JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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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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mnemosyne23
You go, girl!
What a loser. 50-60 years old and he tries to carjack a 20-year-old? He's lucky she didn't brain him with her designer handbag and spear him through the foot with her Hello Kitty heels. Now if only she had chased him down and knocked him to the ground and put the boot in a few times before the police arrived; that would have made the story even sweeter. Take THAT, crook!
Posted in: Woman attacked with box cutter in parking lot
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mnemosyne23
I'm glad to see the J-cops taking an active role in combating groping! It's really ridiculous that it's such a problem that it would REQUIRE a whole task force. I understand that commuters can get packed like sardines in these trains, but that's no excuse for poor impulse control. If a man can't stand close to a woman without feeling the need to grab her, then obviously mommy and daddy didn't teach him to keep his hands to himself.
And I agree with 888naff that I hope this will help minimize false accusations. As much as I detest gropers, fondlers, and creepy leering jerks, I also feel no sympathy for a woman who would falsely accuse a man of groping her. They not only make the man's life miserable, but they make it all the harder for genuine victims to be believed when they come forward.
I'd love to see a story sometime soon about a groper unwittingly grabbing an undercover cop, and getting a sharp knee to the groin as a result. Man, that would make my day.
Good on you, Jcops! Let's hope it's successful in Saitama and spreads to the rest of the country! :)
Posted in: Saitama police launch new unit to prevent groping on trains
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mnemosyne23
Kapuna and ran_man: The initial charge is attempted murder because the victim had not expired at the time of the arrest. The last sentence of paragraph two states that police will pursue a charge of murder, which they can do now that the unfortunate woman has passed away.
Posted in: Man arrested after strangling wife to death in Tokyo apartment
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mnemosyne23
She's hated him since she was a child and now she's forty-two? That's a LONG time to hold onto that kind of anger. I wonder what finally made her snap?
Posted in: Woman arrested for fatally stabbing 82-year-old father in Chiba
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mnemosyne23
If the parents didn't have any memory of the incident, who put the foundation on the little girl's face? It's not like you can just smear it on there and it'll look fine; you have to blend and work at it. That means that even if the parents AREN'T guilty of abuse they're still guilty of not reporting a crime, because anyone who would punch a three-year-old in the face is absolutely a criminal.
I'd like to point out, too, that if Child Welfare has been receiving notices about this couple since March 2007, that means the potential abuse has been going on since the child was just a little baby. I hope to God she finds herself in a happier situation after this.
Posted in: Couple arrested for punching 3-year-old daughter in face
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mnemosyne23
Can I please step in here and ask why the mother allowed her child to play with the lock and door handle? There's a reason for things like child safety locks and windows, and that's so children -- who are naturally curious -- won't accidentally unlock the door or roll down the window and go tumbling out into traffic. If the car wasn't equipped with child safety features, then it's the mother's responsibility to tell her child NOT to play with the lock (let alone the lock AND the door handle!) and NOT to roll down the window further than a third of the way. This kind of negligence is triply stupid if your child isn't wearing a seatbelt, and astronomically more stupid if neither you nor your child is wearing a seatbelt AND the child is sitting in your lap. That kind of thing might be acceptable to an extent on airplanes, where seating is limited and airlines depend on adult fares to pay the bills, but in a car there's no excuse. It's the safety of your own child -- you should do everything you can to protect that.
Mind you, this isn't only a Japanese problem. People are stupid the world over with their children's safety: women smoking and drinking during pregnancy; a parent leaving a child unattended in a public venue; household cleaners left in easily accessible cupboards; the list goes on and on. Sometimes I'm amazed that so many children make it to adulthood when their parents are so cavalier with their offspring's safety.
Posted in: Woman, child not wearing seatbelts fall out of car at intersection
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mnemosyne23
Did the guy already have the frying pan in his hand in preparation to hit his wife? It certainly sounds like things were escalating to that level! Good on the "relative" (whoever he is) for intervening, and I hope he has a quick recovery!
