Tuesday February 14, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

malfupete's past comments

0

malfupeteFeb. 13, 2012 - 10:09PM JST

probably natural causes... but in hollywood, drug OD'ing is a natural cause. Crack is definitely whack

Posted in: Whitney Houston dead at 48
1

malfupeteFeb. 09, 2012 - 03:38AM JST

I don't think we're supposed to take Amy Chua's book as a how-to guide on parenting.. more of a clash of cultures. she even stated that she gave up on it after her daughter rebelled against her.. i think its more satire than anything.

that being said, this is insane treatment for a 4yr old.. why hasn't the father been arrested yet?

Posted in: Video of Chinese boy crying in snow sparks uproar
0

malfupeteFeb. 07, 2012 - 02:46AM JST

I liked the fact that the server and manager don't come over and constantly ask you "how is everything?" 15 times. I was out the other night for dinner with the family (a place called Turtle Jacks, a chain here in Ontario, road/grill house type of place) and we were asked about the meal by the server, the greeter and finally the manager. It was insane.. I think its some corporate policy to harass the customers but its just out of hand

Posted in: What do you think of the quality of waiters in Japanese restaurants?
0

malfupeteFeb. 07, 2012 - 01:22AM JST

why are they telling us it was a brazilian national behind the wheel? They don't want to make it about nationalities, but they just did...

Posted in: Parents of hit-and-run victim present petition demanding stiffer penalty for defendant
0

malfupeteFeb. 07, 2012 - 01:17AM JST

Did the police take her claims at face value back in September? This is reminiscent of a case in the US in the early 90's, Susan Smith.. who claimed she was carjacked (by a black man which ignited all sorts of controversy) while her two kids were in the car. The police were suspicious of her from the onset and she eventually admitted to drowning her children after 9 days of investigation.. Unfortunately, I don't think the police could have done anything to prevent this from happening, but they immediately found holes in her story and kept on it.

Does anyone know if this japanese woman confessed on her own? I don't understand why she was informally questioned by the police.. was this before or after the remains where found? Where the remains first found by someone else?

Posted in: Oita woman confesses to lying about daughter's abduction, burying body
-1

malfupeteFeb. 07, 2012 - 01:01AM JST

The game was boring as crap (10-9 at halftime?!?!) and the commercials this year were rubbish. I had a better time watching the EPL games in the morning

Posted in: Record 10,000 tweets per second at Super Bowl tops Japan women's World Cup win
0

malfupeteFeb. 02, 2012 - 05:51AM JST

@sf2k

Thanks for the refresher, actually I went to uni in Canada so ya, there definitely wasn't an entrance exam for me. I was in highschool in Ontario when OAC (grade 13) was still around so really, our final marks in OAC courses basically determined if we would be accepted to a certain university or not, this was back in 1999. I would say the most pressure was that last year of high school but for the most part, everyone who applied to Uni got to go where they wanted to... but again, this was back '99 so I assume the process has changed a great deal, for starters, OAC has been completly taken out

From what I understand about Japan, students there have to write entrance exams to get into University, but do their scores in highschool classes matter in the application process? I thought more emphasis was put on the entrance exam which is why I thought most kids go to juku... but I could be misinformed.

Once in University in Japan, how is it different compared to Canada? (or other countries) Do they write exams at the end of each semester, or only at the end of their 4th (senior) year? With respect to courses and studies, are the subjects arranged by year level, like an Econ 101, 201, 301, etc.. Do the kids actually live away from home? What's this nonsense about taking the entire 3rd year off to search for a job?

Posted in: Japan job treadmill grinds down workers and firms
0

malfupeteFeb. 02, 2012 - 03:06AM JST

Could someone explain (to me) how university works in Japan? Do they only write final exams in their fourth year?

I'm only going by my experiences in Canada.. but we had exams at the end of every semester for whichever classes we took. For most students that would mean exams in December and April. Classes broken down into 1st, 2nd,3rd and 4th year courses... and the classes had requirements before you could take them. For example, I majored in economics in Uni.. so if I wanted to take a second year econ course, lets say Econ 201, I would have needed to pass Econ 101/102 or something like that

Posted in: Japan job treadmill grinds down workers and firms
1

malfupeteJan. 31, 2012 - 09:53PM JST

hahaha, sure thing Ogi. You realize the title is there to attract viewership it doesn't even have to make sense to the context of the article, so they are going to select something with Shock Value. I can see that you are shocked and it was your moral responsibility to right this wrong and remind the rest of us how great Japan is and why we should thank them for providing us with everything. You could have stopped at your first post with your opinion but you felt the need to respond to each poster who had a different viewpoint than you, whether or not it was right or backed up by data.

