kibousha's past comments

  • 1

    kibousha

    Moon Contact Gattaca 12 monkeys Blade Runner

    Posted in: What are your five favorite science-fiction movies?

  • 1

    kibousha

    First is ganbaru, the act of "hanging in there", a respectable social traits every mature Japanese are expected to have.

    Second, tatemae, the act to show sociall acceptable opinions or behaviors, almost always the opposite of honne. The "effort" to display tatemae is the very meaning of ganbaru. Those who fail to do so are usually shined away from society, as they don't ganbaru like the rest of the society, and perceived as immature, selfish brats.

    Third, the Japanese would call it "kanpeki shugi". I see it as fear of failure. The shame that comes with failure makes people fear of it.

    Put these together, the shame of failure makes people don't want to give out opinions or step forward to solve problems, rather just "show" that you ganbaru in all things, and ganbaru in your ganbaru as every Japanese are expected to.

    Posted in: Why do Japanese work such long hours?

  • 0

    kibousha

    So, it's like you work all your life to "save", neglecting your health, then use that saving and more for medical fee to stay alive a bit longer. TEPCO, the best example of crisis management and handling of worst case scenario.

    Posted in: TEPCO reports Y685.3 bil loss due to compensation and energy import costs

  • 5

    kibousha

    Cleverer, in what context ?

    You can so "No" all you like but the fact that it ranks 9th in Natural Sciences and Mathematics in the world, and the number of Nobel laureates it produces is not debatable.

    http://www.shanghairanking.com/FieldSCI2012.html

    and here's how they ranked universities

    http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU-FIELD-Methodology-2012.html

    Posted in: Are Tokyo University students cleverer than other people?

  • 1

    kibousha

    All talk little action. The decades old culture of "hardworking" men zangyou-ing until last train is not going to be seen as "unproductive" anytime soon. The number of women with children willing or can afford to zangyou until 9pm is, I bet, not many. So, the superbly efficient Japanese management will still see women who do productive work in less time as less valuable than men who do the same amount of work until last train.

    Posted in: Abe says women are key to Japan's economic revival

  • 0

    kibousha

    Management said: "Why you go home at 9pm, when your colleagues are having sleep over in the office?". Management said: "You just have a child, you need to work harder", which translates to come in during weekends and go home at last train. Management did: Deduct salary by X, blame it on "bad sales", then add X and describe it as "overtime" pay.

    Good management indeed ...

    Posted in: Why Japan is winning and 'Western management' isn’t

  • 0

    kibousha

    You can prepare/give preventative care all you want, but when coca-cola, french fries, greasy pizza and burgers are not OFF the breakfast/lunch/dinner menu, no amount of preventative care will help.

    Posted in: Think preventive medicine will save money? Think again

  • 0

    kibousha

    Indeed, I wish schools taught children why they need to budget their spending, why saving and making investment is important, why learning mathematics is important, why things happen and how to go about finding it, and most importantly how to recognize bad emotional impulses and how to logically analyze situations to prevent yourself from making bad emotional decisions.

    Instead, the kid that can memorize hyakuninshu is considered sugoi ...

    Posted in: Why are so many super-rich children so out of it?

  • 3

    kibousha

    @fupayme, indeed.

    We set up our work so we can work from home. This is the best thing that ever happen. On weekdays, 5 o`clock sharp, I go home, have dinner with my kids, give them shower, play with them and put them to sleep. By 10pm, I am working again for an extra 2~3 hours. It's all yours, so you don't get the feeling of being slaved, and the time you put it equals the rewards you'll get in the future. Best of both worlds if you're a family man and a workaholic.

    Posted in: Looming layoffs: Which workers are at greatest risk?

  • 4

    kibousha

    Computers will replace office workers just like robots replaced factory workers. Worst thing is our education system is not helping the masses to realize this "Teach children how to use technology, you give him a job, teach children how to invent technology you give him power to create jobs".

    Posted in: Recession, tech kill middle-class jobs

  • 8

    kibousha

    This is the reason I was considering leaving Japan two years ago, if not for a bunch of co-workers and good friends come together to build a new start-up. It's been a quite a roller coaster, but not having to deal with bully managers, senpai-kouhai bs, unnecessary long hours, incompetent dimwits, and the dangers of working too efficiently, are gold. It's ironic to think about it, that the only thing making me stay in Japan is work.

    Posted in: Looming layoffs: Which workers are at greatest risk?

  • 1

    kibousha

    Pressure free, lol. How can you implement that with teachers who were brought up, taught and trained to follow a rigid curriculum, that they themselves don't need to thing creatively about teaching ?

    Imho, get rid of exams, entrance examination, juku, tune down homeworks, etc. These methods are at best lazy mass education, they are not tuned to individual child's needs, and they were and never will be good benchmarks for successful education.

    Imagine the time saved by teachers and students to prepare, conduct, and check on exams or homeworks. Instead those time are spent more on teachers/students interaction, we would probably have better education, better social connection, less bully problems, etc.

    I can only dream.

    Posted in: Japan considers 6-day school week; teachers not enthusiastic

  • 1

    kibousha

    http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-is-never-going-to-default-2012-5

    Sounds like he's betting on Japan defaulting, so he could cash in big. Never bad to be cautious.

    Posted in: Japan is sitting on a debt time bomb and recent moves to push the central bank to target inflation have made it more likely the bomb will explode in the next 24 months.

  • 0

    kibousha

    Short visit, more likely because Jakarta is flooded like never before. The city became a Venice replica in a day, unplanned and without the romance, you don't wanna be there right now!

    Posted in: Abe to cut short Indonesia visit over Algeria hostage crisis

  • 4

    kibousha

    I was a bit surprised how high my TOEFL was after university, considering I barely passed the test 3 years earlier. If one possesses good English skills, one can score high easily, but a high score doesn't mean that one possesses good English skills. Just like JLPT, many high scoring people stumbled and felt awkward when talked to.

    Posted in: Softbank offers employees Y1 mil incentive to master English

  • 0

    kibousha

    It's "we don't get what you mean by that, we think this is a better title for the movie". That's why most popular ones like Harry Potter or Les Miserables don't get changed, because they "get" it. It's disrespectful imho.

    Posted in: What do you think of some of the Japanese titles given to foreign movies when they are distributed in Japan?

  • 0

    kibousha

    I recommend reading "Anatomy of an Epidemic", it argues that drugs suppress mental/psychotic behaviors on a day to day basis, but in the long term it cause the users to be more prone to psychotic episode and worse.

    Posted in: When drugs for depression fail, talking therapies help

  • 2

    kibousha

    The childcare center where my daughter is attending is having a Christmas party, gonna be a fun end of the world party!

    Posted in: According to the Mayan calendar, the end of the world will occur on Dec 21, 2012. In case it is true, how are you planning to spend the day?

  • 7

    kibousha

    My daughter got no Japanese exposure except from morning nhk shows for the first two years of her life. She started going to child care center from April this year. Now, all she speaks is Japanese. At first I thought her English is gone, but then she started translating everything she hears in English into Japanese, grab her english books and read it outloud ... in JapaneseI!

    Posted in: 16 tips for raising a bilingual child in Japan

  • 10

    kibousha

    Indeed, go to south east asia, they were colonized by Japan, but they don't have the hate mongering education that the chinese have. Indonesia is a big untapped market, 240 millions is not as big as China, but that is the 4th most populous country in the world, combine it with the rest of the region, it can be a potentially big market.

    Posted in: Philippines hopes to lure Japanese investment from China

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