Again, what is it with the elderly beating up (if not murdering) each other lately? I know Japan's population is aging, and crime isn't good regardless of age, but... wouldn't violent tantrums like this normally be the purview of idiot youth rather than wizened old age? Not that "elderly" necessarily goes hand in hand with "wise," but a younger person usually has more energy and muscle tension to actually WIELD the weapon.
Posted in: Kumamoto man arrested for hitting relative with frying pan
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mnemosyne23
Has anyone else here ever seen the British comedy "Red Dwarf?" Specifically the first episode to feature the Polymorph, a mutant that turned Rimmer into a pipe-smoking, goatee-sporting hippy-cum-yuppie type. Reading this article immediately brought to mind one of my favorite quotes from that episode:
"The time for talking is over. Call it extreme if you like, but I propose we hit it hard, and hit it fast, with a major, and I mean MAJOR, leaflet campaign."
Posted in: Tokyo police launch weeklong anti-groping campaign on trains
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mnemosyne23
...WTH? The man was playing SHOGI. What could possibly be so aggravating about a man playing shogi that would lead to murder? Was he whooping and hollering every time he made a move? Was he using exploding pieces? Was this some kind of Wizard's Shogi? seriously, what the hell.
So one week we have the old man chasing the old woman and stabbing her to death because she didn't want him feeding stray cats. Now we've got an old man stabbing another old man to death over a game of shogi. Japan had better be careful, or its aging population is going to kill itself off too fast for the younger generation to NOT have babies to replace them!
(...that last sentence made sense in my head...)
Posted in: 82-yr-old man fatally stabs neighbor after argument over shogi
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mnemosyne23
I agree the host should bear part of the blame, since he was told that she would be driving home. But the greater brunt of the blame falls on the driver herself. She KNEW she'd be driving home, she told the host that very thing, and then went ahead and let him ply her with alcohol for two hours. It would have been a very simple thing to just say, "No thank you, I'll have water instead." I mean, come on! Personal responsibility!
Hosts get paid based on how much money they're able to fleece off their clients, plain and simple. It's a commission-based business. Just like used car salesmen trying to get you to buy the most expensive car on the lot so they can get a big commission, hosts will talk the talk and walk the walk to convince the customer that they REALLY care about them and REALLY want to make them happy. The better they are, the more money they get their customers to spend, the higher their status rises -- and their asking price as well. Their income is dependent on it. That's what host clubs ARE, and that's what host clubs DO. If you go to one you should be expecting them to wine and dine you, usually with the most expensive wine and food they can get you to accept. If you don't think you'll be able to say no when the host offers you another glass of Dom Perignon, then you're better off not going in the first place.
Posted in: Club host held for giving drinks to woman who caused fatal accident
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mnemosyne23
What on earth was he going to do with the money? Try to put back what he misappropriated from the company? Or make a runner for the border? I don't get it.
Also, if you're going to try and fox some money out of your family, don't be an idiot and sit in YOUR OWN car while you wait for them to show up with the cash.
Chalk this one up in the "Stupidest Criminals of the Week" column.
Posted in: Man held after faking kidnapping and demanding ransom from his mother
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mnemosyne23
Like mansen said, there's nothing wrong with dating an older man or woman, but in this case the girl was only 16 and still living with her family. I would invite anyone out there who has or has ever had teenage children to imagine what YOUR reaction would be if you found out your sixteen year old daughter was going out with a man twenty-two years her senior. I can almost guarantee you would be furious with her, and equally if not more furious with the man in question. The differences in life experience for a sixteen-year-old and a thirty-eight-year-old are astronomical. That same age gap between, say, a thirty-year-old and a fifty-two-year-old is still quite striking but nowhere near as shocking as a grown man dating a teenager who hasn't even reached the age of maturity yet. Nine times out of ten, a relationship like that is borne for the thrill-factor, not the odds of finding a soulmate.
Posted in: Kumamoto man arrested after fatally stabbing his daughter’s 38-year-old boyfriend
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mnemosyne23
Disillusioned: I hear ya.
I've been wondering how long it's going to take before the government decides to add motor vehicles to its list of deadly weapons that are illegal to possess, but maybe I'm just being overly cynical.