Articles like these are not there to show both sides of the argument you know, whatever they may be. Pick up any newspaper or watch any newscast, that's the way it is done. They have a story about Hyundai designs winning some awards at a car show and how Japanese models recently are lagging behind and smaller piece about EL TVs and how Sony tried to build them but couldn't do it cost effectively.. where do you think talking about advanced manufacturing fits into this? It doesn't, unless this article was directly talking about Korean Semiconductor production then by all means, chime in with Japanese firms specializing in this.

Posted in: Japan losing its manufacturing edge to South Korea
0

malfupeteJan. 31, 2012 - 11:56AM JST

obviously its gonna be the country club.. hell, they may even give them seats on the board of some fortune 500 company

Posted in: Two Japanese auto suppliers to pay price-fixing fine in U.S.
2

malfupeteJan. 31, 2012 - 10:36AM JST

I love it how the perpetrators of this white collar crime get relatively light sentences, even after swindling hundreds of millions of dollars from manufacturers and consumers. Bravo, justice system

Posted in: Two Japanese auto suppliers to pay price-fixing fine in U.S.
1

malfupeteJan. 31, 2012 - 09:54AM JST

Oh, no doubt that it shouldn't, I agree. Panasonic and Sony are institutions in Japan and it is definitely in their best interests to remain competitive in the TV market. If anything, this competition from foreign firms should spur them on to do bigger and better things. Only time will tell

Posted in: Japan losing its manufacturing edge to South Korea
1

malfupeteJan. 31, 2012 - 09:35AM JST

I'm going by your logic when you stated that suppliers around the world are totally reliant on Japanese advanced manufacturing or tech. From what you are saying, I think it looks like this: raw materials --> Japanese "advanced manufacturing" firms (and only Japanese firms) produce an intermediate good --> intermediate good is processed into a component --> component bought buy manufacturer (american, korean, chinese, japanese, whoever) --> parts assembled in China --> Apple rules the world --> Apple couldn't have become the worlds most valuable company with those Japanese parts, therefore Japanese Advanced Manufacturing rules the world. QED

and lets take a look at those paragraphs in the article where those terms "the mighty have fallen" and "rapidly plummeting" appear in. It's not fair to post those phrases without looking at the context they are in.

How the mighty have fallen. In previous years, Japanese models had been selected in the passenger car and light truck categories, the latter of which includes SUVs. And in 2006, Honda Motor Co drove off with double prizes, taking two categories. But since 2009, when Hyundai won its first prize, the appeal of Japanese models has declined.

Now call me foolish, but I'm pretty sure they are referring to the fact that Japanese cars used to dominate these car award shows, which basically looks at designs and features, but in recent years, foreign models have been taking center stage. Hmmm..Can't seem to find any mention of anything else except Cars and awards, not production numbers, not supply chain components, nothing who provides the world's electronic grade silicon, not even if all the parts in a Hyundai come from Japanese sources... moving on.

Shukan Bunshun moves on to lament Japan's rapidly plummeting TV industry. It seems the inflated value of the yen is not the only threat to its continued existence

Shukan Bunshun is a japanese magazine if I'm not mistaken, if you have problem with their reporting go complain to them. Since there isn't any actual sales numbers it's difficult to say what is happening. But again, on face value... can't seem to find any mention of advanced electronics, nothing about trade surpluses, manufacturing numbers. The following paragraphs do mention that Sony did try to make an EL TV but pulled out because it wasn't going to be profitable but Samsung and Lucky Goldstar managed to put together a model and bring it to the CES but there is no guarantee that this will be a profitable either.

And hey wait a minute, didn't you say making TVs is "low tech" since Japan has only concentrated on this "High tech manufacturing" Yes you did, here is your response to a poster named Wurthington:

Twenty years ago in just about every electronice gadget category Japan was a world leader. Stereos, CD Players, VHS, Cameras, TV... you name it.

That's lower end, less skill intensive manufacturing. The Koreans do that nowadays. And all the stereos, mp3 players, cameras, tvs made today still rely on Japanese technology to work, no matter where they are made or with which company. Japan today makes the most sophisticated, advanced parts of these devices.

So really, the statement that Japan's TV industry is "rapidly plummeting" shouldn't bother you since its low tech stuff anyways and of no concern to Japanese industry.

