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
Not very smart it seems, really; depends on whatever the pharmacist puts into it. Do we really need these things?
Posted in: Panasonic breaks into robotics with medical robot
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escape_artist
Actually, Tinyurl allows you to preview an expanded link before actually opening it up. On this page...
http://tinyurl.com/preview.php
is a link you can click to toggle this feature on or off. It does create a cookie to remember the setting, though, so you'll need to allow that. Very handy and prevents opening up anything nefarious.
Meanhwile, bit.ly, with all its many features & functions, looks like the next best thing as far as link shorteners go, though it does "forever" tie you to links that you shorten. It offers a few different ways you can preview what the expanded links are without opening them, too.
I've longed used Firefox on Windows (which I'm forced to use to work with my clients in Japan), but wonder if IE Tab or similar extensions have the same security hole. Although it renders pages through FF, it does use the IE engine, I believe. (To use this extension, you have to have IE installed, even if never fully used.) I do occasionally run across poorly designed websites that only work if they're rendered through IE, which this extension enables you smoothly do through FF. Then again, I do have the new FF 3.5, so probably should check those sites again if I can remember them.
Posted in: Microsoft warns of serious computer security hole
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escape_artist
Panasonic should donate this new technology to China, where no doubt many thrown away TV sets with CRTs have made their way from Japan. Might actually give the company something of substance to stick in their CSR report.
Posted in: Panasonic develops high efficiency CRT recycling technology
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escape_artist
It's good to hear the restaurant got busted, clearly not only for hygiene but probably mainly for the overcharging. Italy has a pretty big industry catering to Japanese tourists, so naturally they want to protect that before this outspoken couple went home and warned everyone of their experience.
I think, in general, many Japanese tourists (tourists now, not travelers... big difference) have long been taken advantage of in many countries overseas. I remember, for instance, a number of (proven) stories of J tourists at San Francisco's fisherman's wharf area back in the late '80s to mid '90s being exorbitantly overcharged for rolls of film, T-shirts, and lots of other tourist knick-knacks. Most J tourists paid without saying anything, according to newspaper articles at the time, only getting in the newspaper when a rare outspoken J tourist did speak out (whence the conniving shop owners admitted doing it more than once).
I think there's been a common belief in many countries for a long time that Japanese tourists are rather naive when off their home turf, not to mention afraid to speak up even if they know they've probably been wronged, but this Italy story shows that that could be changing into mostly just a stereotype now as J tourists become more travel smart & savvy. I guess all those travel (or more like travel-eating) shows on TV are doing some good. (In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this restaurant were highlighted... I mean advertised... on one of these shows.)
On the other hand, if Japanese tourists are still walking around with their designer bags open, then, well, they're kind of asking for it.
Posted in: Rome restaurant shut down after charging Japanese tourists 695 euros
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escape_artist
Oops. That should say in the first paragraph, "...IS being used for a different purpose here than how native users of English would normally use or expect it."
Posted in: Anti-drug poster featuring Yukie Nakama to go up at schools nationwide
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escape_artist
I know; I was just venting. I work in the language business so on one level appreciate the unending opportunity to correct things. But what's "correct" regarding English in Japan is pretty relative since this sort of pseudo English (and pseudo other languages?) IS being used for a different purpose here than how naive users of English would normally use or expect it.
On another level, though, the main thing to look at here is not really whether the Latin characters are organized "correctly" or "properly", but whether the intended message is understandable to and will actually reach or affect the intended readers/viewers in the ways the writers hope. I think in the end this is far more important than whether the text follows certain grammatical & other "rules" of English as it's used by native speakers. Grammar & spelling, etc. are important and useful in guiding us toward understandable communication, but they aren't everything, nor written in stone.