Posted in: Man dies after being dragged by car for 70 meters in Ibaraki
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mnemosyne23
I agree with what other commenters have said: good on the Jcops for getting a stalker out of commission, but bad on Jcops for only taking action when the person being stalked was a celebrity. How many women have been assaulted or killed in recent months by ex-boyfriends or boyfriend-wannabes, despite the victims' complaints to local authorities? It's a despicable double standard. I'm glad that Ikezawa-san didn't have to suffer any bodily harm before action was taken, but I want to know what makes this man's actions somehow more criminally viable than a man who kidnapped his former girlfriend once, then wasn't detained and ended up kidnapping her again and killing her mother. Or the loon who killed the girl from the ear-cleaning salon, as well as her grandmother; the guy who actively stalked her in person, not just over email, to the point that the young woman had to have male co-workers accompany her home on several occasions. How is this blatantly provocative and dangerous behavior NOT worthy of an arrest warrant, but a bunch of stalkery emails and message board posts are? Is it just because they're in writing and therefore traceable? What wasn't arrest-worthy about the kidnapper? Something is clearly wrong with the anti-stalking laws in Japan. It's well past time they get fixed.
Posted in: Iwate man arrested for stalking voice actress Haruna Ikezawa
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mnemosyne23
Blaming the victim in this case is ridiculous. I don't care what your job is -- being the victim of a murderous stalker is not your fault. She could just as easily have been the checkout girl at the local combini, or the cashier at a McDonald's. He saw her, he liked her, he obsessed over her, and then -- when he couldn't have her -- he killed her. The man was deranged, and no matter how you slice it he is completely at fault. I agree that the girl's employer should have created safeguards to keep its employees safe, but in the end it was the lunatic with an Oedipus complex who committed the crime, and he alone should pay for it.
Posted in: Woman dies one month after being stabbed by stalker
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mnemosyne23
I agree with bamboohat, morbid as the thought may be. If the sister was exhausted from caring for the 96 year-old mother with dementia, why wouldn't you kill the mother? I absolutely would NOT condone it, but... let's face it, it would make more sense, wouldn't it?
Besides, if the sister was the one doing all the caregiving, what the heck does the brother do all day? He's 70 years-old -- is he still working, or is he retired? Is he the breadwinner? What the heck?
Poor woman.
Posted in: 70-yr-old man held for strangling sister to death with cord in Chiba
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mnemosyne23
I'd have to know the reason why this woman "hated" the child's father before I'd make any judgments about her mental state. If she was raped, I can absolutely understand her reasons for not wanting to keep the baby, though I can never, EVER condone her methods. Even if the child was stillborn, a human body should be treated with respect and dignity, not thrown out like garbage. And if the child was NOT stillborn, and might in fact have lived had it been delivered and cared for properly, then there is no excuse -- none -- for her actions. Find a hospital, a police station, a temple, a church -- somewhere. There ARE people who are willing to help, and if you want to get rid of the baby and never see it again, that can be done, too. Anything less is murder.
Of course, if her reasons for hating the father aren't criminal in nature (in other words, she wasn't raped, abused, or otherwise mistreated in a cruel and criminal manner), and instead her hatred is borne out of something selfish and self-serving (like he didn't buy her shoes she wanted, or he dumped her for another girl), then I have no sympathy for her at all. Given that she's been sleeping in parks since December, though, I'm more inclined to believe she was the victim of a crime than a philandering boyfriend or husband.
Posted in: Woman arrested for dumping unwanted newborn on Gunma road
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mnemosyne23
Bullying is all about power. The way to combat bullying is not to let them have that power over you. This doesn't mean you have to punch them in the face or kick them in the you-know-where, though sometimes that seems like the best option. It's about letting them know that their opinion doesn't matter to you. And it SHOULDN'T matter. I was subjected to some cruel bullying when I was in school because I was [gasp] TALL, and [GASP!] had curly hair. As a young child, this really hurt me, and it still affects me to this day. But as I grew older and entered junior high and high school, I realized that I really didn't care what they said. Once I came to that realization, it was like a breath of fresh air. If I saw the bully-types hanging around, I avoided them or just walked right past them without a second glance. They didn't MATTER to me, and as a result, their taunts and other abuses didn't matter to me, either. Eventually, they gave it up.
