Tuesday February 14, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

cnc's past comments

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cncJan. 22, 2009 - 10:27AM JST

its easy, just don't shave for a couple of days and go out wearing oversized hiphop apparel, and you will know exactly how many plain clothes cops are patrolling near the train stations. The funny part is they do this only between 9-5. Having a darker skin colour helps a lot too

Posted in: Student arrested after threatening undercover policewoman with box cutter
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cncJan. 16, 2009 - 12:32PM JST

NEws update,

In response to yesterdays attack of a US commercial airliner by an unknown group of birds, the Dep. of Homeland Security has tightened its regulations regarding the freedom of passage of any and all species of birds wishing to travel to the continental US by air. According to and unidentified source 'it is simply not acceptable that anything can just violate American airspace without proper permission and without submitting in their fingerprints...................'

Posted in: U.S. Airways plane goes down into Hudson River after being hit by birds
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cncAug. 22, 2008 - 03:04PM JST

I was a mechanical engineer by profession, my job skills required me to program and create anything from a block of metal on a machining center. I loved my job so much so that I continued with it for more than three years. I will try and list some of the reasons why in the end I decided to leave.

One problem was that the pay sucked (140,000 basic + allowances - taxes/pension = 220,000/month) and even though I envied my peers in other fields, who were earning nearly twice as much, I still stuck to my job because I loved it...that is till I came across a way better opportunity in a totally unrelated field.

The second problem was that I was never respected for what I could do, the bullying and other degradory treatment I had to go through because of where I am from. There were four of us in a company of 60+ employees (one year the company gave all the Japanese staff bonuses and were instructed to hide the fact from us foreigners, it only took one guy to get drunk at the bonenkai).

There were Japanese hopefuls who were hired in as apprentices but none lasted more than two weeks because they couldn't handle the manual labour one had to do with the job. Everyone was looking to make easy money.

My seniors were starting to get jealous because i had learnt what I could from them and was improving efficiency which resulted in making production runs shorter than what my senseis were showing on record. Their way of retaliating was by destroying during lunch what I completed in the morning. This happened for a while and the management had a deaf ear to my complaints because my word as a foreigner didn't count for much.

I left and within a year amid rising raw material costs the company was forced to go bankrupt.

As somepne who has worked with the working-class Japanese, I can confidently say that they only will let foreigners in where they want some sort of dirty work done and love exploiting you where they know it will hurt you.

Their immigration laws are a very big sham and their diplomatic relations are only bully tactics that they force on third world countries by threatening them with suspension of their ODA. Their human rights laws are a sham and the government actively participates in covering up all violations, lest their precious image be tarnished. (more than half the institutions registered to employ workers under the skills training program, violate all rules and treat their guests like shit. I had aa acquaintance who came to Japan on such a program and his employer took his passport, his father died and they refused to give him the passport. I contacted the police about it they, the police were telling me that the company had the right to do what it did. I think that only the issuing country or embassy has the right to take your passport away from you).

I still laugh at the thought that they were pushing for a permanent weat in the UN

Posted in: Japan struggling to fight shortage of skilled engineers
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cncJul. 18, 2008 - 02:19PM JST

Its funny no one has pointed this out yet... 1:) Everyone agrees that Japanese mobile phones are superior in function and usability (I think everyone here has pointed out more or less all the minus points), so in comparison to the handsets available nowdays the trading-in for an Iphone is actually a downgrade.

2:) It is expensive compared to nearly every subsidized phone on the Japanese market regardless of the carrier. Sets that are 30,000yen plus in the beginning get knocked down to less than 1/4th of that in about a couple of months or so , after debut. The way Apple inc., does business i do not foresee a drop in price in any future, be it near or far.

3:) Operating cost is very expensive. Softbank ties you in for a 2-year contract making you pay 8,240/m for the 8G and 8,720/m for the 16G. This is excluding 3 other options you must have and content fees.

4:) I admit after playing with a working display for about 30 minutesI was impressed with the interface and application usability but, that was it the was nothing else more extraordinary about it. Size was too big for someone who mails on trains, busses etc., and the keyboard is not efficient. There is a lack of that instant response needed for fast texting and even with a software upgrade it still doesn't amount to the confidence gained in using a real keypad. I know because the foremost experts on this talent.. 'the kokosei'..also avoided the MotoRAZR because of its too slick keypad.

5:) Anyone who has been living in Japane long enough knows this for a fact that the Japanese love to lineup in front of shops, so much so that when they see an impressive line they will just line up without even confirming what the line is for. So, whatever we saw before the debut of the iphone in Japan was just something very normal for the Japanese. Lines in the rest of the world can be attributed to the fact that no one apart from South Koreans, have mobile phones as advanced as they have here so naturally everyone was expected to line up as they did for the shiny new iphone. This reminds me of one more point for comparison. The Japanese culture is not and does not promote the showing off of one's possessions. Whereas the rest of the world thrives on the idea and is indirectly also attributes to the committing of some percentage of crime. Hence the reason why everyone lined up for the Big, Bright and shiny iphone. In comparison docomo in Japan had released a micro sized keitai by sony (if I remember correctly), and if I am not wrong it is still one of the best selling handsets. Docomo already has experience trying to market a large formfactor handset (the motorola M1000) and I don't think it was a good one. For the readers who have been patient and are not particularly going head over heels for the iphone, there is still hope. Google is working on a new software platform called Android, for mobile phones and from what I can judge it seems to be more promising than the iphone.

Posted in: Japan cautious in iPhone's bid for world dominance