JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Financial Advisor
- Select Asset Management KK, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥100,000 ~ ¥999,999 Paid Training Commission Based
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- Corporate Business English Trainers
- ACT Systems, Inc.（株式会社アクト・システムズ）, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥269,500 ~ ¥280,000 / Month
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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
- Salary: ¥125,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month
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frontandcentre
This kind of incident arises from mental illness (most probably ignored or undiagnosed), or alienation from society, that complete lack of empathy for unconnected people that I regularly see in Japan. Anyone using such a pathetically flimsy excuse to try and harm vulnerable children should be punished severely, unless they are proven to be mentally ill.
I hope that this guy has many years in solitary confinement to contemplate and regret the petulant, vindictive stupidity of his actions, not to mention the fragility of his worthless ego
Posted in: Man held for attempted murder after driving car into schoolchildren in Chiba
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frontandcentre
NuckinFutz - what's disgusting about a safety measure that is highly visible and helps prevent potentially fatal accidents? Nothing I can think of....
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frontandcentre
Funny that you should ask "readers on Japan Today" to answer this question...
Posted in: Are Japanese police really as incompetent as readers on Japan Today make them out to be?
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frontandcentre
swibbs:
Why should it be, if he's in fact innocent? Unless the cops can prove that he knew the drugs were in his pocket, or they find the person that sold them to him, or have clear evidence that he bought or used them, he might be fine if he sticks to his story.
I hate all this jumping to conclusions by people who don't know about the situation...
Posted in: British employee of Merrill Lynch Japan among 10 busted over cocaine use at nightclubs
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frontandcentre
MichaelJP:
Err.....read today's headlines and it might.
I have no problem with the police addressing the drugs problem, I do wonder why the media focus on the nationality and job of someone caught doing something. What's the difference whether he worked for Merill's or an Eikawa? None as far as I can see. If it was a Japanese person, there wouldn't be the focus on their profession, I'm sure - unless they were famous. The whole thing would have been dealt with nice and quietly and without any embarassment to the company that they worked for - since unlike the recent insider trading scam at Nomura (how happy the company must have been to find out it was a Chinese employee who was responsible...) this alleged offence has absolutely nothing to do with the accused's job. But who cares when it's bad publicity for a nasty foreign investment bank, eh?
Ridiculous
Posted in: British employee of Merrill Lynch Japan among 10 busted over cocaine use at nightclubs
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frontandcentre
Funny how her marriage to Tommy Mottola - head of Sony Records - "coincided" with her rise to stardom. There's no doubt she's a great singing talent, but I have my doubts about her as a person. I appreciate people like this to remind me of why I NEVER want to be famous...
Nick Cannon - who's he, by the way?
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frontandcentre
Hey! It's OK everybody! The idiot responsible got "reprimanded"! (a fate worse than being fired, surely)
...so there's no possibility at all that this will EVER happen again
Posted in: Unsuspecting passenger returns cannabis after sniffer dog test botched at Narita
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frontandcentre
...and it is rumoured that the Pope is in fact a Roman Catholic..
Posted in: Memorabilia dealer says OJ Simpson confessed to him about killing ex-wife
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frontandcentre
What a pity more of the global warming deniers, fairy-story-believing Bible bashers and their ilk don't read up a few more facts in Wikipedia before commenting here
Posted in: Once shunned by academics, Wikipedia now a teaching tool
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frontandcentre
Revisiting the article, one thing I'll say is that the first sentence represents a poor choice of words. This may have been an unjustified attack, but it was not a "random act of violence" - because by Ron Scott's own account prior to the punch there had already been some interaction between the attacker and himself. A truly random act of violence would be when one person attacks another with no interaction and no reason whatsoever. It seems to me that Ron Scott's attacker had his reasons for doing so (relating to the elbow space issue), however reprehensible his subsequent actions may have been.
Posted in: A punching bag on the Odakyu line
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frontandcentre
jerseyboy - In my opinion, Hugh was less of a fool than Ethan. Liz Hurley's ropey, to be honest. After 6 years with the same woman, even if it's Uma, well, the seven year itch would explain it. The grass is always greener on the other side
Posted in: Ethan Hawke opens up his life
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frontandcentre
Anything NOT designed and built in America - GM and Ford are both rubbish in my experience.
