwhaling activists after Japan decides to free them
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cleo
...who apparently gets her information undiluted straight from Inwood. Maybe she needs to check the GIS on the SM2, which will show the exact location at 4:30 in the morning, the time of the boarding.
Looking at pictures of the newly-painted white SM2 (did the naff paint job come out of our taxes, too?) makes me wonder if the whalers are trying really hard to p off as many people as possible this year. Surely it's not legal to go painting 'Government of Japan' in huge letters on a supposedly privately-owned ship? And for a 'Government of Japan' ship with armed military on board to be lurking on the very edge of another country's contiguous zone (and that a country with a legal dispute against Japan in progress) can't be good diplomacy, can it?
Posted in: 3 Sea Shepherd activists detained aboard Japanese whaling vessel
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cleo
Dastardly....
Regardless of what the tatemae charge is, the honne charge will be 'making our security ship, wot cost us billions of tax yen that we don't have to spend in the first place, look stupid'.
jdowe - Your repeatedly removed post is racist and offensive. Please desist.
Posted in: 3 Sea Shepherd activists detained aboard Japanese whaling vessel
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cleo
He may be intelligent, but he's wrong on this. If humans cannot manage the one beautiful planet they've got, they have no business spreading out like cockroaches to other parts of the solar system/galaxy - taking their diseases, warmongering and other problems with them. Put your own back yard in order, then talk about fixing other places.
Sorry to hear he's not well. Get well soon, Prof.
Posted in: Hawking too ill to make 70th birthday celebration
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cleo
Sorry, but has some vital post of Ossan's been removed? Because I've just read through them all again and cannot find any 'proof' of anything regarding the position of the SM2. All he gives is a link to an article that quotes Inwood (25 miles off the coast). The same article also quotes Watson (within the 24-mile contiguous zone). Until one or the other comes up with a time-stamped video of the boarding showing coordinates, it's a he-said-he-said situation.
Posted in: 3 Sea Shepherd activists detained aboard Japanese whaling vessel
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cleo
Yahoo 'Auctions' where you 'win' the bid by 'bidding' the stated price can be a bit dodgy - the items tend to be cheap tat. One firm sent me a defective product that I returned three times, and each replacement was defective in a different way. After third time unlucky, I asked for my money back. It took several months and a couple of strongly-worded emails.
Never had any problems with Amazon (Japan, UK or US) - in fact they're pretty amazing - or other reputable firms.
Posted in: Online shopping: Have you had any trouble, such as items taking an unusually long time to arrive; they did not arrive at all; they were defective when they did arrive; or they were the wrong items?
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cleo
They chased around after John Lennon for singing anti-war songs, too. What the FBI says means nothing, or less than nothing.
Posted in: Do you consider the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd to be eco-terrorists?
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cleo
Activists. The eco-terorists are the thugs shooting the exploding harpoons and causing slow, agonising deaths. And the thugs expropriating the taxes I pay to keep pensions, hospitals, schools and the like ticking over, and using them instead to spread egg on Japan's face.
Posted in: Do you consider the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd to be eco-terrorists?