And again with the current account/trade balance stuff? You've continuously stated that advanced manufacturing is the reason for the surplus and its five-fold increase over the last 20 years yet you haven't provided any data to back this up. That's a very strong statement to make, but with no data... the credibility is lacking at the moment.

and I think the last paragraph from that link basically sums it up

So, are deficits bad?

A common complaint about economics is that the answer to any question is, "It all depends." It is true that economic theory tells us that whether a deficit is good or bad depends on the factors giving rise to that deficit, but economic theory also tells us what to look for in assessing the desirability of a deficit.

If the deficit reflects an excess of imports over exports, it may be indicative of competitiveness problems, but because the current account deficit also implies an excess of investment over savings, it could equally be pointing to a highly productive, growing economy. If the deficit reflects low savings rather than high investment, it could be caused by reckless fiscal policy or a consumption binge. Or it could reflect perfectly sensible intertemporal trade, perhaps because of a temporary shock or shifting demographics. Without knowing which of these is at play, it makes little sense to talk of a deficit being "good" or "bad": deficits reflect underlying economic trends, which may be desirable or undesirable for a country at a particular point in time.

It all depends...

Posted in: Japan losing its manufacturing edge to South Korea
-1

malfupeteJan. 28, 2012 - 12:53PM JST

so the crux of your argument is Japanese firms build the equipment that builds the parts that go into an iPhone?

so.. what does this all have to do with the Hyundai design and 10 year warranty?

Posted in: Japan losing its manufacturing edge to South Korea
0

malfupeteJan. 28, 2012 - 11:59AM JST

Having these monopolies would imply that Japanese firms have cornered the market in all components and we would expect to see such firms supply all the parts for an iPhone. However, we know that this isn`t the case

One such supplier of iPhone components, Laird technologies, an American company, had this to say on their website:

Laird Technologies is the world’s leading designer and manufacturer of electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, telematics, thermal management and antenna solutions for the telecom, datacom, computer, electronics, aerospace, defense, automotive, industrial & instrumentation, medical equipment, mining and railroad industries

Its a bold statement indeed, claiming to be the world's leading designer and manufacturer... a little, Monopolistic, don't ya think?

Posted in: Japan losing its manufacturing edge to South Korea
0

malfupeteJan. 28, 2012 - 10:09AM JST

ah yes, there it is.

But are you arguing that Japanese firms have monopolized the creation of the EQUIPMENT that a company like Skyworks, Qualcomm, et all uses to make the components or are you arguing that Japanese firms have monopolized the components themselves and are simply outsourcing the production to companies like Skyworks, Qualcomm, etc etc etc

Posted in: Japan losing its manufacturing edge to South Korea
0

malfupeteJan. 28, 2012 - 08:27AM JST

haha, me too

If you want some iPhone4 fun, check this out.. details about the supply chain. Its not just Japanese companies that put parts into it.

http://9to5mac.com/2011/10/11/iphone-4s-manufacturing-bom-analysis/

Posted in: Japan losing its manufacturing edge to South Korea
0

malfupeteJan. 28, 2012 - 05:51AM JST

So yes, these non-Japanese companies are totally reliant on Japan. Japan has the technological know how to make products all the way from top to bottom. But other countries still rely on the Japanese for the highest end parts. So the balance of power in world manufacturing is still massively weighed toward Japan.

Yeah I don't know about that.. I'd think most companies are just as reliant on China for its labour as they are for the Japanese parts. How do you keep costs down and maximize profits? pay workers a few dollars a day and sell your product for high $$$. There's a reason why Apple (and lots and lots of companies) assembles its products in China and not Japan, even thought they buy some of the components from Japan (and other countries as well mind you!). An iPhone costs $400 because its made in China... if it was made in the US or Japan? Maybe it would be like $800 or more, just speculation. In the end, all that really matters is the bottom line on a company's income statement and nothing else.

And really... the article is talking about car designs and how foreign makers are becoming more competitive compared to Japanese firms. Not about how reliant foreign manufacturers are on Japanese firms who produce the components or if these tech firms are losing a manufacturing edge. These Japanese firms you are speaking about are one part of the supply chain. Just one cog in the wheel of the global economy.

Posted in: Japan losing its manufacturing edge to South Korea
1

malfupeteJan. 28, 2012 - 04:44AM JST

i forgot a "you" in there

Posted in: Japan losing its manufacturing edge to South Korea
2

malfupeteJan. 28, 2012 - 04:44AM JST

Oginome... Are reading the same article as me? Because I can't seem to find the part in it where it talks about Japan dominating advanced manufacturing with low level stuff done in Korea. I call shenanigans on you

Posted in: Japan losing its manufacturing edge to South Korea