JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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To be healthy, live in the big city
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Japan's nuclear safety standards flawed, says commission chief
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3
Teacher nabbed for using miror to peek up girl's skirt
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From carnivores to herbivores: how men are defined in Japan
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Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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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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- FT English Teachers for Kids - Osaka
- Kohgakusha Co., Ltd. （株式会社興学社）, Osaka
- Salary: ¥255,000 ~ ¥275,000 / Month Travel Expenses, Encouragement of Japanese learning*
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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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grafton
communities and that is not happening with the Muslims. The west has laws that will protect everybody and freedom of speech is a key element of that, something that is not acceptable to the Muslims, and something that is being eroded by making concessions to Muslims. The west is not responsible for what any one wants to believe and the obligation should not be put on the west to defend something that has been imported. Muslims would be up in arms if any Christian country started to demand equal rights in an Islamic country while at the same time Islam demands that the west respect what they want to believe even when it is imported into secular counties. You get respect when you give respect and you will get balance only when that balance is believed in by both sides. At present that is not how Muslims see it or want it.
Posted in: Culture clash: European art provokes Muslims
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grafton
The UN always uses locals because they believe it is a way of creating work and the local knowledge helps them do a better job. But has we have seen again and again all that happens is that a small group of locals take advantage, make a great deal of money and are usually partisan in how they operate. To a large degree this is the reason few people ever pay very much attention to locally generated UN reports. HonestDictator comes close to the only answer, maybe it is time to abandon this sunken ship and then let us see if al-Shabab can feed 3.7 million people. The worry is where do these millions go when there is no food being delivered to them?
Posted in: U.N. report: Much of Somalia's food aid diverted
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grafton
This is without doubt of interest to the Americans in Japan who plan on moving back to the US taking their children with them. But are the rest of the readers of this site going to have any interest is this? Rather than simply delete my post as being off topic perhaps JT could actually answer why it feels that US news of such limited interest is so frequently a part of what it calls world news? The world is bigger than the US and the JT community is not solely American, well not yet, but it will go that way.
Posted in: New national math, English standards drafted in U.S.
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grafton
There must come a point when a whole nation cannot be trapped by a past mistake. The Guantanamo prison was a bad idea that must have been obvious to anybody involved in its creation. But like it or not it is there and needs to be resolved. As Skip says, why put the whole country in an insane position for a group of people that would not think understand your sense of fair play? Are they all guilty? I have no idea, but then nobody else on this site has either, however, do they in their present state represent a risk to the US? Yes they do, maybe not as bombers or terrorist fighter with guns, but can you not see the harm of an open trial? Sorry, the few have always had to pay the price for the many and in this case sacrificing the liberties of a few probable terrorists for the greater good of the nation doesn’t seem that high a price to pay.
Posted in: Obama wants U.S. trial for some Guantanamo suspects
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grafton
“Yonhap news agency reported citing an unidentified South Korean government source.”
“said Ohm Tae-am of the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul.”
“said Baek Seung-joo of the same institute.”
I think I will wait until a reliable agency tells me what is happening before I take this story seriously.
Posted in: N Korea reportedly has medium-range missile division
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grafton
I wouldn’t, I would wait and give him a chance to get it right or wrong, but six months is hardly time enough for that.
Posted in: How would you evaluate Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's first six months in office?
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grafton
moonbeams at 09:41 PM JST - 9th March “I prefer to keep the TV turned off and live in a 3D world.”
The most intelligent post I have read on this site in years and yes I do include my own in that.
Posted in: Home of the Bravia
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grafton
“Israel announced its partial settlement freeze in November”
The important two words here that shouldn’t be ignored are “partial” and “freeze”. When put together they mean that some building was going to happen. Please try to keep up and don’t miss out the little bits that don’t support your argument.
