JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Core Developer - コアディベロッパー
- Midokura Japan K.K. - ミドクラジャパン株式会社, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥4.0M ~ ¥10.0M / Year Negotiable
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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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- 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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escape_artist
Fire up more nuke plants! :-/
Do any of these companies plan 20-30 years ahead, or think about ALL the ramifications of the business outputs of their lofty ideas?
Posted in: Nissan ready for electric vehicle offensive
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escape_artist
I'm waiting for the enhanced price discounts... "lively" images indeed. Sounds like a copywriter grasping for new adjectives after probably writing the umpteenth press release, all sounding about the same.
Posted in: High definition video camera with enhanced memory
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escape_artist
I think "dork" is the correct term to use with train-approaching-track-jumping rail fans...
http://laughingsquid.com/nerd-venn-diagram-geek-dork-or-dweeb/
I'd like to at least see the photos he got.
Posted in: JR to press charges against train hobbyists for disrupting services
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escape_artist
Saizeria is much better, food and prices, than what the likes of Royal Host and Gusto offer.
Posted in: Mystery woman to be revealed in Gusto's campaign special
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escape_artist
The bar does seem to be getting lower and lower at universities & other schools for all sorts of reasons, the economy probably being the biggest one these days as schools struggle to stay afloat and keep students interested in learning. I'm not involved in schooling directly but read in a job I'm editing now of some literature from one big J university that a growing number of colleges and (I guess smaller) universities aren't even requiring a thesis to graduate anymore (I'm guessing because they felt students would be more attracted if they didn't have to work as hard.) WTF?! Are degrees worth that little now in Japan? Aren't there any nationwide standards that have to be followed for university degrees, whatever the major, especially for those considered more "professional" like doctors and engineers? Even before this thesis revelation, my understanding was that degrees from many Japanese colleges or universities haven't been looked at too highly overseas (N. America, Europe and Australia/NZ, namely). Still true?
Posted in: The dumbing down of Japanese students
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escape_artist
Don't know about the social security money since I'm not getting that yet. It makes sense that it can be done electronically, but when I received Bush's giveaway money from the govt a while back, it was a check that I had to take to the Citibank office to cash. It's possible direct deposit or electronic payments are available, but it seems you need to contact the embassy in Japan or SSA office to find out for sure in Japan. Here's what it says on the SSA site and in the PDF below...
Of course, Citibank may also know, but you may have to wade a bit through their phone voice system.
Here are some links...
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/10137.html
PDF (900 KB): http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/10137.pdf
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/foreign/index.html
http://tinyurl.com/yhybtuo
http://tokyo.usembassy.gov/e/acs/tacs-fb-top.html
http://www.ssa.gov/
Posted in: Citigroup to expand retail banking in Japan
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escape_artist
I have a Citi credit card from the States and a Citi multi-money account here in Japan and they are very separate animals. Haven't checked on this specifically lately, but I doubt there is still much connection between US and Japanese accounts, strange in today's globalizing world, but it probably has more to do with Japanese banking laws than with any desire by Citi to link everything up. It could depend on the types of accounts, too; maybe some are connected more than others.
Posted in: Citigroup to expand retail banking in Japan
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escape_artist
Granted, there are probably some uses for these small things as noisily dumb as they seem, like maybe in each unit in capsule hotels. Well... but then I can't imagine all of them going off beeping. Would really never get any sleep then, honeycomb bedlam. But size-wise, that and 1-2 person hotel rooms might be their only real worthwhile markets.
Posted in: Electric kettle that beeps when water boils
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escape_artist
How stupid! What's wrong with just a plain whistle? I think it's short-sighted to run everything we have with electricity or batteries. Would fit right in, though, with those new-style homes displayed on one J TV architectural show, where all the home interiors seem to be white or black or cement, without any sense of life in them. And certainly Toshiba could have found a way to connect this wirelessly to one's keitai or talking fridge or microwave. Which users will be able to hear the beep, btw? Is this one of their new products for the aging society?
Posted in: Electric kettle that beeps when water boils
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escape_artist
No doubt many of these groupies simply are hoping he shows up howling again.
Posted in: Tokyo Midtown park now popular dating spot thanks to Kusanagi
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escape_artist
IMO, and as others here detail, this says a lot more about Japan's archaic, black-&-white attitude (i.e., married=joint custody OK... not married, esp. divorced=joint custody often unthinkable) toward family relationships than anything else. Viewing this kind of occurrence so simplistically and thus with the semblance of being "controllable" -- as so much else in J society -- is an attitude that's rather deeply entrenched in society here, and, like the equally inflexible koseki system, not to mention Japan's intractably inconsistent legal system, we shouldn't expect much to change anytime soon.
Looking at things like this alongside Japan's feudal corporate working environment, it also doesn't seem like there's that much real concern for families and the people in them. Handing out money for more kids + free education are just carrots and won't solve the deeper problems of structuring society so people can relate with one another not as widgets in the system but as human beings.
We don't know all the facts in this case here yet, but I imagine things like this will keep on happening -- to Japanese and non-Japanese alike -- as long as the various systems currently in place in Japan remain that way. People here have to want to change things, though. If they've been taught and conditioned for so long not to question things & how they really work, to just accept and endure at the altar of tradition, habit and "culture", then naturally change for the better takes longer, if it happens at all.
Posted in: Divorced man arrested for abducting his son in Kumamoto
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escape_artist
"campaign girl"? Isn't that kind of passe nowadays? Ah, but then this is from Japan...