The worst part about bullying is that, because it IS a power struggle, bullies will often pick out the person they feel is the weakest and least likely to stand up and tell them they're boring, childish, and egotistical little jerks. This is why it is SO vital for children to have support from their teachers, parents, and most importantly their peers. No child or teenager wants to be seen as "the baby" whose parents swoop in to rescue them whenever something goes wrong, or who go running to the teacher if they feel unhappy. This is why parents should not only teach their children that bullying is wrong and that they shouldn't let bullying get under their skin, but parents should also help their children learn empathy; give them the moral character to stand beside a bullied fellow student and tell the bullies, "Knock it off."
I wish something more had been done to help these two girls. My heart goes out to them, and to their families. There's always a better choice than suicide; I wish they had understood that.
Rest in peace, imouto-chan.
Posted in: Bullying blamed after two 13-yr-old girls jump to their deaths
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mnemosyne23
Feeding stray cats is not just about taking pity on poor homeless animals:
Stray and feral cats can harbor parasites and disease that could spread to domestic pets, particularly if the homebound pets interact with the strays or share some of the food left out for them.
Food left out for cats can attract other, less welcome creatures -- rats, mice and other vermin -- that can spread disease, infest homes, and create unsanitary conditions with their droppings.
Uneaten food can attract flies and other insect pests.
Strays can get into fights and displays of territorial aggression with domestic pets, resulting in injury, infection, or death of one or both of the animals
Strays and feral cats may bite or scratch young children or other unwary people. A cat's bite is awash with bacteria, and can lead to a dangerous, even life-threatening infection. And because a cat's teeth are pointed and designed to puncture rather than crush, bacteria can be pushed deep into a person's tissue.
The possibility of rabies is always a concern, even in urban areas.
People with allergies to pet dander could suffer severe allergic episodes if forced to interact with multiple stray cats on a regular basis, or else have to foot high bills for allergy medications that may only marginalize, not eliminate, their symptoms.
In addition to attracting unwanted vermin like mice and rats, food left out for cats may just as likely attract larger, more aggressive animals. In my home state of NH (in the USA), a bowl of food left out for a cat or dog is just as likely to attract a black bear or a bobcat.
A feral cat can be just as dangerous as any other wild animal. Just because a stray cat looks like a domestic cat doesn't mean it will act like one.
As has been mentioned, leaving out food for stray cats can lead to multiple cats congregating in a certain area, which can increase the chances of those cats breeding with each other or with domestic pets. This in turn can create an unsustainable expansion of the cat population.
It's all well and good to want to care for homeless animals, and if this were a perfect world doing so would have no downside. but this ISN'T a perfect world, and the risks posed by feeding stray cats (or dogs, or other animals, what have you) often outweigh the benefits. Sometimes the best you can do for an animal is leave it alone and let it look after itself.
Posted in: Woman murdered after argument with man over feeding stray cats
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mnemosyne23
Such a terrible tragedy. Clearly this woman is either mentally defective or criminally negligent. It is PURE COMMON SENSE that you do not leave a child alone. It is PURE COMMON SENSE that you do not leave your child alone in a parked car. It is PURE COMMON SENSE that you do not roll up the windows and park the car in the sun when there is someone or something inside (like a dog, cat, or 11-month-old baby). It is PURE COMMON SENSE that you do not leave a child alone in a parked car in the sun for THREE HOURS while you go play blasted pachinko! Even if by some miracle the child HADN'T died from the heat, what's to stop a passing lunatic from kidnapping the child? A baby, not even a year old? How much would THAT be worth on the baby-selling black market? This woman is clearly at fault for her child's death, and she should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law for willful negligence resulting in death.
RIP, little boy.
Posted in: Baby boy dies in locked car while mother plays pachinko in Akita