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
1
cleo
What you're saying, bogva, is that these scams work (when they work) in Japan because they prey on folk's (misguided) desire to help their family.
Compare that to the Nigerian scam, international lottery scam, etc (which must be working somewhere, otherwise they'd have given up by now surely) that seems to work (when it works) by preying on folk's blind greed to get something for nothing.
Posted in: Woman conned out of nearly Y4.5 mil in bank transfer scam
3
cleo
The report was compiled during a 1991 background investigation of Jobs by the FBI after former president George HW Bush recommended his appointment to the President’s Export Council.
Tree. Wrong one. Woof woof.
Posted in: FBI releases background check file on Steve Jobs
0
cleo
I don't see that contraception or abortion (except for medical reasons) should be paid for out of health insurance funds or taxes; like pregnancy, getting laid is not an illness.
Next they'll be saying push-up bras and anti-wrinkle cream should be covered by insurance.
Posted in: Birth control row 'senseless': top Obama ally
0
cleo
...and that's when you ask her for money?
:-)
(Sorry, couldn't resist...)
Had a phone call from worried Son just last week, saying the parents of one of his workmates had just fallen for this kind of scam and assuring us that under no circumstances would he ever come asking us for money and we should refuse any pleas over the phone because it wouldn't be him. I assured him that we had no money to give him anyway.
The scammers are actually very savvy (the successful ones, at least.) They showed on telly how a person (who knew he was taking part in a programme about scamming) could be persuaded that his partner had caused a traffic accident and needed a large sum of money immediately to pay the insurance. He started off totally skeptical and ended up ready to rush to the bank.
Posted in: Woman conned out of nearly Y4.5 mil in bank transfer scam
0
cleo
The national pension contribution at present is ¥15,020 per month. The health insurance contribution varies according to income and region, but assuming a minimum of ¥10,000 per month, people earning ¥650,000 a year would be paying almost half their income in contributions.
Not sure how I feel about this. People should pay their way, that's a given. Married women who can afford not to work should not be given free pensions and free health care while others who need to work to live must pay through the nose. But people whose circumstances dictate they can work only part-time in low-paying jobs should not be gouged to this extent.
Then again, people on low incomes are eligible for reduced pension premiums or no premiums. Is this a scheme to make the sengyo shufus 'eligible' to pay pension premiums while at the same time making them exempt and thus preserving the status quo?
Posted in: More part-timers to become eligible for health insurance, pension programs
2
cleo
Going into Narita they ask everyone to show ID, foreigners and locals - that's because it's Narita and they're still worried about the anti-airport terrorists (and in recent years, common or garden terrorists). Security guards and police at Narita looking for suspicious persons are not the same as subway station officials whose job is to check your ticket, not your ID. If your lovely Chinese friend goes to Narita, they'll ask her for ID just like they ask everyone else. As a blonde, blue-eyed whitey, in 35 years I have never been asked for ID except in circumstances where Japanese are also asked for ID - opening a bank account, getting a credit card, getting documents from the yakuba, etc. And going to Narita.
Posted in: Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
1
cleo
herefornow - Subway station officials have no right to ask anyone for ID. If your fiance is Asian, how can they tell she isn't Japanese anyway? Because she's with you? What reason do they give for asking for ID? No one has to show ID to ride a train.
Posted in: Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
4
cleo
herefornow - well all the time I've been here I've been educated, foreign and a woman, nothing I can do about that, but I haven't always been married to a Japanese man, haven't always had children, and haven't always lived in the countryside. Haven't even always spoken very good Japanese. So while I realise that my situation now may not be representative of the majority of fotb foreigners, I have trod much the same path as many.
One young Japanese man, fresh out of a prestigious Japanese university, and employed by one of the major banks is also representative of no more than a very tiny percentage of the population of Japan.
Posted in: Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
1
cleo
Al, read the posts.
Posted in: 5-year-old girl dies after being buried by snow falling from roof
0
cleo
I had the same experience when my Dad came over (a long time ago now), and he didn't look like Father Christmas. I'm not sure what it was, some mixture of curiosity about/sense of hospitality towards sensei's parent plus esteem for oldies plus fascination (fascinated horror?) at the thick Lancashire accent. Whatever it was, my Dad lapped it up and went back home thinking Japan was a wonderful place full of wonderful people.
Posted in: Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
1
cleo
I would say it's the threads built on unfounded generalisations and assumptions that are the most boring. If they fizzle out, fine. More room for better threads about Japan as it really is, not as it exists inside the heads of a handful of people.
Posted in: Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
-4
cleo
So does aflatoxin. Eat your chockkies and get liver cancer?
Posted in: Mold found on Daimaru Matsuzakaya Valentine chocolates
0
cleo
peanut666 - Do you keep your dog or cat in a tiny sterile cage, make it beg or do tricks for every morsel of food, and get it to jump through hoops for the entertainment of paying visitors?
Posted in: California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
-5
cleo
I hope they're all still smiling when job-hunting season is over. My friend's kid isn't, nor are lots of his friends.
Posted in: Job-hunting season
0
cleo
And there's the crunch. The dolphins that try to jump out of their tanks are obviously not doing fine in captivity. The orca that flips and kills its trainer is likely mentally unhealthy (same as the big cats that pace back and forth behind bars, and the elephants that stand swaying on concrete). I don't see how anyone can argue that being forced to spend your life in cramped, unnatural surroundings is not animal abuse.
Posted in: California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
6
cleo
I am a long time resident and am fluent in Japanese and have a Japanese spouse and kids, but I don't live in a tiny "apato" or eat rice every day. I don't feel like an outsider. I do enjoy the smiles and courtesy, and try to give as good as I get.
Like Godan, I take exception to the loaded question. There is no such entity as 'the Japanese', nor is it true that 'the Japanese' change their attitude when they communicate with 'foreigners'.
Posted in: Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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cleo
If by 'this stuff' you mean hundreds of years of slavery, lynchings, mob violence and official discrimination all due to racism, yes.
Like to elaborate? Not saying there's never been slavery (comfort women, forced labour in wartime - same race, though, so put it down to general barbarism rather than racism) but it's hardly on the same level as those hundreds of years of the slave trade.
Posted in: Pair indicted over murder of Nepalese man in Osaka
2
cleo
And you'd have to travel as far to find your kid a real farm animal (as opposed to factory-farmed) as you would to find a whale in its natural habitat.
You know, I've never seen a real live whale? I'd love to see one, but not if it's stuck in a tiny sterile tank and out of its tiny mind. Cletus has it right; showing your kids animals kept for years in unnatural conditions teaches them worse than nothing about those animals, or about how those animals should be treated.
Posted in: California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
3
cleo
That said, I'm not averse to well-laid out zoos that imitate the animals' natural environment and put the animals' welfare first. Not tiny sterile tanks, or barred cages.
Posted in: California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
2
cleo
Take the kids to see killer whales trapped in a tiny concrete tank, cows in a crowded feedlot, pigs in pens too cramped to turn round in. That's reality, but I'd rather have kids growing up not thinking that that is all fine and dandy and the way things should be.
Kids can learn a lot from having well-cared-for and loved animals in the home. If cats and dogs are impractical, most folk can find time and room for a couple of birds or a tank of fish. Teach the kids that animals need caring for, not that they are there to be gawped at and provide cheap entertainment.
Posted in: California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'