Posted in: Ai Kago named KDDI campaign girl for U.S. service
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escape_artist
When did JT start pandering to conspiracy theories by apologists for the wasteful status quo most well-fed Western countries don't seem to have the vision to look beyond? Follow the money; this seems to be the only thing these global-warming-is-a-hoax folks really care about.
Posted in: Climategate: The fix is in
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escape_artist
Not sure how Hatoyama & co. will do and can only hope the best, but one thing I CAN say about the election is that it keeps people's name kanji up to speed. My wife voted yesterday and was kinda ticked off after she got home because for the party choice she ended up writing a nobody name... one character from the main party in her mind, and the other character from the different party of a candidate in her mind. So she ended up writing a name that sounded sort of like both parties, but neither in the end exactly. A voided vote, in other words. She didn't realize her mistake until right after dropping the paper into the box. I'm sure she wasn't the only one making this kind of error.
Being able to simply circle or otherwise choose from a list of parties and candidates would have been a lot easier (though would be terribly expensive each election for the local and other govts). On the other hand, being forced, even in little ways like this, might help keep the mind young. Who knows?
Posted in: Calls already coming in for fast action after DPJ sweeps LDP out of power
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escape_artist
The "tipping" system in the States, at least, has long been what the bonus system in Japanese corporations has become (for those who get them, anyway)... rarely based on merit anymore but rather an expected part of one's wages. Being forced to pay a "tip" under such a system, then, is ridiculous; it's not a tip anymore at all but a tax or extra charge that customers can't escape from if they want to eat there or use the service. "Bonuses" in Japan for the most part aren't really bonuses anymore either, but rather just portions of eligible workers' paychecks withheld and then paid out in ritual fashion twice a year.
In Japan, where there is no tipping expected (and long may it be that way!), there are other ways to "tip", or show appreciation for a job well done, satisfaction after a delicious meal, etc., such as simply being a return customer, or telling others about it so the place gets even more business. In the end this will help the business much more than a set percentage of "tips" being extracted from customers' wallets on each visit. Similarly, the best way to let a business know their service is poor is simply not to patronize it anymore, and to let others know the same. In my experience, businesses that force customers to pay such "tips" generally have the poorer service, quite simply because the workers have no incentive anymore -- for all sorts of reasons, not all monetary -- to please the customers and strive to make sure they return.
Tipping as it's entrenched in most businesses in the US is a farce. The fact that workers' livelihoods depend on receiving a fixed amount of "tips"(and in Japan, "bonuses") proves this. The tip jar on the counters of more and more places is a lot more honest and true to the real essence of tipping: letting customers have the freedom to give more, give less, or give nothing at all, but leaving that choice entirely up to them.
Posted in: What do you think of the tipping system in restaurants, taxis, etc?
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escape_artist
I've watched it, and the film is indeed a great piece of propaganda and film work, and overall pretty impressive, and also gives some insight into possibly how so many German people then could have been swayed to participate in a madman's folly.
But I can only say that now about the film since so many years have passed since Hitler's deeds -- which this film was created to proselytize and spread, and because of my own lack of any personal connections to what happened then and those who got trampled in its wake.
Suzuki-san above can only say what he's saying with a similar unemotional disattachment, like if all he really cares about is having found another way to make money (which wouldn't surprise me at all here) and then tries to both weasel his way around the truth and sound profound in "explaining" his pseudo concern about history not being repeated.
I wonder if he'd say the same thing for any other propaganda film that glorifies a madman out to further the ideal of a master race? His justification above reminds me of the 2009 Japanese horror film "Grotesque" by Shiraishi that recently got banned from DVD in Britain. He'd probably again say something about how people should go see it and then "analyze their own positions". How empty.
Posted in: In order to ensure that the same mistakes are not repeated, it is important not to lock away the work. Rather, it is necessary for people to realize the power of filming techniques and analyze their own positions.
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escape_artist
What's this continual BS about Tokyo only, again? Isn't it enough that the poorly named "Kansai edition" of my daily newspaper routinely has ads and articles focusing on Tokyo, with nearly nothing similar for Kansai. Enough already. Tokyo's not the center of the world; show the world the rest of Japan too.
Posted in: Visa launches benefits programs for overseas cardholders visiting Japan
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escape_artist
Here's the LA Times story this quote is buried in, from July 31...
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-quake31-2009jul31,0,3951922,full.story
As the article discusses, regular folks -- mainly after becoming disillusioned with researchers almost always being wrong -- are indeed apparently taking things into their own hands and being proactive about earthquake preparedness. But the researchers are telling people this (not to place so much trust in them) because they know they've continually failed. No other choice for them if they want to retain any sense of respect in a society that almost worships anyone in a white lab coat or who has "sensei" after their name.
Posted in: We tell people not to expect researchers to predict earthquakes with any exactness because we've discovered that it's nearly impossible to do. We've started talking in a more holistic way, about how to react when one hits.
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escape_artist
"holistic"?
Judging from a single quote is always an inexact science, but here it sounds more like they've given up on the pre part (predicting) and are now focusing on the post part, i.e., just being more realistic (or some may say, reactive). Hopefully his use of "holistic" still includes the preventive part, like in how they construct buildings, plan communities, allocate funds, etc.
Posted in: We tell people not to expect researchers to predict earthquakes with any exactness because we've discovered that it's nearly impossible to do. We've started talking in a more holistic way, about how to react when one hits.
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escape_artist
Everything in Japan apparently has "ranks", no doubt measured by age, too. Let's see what he produces and then talk about it. Not sure why this is really a story, but then Japan is obsessed with and saturated by "talents" of all types.
Posted in: Tsuyoshi Shinjo moving up ranks to movie producer