JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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Confrontation
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U.S. Navy investigating how parts fell off aircraft near Atsugi
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California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
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Kuroki reported pregnant 2 weeks after denying relationship with Akanishi
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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
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gonemad
The author tries to put the cart before the horse. Leaders do not develop visions, they execute visions. They have no time to do both, except a bit of "brushing up" here and there. The necessary input has to come from the population. The problem in Japan is that the political system has been designed to keep the population out of the political process as much as possible and over the time people have become dull about what's going on in politics. A vicious circle. As everywhere in life, you get what you pay for. In the political field this means people who don't care get leaders who don't care - except for their own well-being.
What Japan needs is a fundamental redesign of the process of political participation. This won't come magically by itself and certainly won't come out of the current political class, which is all too comfortable with the current system. It's something which has to be fought hard for.
Posted in: What we expect of our politicians
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gonemad
You have to see this in context with the racing duel with the Chinese for African oil resources. There is little charity behind these announcements.
Posted in: Noda says Japan will not turn inward after disaster
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gonemad
The territorial conflict with China is one minor topic of the visit, yet the article tries to make it the main subject.
Posted in: Philippines President Aquino arrives in Japan
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gonemad
By repeating the lie about the "cold shutdown" he already failed his promise. Well, at least the world knows now what to expect from him...
Posted in: Noda tells U.N. Japan will provide accurate info on nuclear crisis
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gonemad
I was using the word "mere" because the strength was below the design target of the plant (and thus the cracks are definitely unexpected) and because the probability that a quake of that strength occurs at any of the other reactors in Japan is very high.
Yes, there is no contradiction. The logs of the operators state that the cooling system of reactor #1 was shut off before the back-up batteries run out of power. They have done this because the cooling system wasn't operational due to damages from the earthquake. Whether they would have been able to fix the cooling system within a few hours in case they still had electricity is pure speculation. It seems there have been no attempts, so the damages must have been serious.
Posted in: TEPCO says up to 500 tons of groundwater flowing into Fukushima nuclear plant
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gonemad
But what are your conclusions? The end justifies the means? Do you keep the same fundamentalist attitude when it comes to other, non-sexual, offenses? How about life-long imprisonment for traffic offenders? Too many children are hurt or killed in traffic accidents and the recidivism rate for traffic offenders is probably close to 100%.
Inconsiderate statements like yours forget that we have to keep a balance between cost and benefit for everything we do.
Posted in: Should pedophiles with criminal records be required to report their names and addresses to local authorities when they move?
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gonemad
nigelboy, I can't make sense of some of your sentences. Let me focus on these two items:
No. Any systems or parts of the building(s) of the plant which are safety-relevant must not be damaged by an earthquake. And don't forget that while the magnitude of the 3/11 earthquake was 9.0 at the epicenter somewhere out in the ocean it was significantly lower (a mere 7.x if I remember correctly) at Daiichi. A magnitude which not rare at all in Japan.
This is probably wrong. The cooling systems failed immediately after the earthquake. Whether a continuous operation of the generators would have allowed a fix of the cooling system before the core meltdown started is highly doubtful.
Posted in: TEPCO says up to 500 tons of groundwater flowing into Fukushima nuclear plant
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gonemad
And which problem exactly will be solved if Noda puts his primary focus on staying in office?
Posted in: Noda’s biggest mission is to just stay in office longer and show stability in Japanese politics.
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gonemad
And they confirmed no data was lost because all files were still there :-)
Posted in: Japan says no key data lost in cyberattack; China denies responsibility
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gonemad
This news, as innocent as it is written, is the confirmation that not only the cooling systems have been heavily damaged by the earthquake, but the basements as well. Apart from the fact that the legal rules for earthquake resistance of nuclear power plants are by themselves insufficient, the Fukushima Daiichi plant obviously did not even meet the legal requirements in practice. How did this happen? Flawed calculations or simulations? Botched-up construction? Material fatigue due to the age of the plant? These are serious questions for all other plants in Japan.
