mnemosyne23 said...

mnemosyne23 at 12:46 AM JST - 1st October

The skirts are much too short, that's for sure. But I again have to go back to impulse control. If the guy gets a thrill looking up high school girls' skirts, then he should just go stand on the train station steps and look up. Plenty of opportunity, though he'd…

Posted in GSDF officer arrested for filming up student's skirt at 12:46 AM JST - 1st October
mnemosyne23 at 12:39 AM JST - 1st October

Good on the clerk! Though yelling at a potential robber is a pretty dangerous thing to do. My guess is this guy really didn't want to rob the store in the first place, gave up at the first sign of resistance, then turned himself in because he couldn't fight his…

Posted in Would-be store robber gets yelled at by employee; calls police himself at 12:39 AM JST - 1st October
mnemosyne23 at 12:35 AM JST - 1st October

Is anyone really surprised?

Posted in High court commutes death sentence for Nagasaki mayor's killer at 12:35 AM JST - 1st October
mnemosyne23 at 12:26 AM JST - 1st October

The point of this legislation is not to ban a woman taking her husband's surname. This legislation is about having the CHOICE of taking a new name, keeping your own name, or (presumably) hyphenating the two. Celebrities do it all the time, continuing to use their unmarried names as stage…

Posted in Justice minister to submit separate-surnames bill to Diet next year at 12:26 AM JST - 1st October
mnemosyne23 at 12:13 AM JST - 1st October

Hephatsheput: I am all for freedom and free market capitalism, but it MUST be done properly. If there is no enforceable conflict of interest policy that regulates interaction between the public and private sectors, then you are looking at a hotbed of potential corruption and collusion. Just as you don't…

Posted in Gov't to ban bureaucrats retiring early in 'amakudari' practice at 12:13 AM JST - 1st October
mnemosyne23 at 11:38 PM JST - 30th September

This sounds to me like a ploy by the government to look like it's actually doing something when in truth it doesn't know WHAT to do. I can pretty much guarantee that Minister Kan will attend only the first of these weekly meetings (for a total of ten minutes, because…

Posted in Gov't to hold weekly meetings with economists at 11:38 PM JST - 30th September
mnemosyne23 at 11:13 PM JST - 30th September

This is an awful situation across the board, and I find it patently ridiculous that Japan STILL has not signed onto this particular Hague Convention despite it's place as one of the world's first world nations. There is just no reason for it. I am particularly disgusted by the original…

Posted in American arrested in Fukuoka for kidnapping own kids from ex-wife at 11:13 PM JST - 30th September
mnemosyne23 at 01:59 AM JST - 30th September

Just for comparison purposes, in 2005 the total number of (confirmed) suicides in the United States was 32,559(http://www.who.int/mental_health/media/unitstates.pdf). That's 33,000 deaths out of 300 million people. As cited in the article, there were 34,000 (confirmed) suicides in Japan in 2003. That's 34,000 out of 125 million people. Similar totals, but…

Posted in No. of suicides in Japan reaches 22,000 in Jan-Aug at 01:59 AM JST - 30th September
mnemosyne23 at 01:08 AM JST - 30th September

I agree with just about every comment I've read on this story, which might be a first for me!

There is NO excuse for Japanese parents ceding the responsibility for their child's welfare to a school or a teacher. Teachers have dozens of students that rotate year to year, but…

Posted in Student hangs himself in Hokkaido; note hints at being bullied at 01:08 AM JST - 30th September
mnemosyne23 at 12:06 AM JST - 30th September

Oops! Glad no one was injured, though I'm sure the rice farmer is probably pulling out his hair in frustration that such a big swath of his crop was ruined. Hopefully there'll be some kind of payout to offset the farmer's resulting loss of income!

Posted in MSDF plane ends up in rice field at 12:06 AM JST - 30th September