The best 4 x 4s are obviously Land Rovers
Superlib - "Chevy/Ford" make the best sports cars? ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha - nice sense of humour there
Posted in: Which company or alliance makes the best cars?
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frontandcentre
CMEANDU26 - do you honestly value soldiers over doctors and nurses? I think you're in a bit of a minority there
Posted in: Which professions do you respect the most?
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frontandcentre
Morrisey & Marr
Posted in: Who gets your vote for the greatest songwriter of the last 100 years?
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frontandcentre
People might be surprised by my answer, but I'd say absolutely not. To do so would require reciprocal rights and think who Britain would have as a PM then....
Posted in: If it were possible, do you wish non-Americans could vote in the U.S. presidential election?
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frontandcentre
Big chunks of avocado enhance any good burger
Posted in: What differentiates a really good hamburger from an average one?
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frontandcentre
Cleo, I have to comment based on the assumption that the author is telling the truth and not making this up. In any case, if Ron Scott didn't hit him or grossly insult this person, then he certainly didn't deserve to be hit in the face.
I agree that the regularity with which he claims to have been involved in physical incidents seems to be high, but I have no experience of the Odakyu sen and the standard of behaviour on Tokyo's various lines does seem to vary.
My point is that my Japan experience of several years bears out most of the points made in this article. Some Japanese men do seem to have what would be an almost suicidal urge to pick on people who in other places - on the Tube in London, for example - would quite probably return the gesture "with interest". I have never suffered a serious assault on the Tokyo subway, but I have had some none-too-disguised digs in the ribs from salarymen of limited stature who - presumably denied by mediocrity from promotion to head of widget sales - have nothing greater to prove in their day than their physical prowess by shoving people, including women, when on trains.
While I don't think he's trying to point out that Japan is genuinely a threatening or dangerous place in general terms, what Ron Scott has illustrated is that this isn't the super-polite, deferential and safe society that many non-residents still tend to assume it is. I actually think people in Japan are polite out of habit and training, and in fact when it comes to dealing with unknown people in public are often profoundly inconsiderate. Physical violence, while obviously worse than rudeness or mere inconsiderate behaviour, is just one logical step beyond this stage.
[disclaimer: just back from lunch, during which two salarymen on the next table sparked up and started blowing smoke in my direction while I was eating. Not highly impressed]
Posted in: A punching bag on the Odakyu line
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frontandcentre
What odd responses from a lot of people. Complaining about getting an unprovoked punch in the face can never be described as "whining" in my book. I suspect such comments come from those who would actually complain the loudest if it happened to them.
In my view much of the problem stems from the deluded view of the world that Japanese people often seem to have - i.e. that Japan is 'safe' and that any other country (by varying degrees) is, by definition, 'unsafe'. Consequently, some people think that they can act with impunity here, even in cases where they are attacking somone who has the potential to give them a serious beating in return. Possibly they are emboldened by the assumption that their victim may not be able to explain himself and that nobody would stick up for them if they did protest. Funnily enough though, I have seen the same assumption in a tiny handful of gaijin here over the years - the belief that they can say what they like, take advantage of the relative safety of Japan and be the kind of obnoxious, offensive loudmouths that would soon be silenced in their home countries. Trust in karma, however - eventually someone teaches all of these people a lesson.
Posted in: A punching bag on the Odakyu line
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frontandcentre
hopefully price rises will convince people to eat healthier food instead...
Posted in: McDonald's Japan eyes price hikes
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frontandcentre
In order to demonstrate that the cave-dwellers' pronouncements have no influence over their supposed "followers", I rather hope this was AQ rather than a sectarian attack, but there seems to be a lot of room for doubt. It is very much in US interests to blame AQ for any and all attacks in Iraq to justify their continued involvement in the country. The enormous irony is that without Bush's foreign policy, AQ, with their deluded agenda, wouldn't be there killing innocent people in the first place.
Please remember this, flag-wavers
Posted in: U.S. military blames al-Qaida in Iraq for double suicide bombing