“it does not violate the moratorium that the Israelis previously announced,”
Bad timing yes, bad faith, possibly not. And I say possibly because maybe it was thought to delay the announcement, but then they thought why the hell should we? After all only the Palestinians from the West bank are beginning to talk about talking, Hamas isn’t involved so where is a peace settlement going to come from? Until Hamas gets onboard where is the point in Israel talking to anybody?
Beelzebub at 02:31 PM JST - 9th March
“...on lands that belong to the Palestinians according to the International Court of Justice. I hope they can reach a JUST settlement soon.” sabiwabi at 10:38 AM JST - 9th March
... "the PLO's official spokesperson on JapanToday.com was quoted as saying."
I too hope that a JUST peace settlement can be achieved, but without Hamas agreeing to join the talks and also agreeing to Israel existing I can’t see how even baby steps towards peace can be taken. By the way, I thought Sabi was Iran’s official spokespersons, has he changed jobs again?
Posted in: Israelis, Palestinians to begin indirect talks
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grafton
JHansen at 06:55 AM JST - 9th March
Have you ever been to a zoo and seen the “do not feed the animals” sign? Well the reason for these signs is that when people, in the past, did feed them they came to expect the extra treats and got ever so strange and difficult to handle when they didn’t get their treats. And just because something may not seem like a treat to you doesn’t mean it isn’t a treat to them. Think of it this way, if a person hasn’t been spoken to in months then somebody shouts an insult at them they will be happy to have been “spoken” to. You and I might not like such a thing, but they in their hunger for human contact will perceive anything as a treat. I have tried to warn Kinniku that he is endangering his health by getting too close and feeding the wild life, but he is so stubborn and believes he can make them understand the error of their ways. I fear that if he were given a direct line to Ahmadinejad he would do himself harm trying to communicate with a fruitcake. Think about it, if a friend of yours was spending a lot of time talking to fruitcakes wouldn’t you try to help him? Please, don’t feed the animals, it only encourages them to expect more and though you may not realise it now it is also bad for your mental health, it will lead to no good.
Posted in: Iran's Ahmadinejad calls official version of Sept 11 attacks a 'big lie'
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grafton
I am not sure what the mechanism is that is built into many of us, but I am really not at all comfortable with the idea of waking up in the morning to discover that the girl I took to bed the night before is a construct and was once a man. No, that is not politically correct thinking, sorry, but that is how I am made and no I have no plans on having an operation to change that. As a picture of a good-looking sexy woman, fine, but as a partner in a relationship, no way.
Posted in: Tokyo Girls Collection
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grafton
Molenir at 06:09 AM JST - 9th March
“Its all the fault of global warming... Ah, wait that was proven fake. Hmm, lets scare up some new theory this time about earthquakes...”
How about we start a conspiracy that it is all caused by drilling for oil? All those holes in the ground and all that oil extracted, has a certain mad logic to it. A year from now the tin foil hats will be believing every word of it and as usual pointing the finger of responsibility at the US.
No I am not heartless and yes I am being flippant, it is not lack of feeling for the dead and injured, it is what I would expect from others if my house fell in on me. There are just too many “big ones” of late and the planet really isn’t as big as we like to think, not when it comes to earthquakes. Maybe our turn is closer than we want to think about, so be flippant while you can because that might not be a heavy vehicle passing the house.
Posted in: Survivors shiver in Turkey after quake kills 51
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grafton
When I watch a film or read a book I do it for the pleasure, not for education so there is always going to be a need to buy from somewhere like Amazon, but the postage is the killer, even when you do manage to find what your looking for in the used books section. Another site that I have been using for the last two plus years is CDWOW, which is growing all the time, CDs, DVDs and now they have started books too. The important thing with CDWOW is that there is NO postage to anywhere in the world. The price on the product is what you pay, nothing else. Sadly books are my main addiction so for the most part they are still have to be bought from Amazon.
Posted in: Have you ever shopped online from foreign countries? If yes, why?