For any communication to be understandable, though, I think optimally the target audience has to be fully understood -- their thoughts & feelings, their aspirations, fears, goals, expectations and, in this case, their reasons for using drugs. On this more fundamental level, I think the Education Ministry, like most govt. and authoritative bodies in Japan, fails miserably by once again not being able (it seems) to get to the heart of the problem beyond treating its intended audience as nothing more than mere consumers (here, of a new movie). And for this reason, a poster that cosmetically uses a popular talent beside a symbolized jumble of Latin characters will also fail, despite the talento's current character being yakuza-related (to scare the readers into not doing drugs, I guess).
If the govt and society here really wants kids to stop using drugs, they're going to have to go a lot deeper than merely parading around ineffective posters that only keep proving how disconnected the govt is from the everyday lives of common people (i.e., not of other govt officials, or the growing elite class). Drug culture is pervasive in Japan among young people, as in many other countries. Surely the govt isn't that blind to see this. But the more the govt does stunts like this poster here, passing it off as a serious effort in Japan's "war on drugs", then the harder it will be to really stop drug use among young people in a caring & lasting way. All of society needs to be involved, too, not just authoritative figures hiring talentos pointing threatening fingers. Kids won't listen to that.
Posted in: Anti-drug poster featuring Yukie Nakama to go up at schools nationwide
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escape_artist
I first thought that was the NOVA rabbit she was holding hands with.
Posted in: Mariko Shinoda to visit homes in nurse attire
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escape_artist
I know the use of English here is simply for show, but why oh why can't those in supposed positions of authority use proper English on such things!? Or get out from behind their xenophobia and simply ask someone who DOES know English. He's a frickin' Education Ministry official and here he is spreading yet more bad English. Sheesh. It continually amazes me given how much time is wasted in Japan learning grammar (which I guess includes the proper placement of punctuation?). And for what? I know such apathy toward learning proper English by so many in Japan means eternal job security for those of us in the language business, but come on!
Do those in Japan who really don't care about learning proper/good English also do this with other languages like Chinese, Korean, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Russian? Wouldn't surprise if the same "don't care" attitude exists there too. I wonder how such Japanese folks would feel/react if gaijin started throwing Japanese kana, kanji & words in a jumble, pretending it was "Japanese" (and that they stubbornly believed it was Japanese), and then putting it on official-looking posters and the like. Probably too much of a strain for such misusers of English to ponder, no doubt. As long as it looks like English, it must be English... Yup, it's that image-over-substance meme again. A bit like those "KY" posters at Seiyu the last month or so. Ha!
But back to the poster here. Hell, this isn't an ant-drug poster at all, but another sneaky attempt to sell something, here promoting a movie. Everything in Japan seems like it ain't worth nothin' unless it can make some money for someone. I see it easily failing, and frankly, hope it does. Do govt officials honestly believe such a lame poster will stop kids from exploring drugs? Meanwhile, sales of ganja-emblazoned hats & T-shirts among the targeted kids are on the up and up...
Posted in: Anti-drug poster featuring Yukie Nakama to go up at schools nationwide
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escape_artist
There's way too much coddling of the guilty in Japan, especially the so-called under-20 "youths" who commit grievous crimes, whether premeditated or not. Include the overuse of "suspended sentences" in here too. Treating everyone with an "Oh, they really didn't mean to do it so let's treat him/her nicely" mentality won't do much for overall respect for the law in the long run.
Why does it seem so hard for so many in Japan to simply take responsibility for their actions? Sometimes it seems the justice system in Japan is amazingly naive, as well. Sometimes the best eyes are those outside the system, who can see things from a broader perspective. Then again, I'm not a citizen of Japan, so my opinions are probably worth squat in many Japanese peoples' eyes, but still, am I expecting too much?
Posted in: Driver who hit and killed 3 nurses to face lighter charge of involuntary manslaughter
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escape_artist
Sheesh. Not content to ruin people's health one by one, the new campaign gets them all at once. Japan's lofty longevity figure is bound to drop in the coming decades if crap like this continue being pushed on the public.
Posted in: McDonalds targets families with in-store only Nintendo DS service
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escape_artist
I'd say enlargement of his ego is all that's going on here. Not any different from nearly all the other talentless all-cappers in Japan. Does he expect to become more "famous" now because of this stunt? Reminds me too of how Japanese companies love writing their names all in caps in all their documents, online & off. Same syndrome, evidently. I wonder what the attraction is here to treating everything like it's a brand name, including themselves.