Disillusioned, honestly, I have some doubts about what you write. Can you give some references?
Posted in: TEPCO says up to 500 tons of groundwater flowing into Fukushima nuclear plant
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gonemad
Let me guess. It's those people who (try to) learn another language by rote learning of vocabulary lists and grammar rules...?
Posted in: How language defines us
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gonemad
While on the whole I' say the article is not too bad, I have to object to the last part. Using these "power phrases" indiscriminately is a safe recipe for failure.
Posted in: Principles of persuasion
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gonemad
In case this rule applies to all serious criminals AND the scope of the rule is clearly defined AND access is limited to relevant people I could agree to it. But we have to be careful. If we start witch hunting criminals after they have served their terms we will only drive them further into criminality and in the end we will get the opposite of what we wanted to achieve, less security for everybody.
The unclear way the question is put, corresponding to the demagogic way it is currently used in the political discussion, the answer can only be no.
Posted in: Should pedophiles with criminal records be required to report their names and addresses to local authorities when they move?
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gonemad
So this guy can't survive one or two days without his usual food? Or does he think his hosts are so broken that they can't afford a good breakfast for him any more?
Posted in: Australian foreign minister fights for his Vegemite in U.S.
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gonemad
At least the examples for jishuku given by the author are not at all special to Japan.
Posted in: Sacrifice, teamwork & optimism - Japan on road to recovery
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gonemad
John, it's not so simple. Taking your navigation system example, there are plenty of interactions with other electronic systems in the car. They read data from the wheel sensors in order to improve accuracy. They read from the buttons on the steering wheel and display data in your dashboard, a shared screen or head-up display, each of which is again connected to other security-relevant systems. Connections are done through standardized in-car bus systems in order to save cost. Even things like a display, which you would intuitively characterize as data sinks only can transmit data to other systems on the bus, e.g. for diagnostic purposes. The same is true for all other electronic systems in the car. They are all connected by some way or other. The problem is not so much that they are connected, but that the interfaces are not sufficiently secured in terms of access restrictions, secure authentification mechanisms and data plausibility checks.
Posted in: McAfee warns of hacker threat to autos
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gonemad
While it is not wrong what the authors write, the objective threat coming from terrorism is usually small compared to the threats from natural disasters, political or even economic instabilities. It's only on the psychological level that terrorism becomes relevant, because we feel that we have less control over it. Business-wise, a company which is prepared to deal with the other threats will have no problems with the risks of terrorism.
Posted in: Terrorism and international business
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gonemad
Think about your education style. First of all, if you want that your children behave the way you want, they have to trust you. Trust doesn't come just by the fact that you are the father or mother, you have to earn it. Always explain to your children why they should do something. Take the time to listen to them and let them challenge you. They do have valid arguments. Never impose your will just because you have the power to do so. Give reasonable freedom to your children so that they can earn their own experiences, including bad ones. Show them that you respect and trust them as well.
When you have a conflict, try to get rid of emotions as much as possible (but don't ignore them!). Especially any form of fear can be very destructive, so try to understand it and don't hesitate to address it. This is the most difficult task, but I'd say it's still easier with children than with most adult people...
I found the above working well even for children as small as 2 years. I never have to resort to slapping or any other form of disciplining measures without cutting back on education. It's simply not necessary. Interestingly, it quickly starts to work with children other than my own as well, so I don't feel stressed when I have to take care of a bunch of children on birthday parties or trips to somewhere. Puberty and it's challenges are still ahead, so let's wait and see, but I don't see any reason why it should fundamentally change anything.
Posted in: What advice would you give to stressed-out parents of young children so that they don’t resort to abusing their children as a means of discipline?
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gonemad
Interesting development. What is missing somehow is the sensitivity of the material. The link which Farmboy has given shows some numbers, but it's not immediately clear what they mean for practical usage.
Posted in: Teijin creates radiation-detecting plastic
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gonemad
And those companies have a similarly low profitability?
Posted in: Anger mounts after Qantas chief handed 71% pay hike