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grafton
Molenir at 05:41 PM JST - 7th March
elbudamexicano at 07:55 PM JST - 7th March
I was reading through the posts thinking that poor Kinniku was having a hard time dealing with people who hadn’t or don’t take their meds and I was going to join in, but then came across your posts which said all that really needed to be said. Thank you both. Ahmadinejad is loathed by his own people, many who will not go back to Iran while he is even alive. Two or three weeks ago I got into a discussion with an Iranian friend in a bar (not a good Muslim). He is doing all he can to raise money to get his family out of that country before (by his reasoning) that lunatic starts getting people killed. Whatever the conspiracy nuts might like to believe and write about it’s the real people who have been there and know first hand that are the people that are worth listening to. Kinniku, you must have some hard solid walls in your house, would it not be better for your head if you banged it on those walls rather than try to talk sense into the equally solid walls you sadly find lurking in wait on this site?
Today I am really amaze at some of what has been written here. I nolonger feel safe walking the streets knowing that there are such people out there. Let us just hope they really are otaku and never go out.
Posted in: Iran's Ahmadinejad calls official version of Sept 11 attacks a 'big lie'
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grafton
If anything acts to slow down the torrent of shoddy goods that China is exporting to the rest of the world, and polluting the rest of the world with, it can’t be a bad thing. Never mind improving relations with other countries, they need to improve the products they manufacture. Cheap badly made rubbish is damaging the smaller manufacturers around the world and a time will come when everything in the shops will be Chinese made removing the choice to buy products of worth. China needs to get its own house in order before saying anything about anywhere else. Given the opportunity even its own people can’t wait to get out and live elsewhere.
Posted in: China says it's up to the U.S. to improve relations
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grafton
Less than two months now to the election.
Campaigning has begun.
Posted in: British PM visits troops in southern Afghanistan
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grafton
There is a game that political parties play of putting losers in control when they are trying to either protect the out going leader or deliberately lose the next election. The game however sometimes backfires, it did when the Conservatives put John Major in has leader of the party believing they would lose the next election and then screwed up by winning with a clown as leader. Labour did something similar with Gordon Brown, it was his job to make Blair look good, a near impossible task you would think, but having seen Brown’s performance most would say he did his job well. The end result is that nobody in the UK listens to a word this man says and if they do hear him they don’t believe what he says. It would be nice to say that he will soon be replaced by someone better, sadly that isn’t true, but so long as he goes it really doesn’t matter who replaces him.
Posted in: Brown blames U.S. over Iraq reconstruction errors
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grafton
Wow, what a long and detailed article, why can’t we have more like this?
“The outcome is important for all Americans, since the changes would affect the ways nearly everyone receives and pays for health care and failure to act would leave in place a system that many find lacking and that leaves out tens of millions of people.”
Yes, the entire rest of the world in fact.
Not being an American could somebody tell me what a GOP is?
Posted in: Obama urges Democrats to seize moment on health care
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grafton
I always thought that the object of advertising was to attract custom; surely this little band of strangeness will frighten them away.
Posted in: Shibuya
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grafton
Gurukun at 07:33 AM JST - 5th March
“Is there a 24-hour wave watcher? Does he/she watch every inch of the Med. Ocean?”
The Mediterranean is possibly one of the busiest seas in the world, there are probably more ships per square mile than any other sea. Added to this The Mediterranean is the “cradle of civilisation” meaning that people have been sailing on it for an incredibly long time. It is therefore hardly surprising that there are people who know a great deal about it. And it is a sea, not an ocean.
Posted in: Cruise passengers tell of deadly waves off Spain
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grafton
As important as it might be that people like this man speak out I can’t help but feel he is putting other peoples lives at risk. It’s one thing for him to say that he fears being killed, but did he give any thought to the position that he has now put his wife and daughters in? We already know about what he is saying and his book is never going to find its way into the general population of North Korea so it can only be self interest that has lead him to go public. What thought has he given to those that are left behind?
Posted in: North Korean who shopped for dictators goes public