Posted in: Gackt becomes GACKT to celebrate 10th anniversary
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escape_artist
Robot cooking shows on TV, what else?!
Posted in: Nowadays, almost every family has a car. In the near future, every family would be having a humanoid robot that can help out various things at home.
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escape_artist
Japanese baseball needs people like Bobby!
Posted in: Bobby Valentine's supporters gather 100,000 signatures on petition
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escape_artist
This whole scheme of "saving" the earth and environment by buying and using more electrical goods is oxymoronic at the least, and deeply misleading at the worst. Only someone who thinks only about money and business gain in the short term could come up with such ridiculousness. About as truthful as cheap 0.5-carat diamonds or worthless point cards. We all get sucked into being consumers in the end, whether we want to or not, whether it benefits us or not (we know it benefits the companies).
Posted in: Japan green incentives lift electronics sales
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escape_artist
Even if it's true, of all the constructive things she could have said on this day, and she basically just whips out more self-aggrandizement. Yeah, that'll give all her fans something to emulate (though the govt's population ministry might be happy).
Hopefully these celebrities and CELEBRITIES said more than just "go get tested", too, like how to have sex safely, uh, like stopping it before it actually becomes a problem? or is that taboo to talk about publicly even at events like this? No source for this blurb is listed, though, so we're most likely not getting the whole story.
Posted in: Marie, at AIDS awareness concert, says she has sex five times a day
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escape_artist
Just as the Japanese govt & businesses will make deals with any dictator out there (e.g., Burma, North Korea), so also they'll put aside whatever moral scruples they might have in the name of business & making money. Big time war machines like the US do this too, of course, but then they don't try to enshrine themselves in the eyes of the world as a peace-loving nation to the extent Japan does (e.g., Article 9). Hypocrisy abounds. Participating in the weapons -- the killing -- business is never a good idea and does no one any good in the end. Humans still think like cavemen after all.
I guess after throwing so much money to the Pacific island nations (surely a bribe to continue voting, or as a reward for voting, on Japan's side re: whaling), not to mention the idiotic 12,000-yen giveaway recently, the govt's realizing that money must be had from wherever it can, peace be damned.
Posted in: Japan to relax arms export ban, Nikkei reports
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escape_artist
Twittering doesn't seem healthy, to me. What's with the obsessive urge some have to have to know what's going on every time something happens somewhere to someone else, usually mundane? Is it all really that important? Do these people know how to relax? Doesn't seem like it. Everything seemed to get along just fine before it. Hopefully it's just a fad.
Posted in: Twitter a global sensation: Hitwise
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escape_artist
This is so typical of Japan, where every last thing is aimed at the diminishing youth culture, and fakery regarding images of elderly (such as the many costumed "elderly" on TV commercials & print ads) is rampant. Why doesn't Nissan just hire some real people over 65-70, even as temps, to participate in the design & testing? I'm sure many would be happy to work. Unless the younger designers here donning these special suits go home and talk with elder folks, like family members even, and get their input, the new designs risk not fulfilling their intended purposes. Even if wearing the special suits, the designs are still coming from people who have never themselves been over 65.
Posted in: Nissan designers seek to appeal to aging Japan
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escape_artist
This sounds like a subtle justification for the mother's actions. Bad economy or not, what she did was wrong. I do sympathize for the kids, but not the mother because of her/their economic plight.
Posted in: Saga woman arrested for forcing daughters into prostitution
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escape_artist
Is there a valid reason, other than shoddy reporting, why the guys' names are mentioned but not the mother who created this whole mess, and was arrested for it? I don't buy the argument that it being done to protect the children. They aren't exactly innocent anymore, either. One could argue that the guys' names should be withheld to protect all their family members too, yet that's not done.
Posted in: Saga woman arrested for forcing daughters into prostitution