Wednesday February 15, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

motytrah's past comments

2

motytrahSep. 13, 2011 - 07:37AM JST

What's old is new again. Russia started playing these cold war games again in Europe about 5 years ago. Flying bombers and fights right up to the border to make a point with NATO forces. Make no mistake, Russia is sending a message, and it ain't peaceful.

Posted in: Russia defends bomber flights near Japan
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motytrahSep. 07, 2011 - 04:54AM JST

The sad thing is the outrageous prices are pretty much par for the course for most corporate controlled venues and festivals in the west. It's not like getting ripped off on the price of a soda is a Japanese thing. Neither is being forced to use a certain vendor for supplies. The Yaks use muscle and intimidation, corporations use contracts, lawyers and intimidation.

Posted in: Police urge citizens to decline offers of help from yakuza at festivals
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motytrahAug. 13, 2011 - 09:22AM JST

It's quite news worthy given it's still the most fatal single plane crash. Moreover, the victims were subjected to over 30 minutes of an out of an control airplane. Still, it's a shame that the JP media seems to gloss over the fact that the US Military located the crash site with in 20 minutes, and was prepared to get the Marines in by Helicopter while it was still light that evening. They were told to leave the area. An untold number of victims died of exposure because the Japanese gov't didn't want the US involved in the rescue.

Yumi Ochiai, one of the four survivors out of 524 passengers and crew, recounted from her hospital bed that she recalled bright lights and the sound of helicopter rotors shortly after she awoke amid the wreckage, and while she could hear screaming and moaning from other survivors, these sounds gradually died away during the night.

Posted in: 26th anniversary of JAL crash marked in Gunma
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motytrahAug. 08, 2011 - 12:47AM JST

They just need to accept that breweries are consolidating globally. In the US Miller/Coors and Budweiser are no longer American companies. Largest US owned Brewery in the US is Boston Brewing (Sam Adams), and the Second biggest is Yuengling.

Posted in: Judge suspends purchase of Brazil brewer by Kirin
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motytrahJul. 25, 2011 - 11:29AM JST

They are splash suits or class D protective covers. Used in low risk situations where all you really want to do is throw away the clothing. If anything more than that was needed they wouldn't have been allowed in.

Posted in: Sad homecoming
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motytrahJul. 25, 2011 - 03:41AM JST

Let's be clear here. The China rail system has had many issues with safety and corruption. In particular with High Speed Rail. Back in April China's own Ministry of Rail proclaimed the safety concerns "Severe". That statement was later walked back for political reasons, but here we are with a major preventable rail disaster. It doesn't help the situation that China's Rail Ministry is almost $300bn (USD) in debt, and ridership is lagging. Almost all that debt is held buy quasi-private Chinese banks. If the ministry defaults it could have a similar fall-out as the US sub-prime debacle. None of this looks good for Chinese HSR Safety.

Posted in: Train collision in China kills 35, injures 191
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motytrahJul. 18, 2011 - 12:10PM JST

Westinghouse is owned by Toshiba, but it's primarily a US/Euro Operation for a mixed Western/Japanese executive board. If the Japanese team was truly selling technology Toshiba would be making the presentation directly.

Posted in: Lithuania chooses Hitachi-GE for nuclear project
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motytrahJul. 14, 2011 - 01:35AM JST

@paulinusa Very few airlines have bought the 747-8. Economics must not be as good as they look on paper since the A380 is selling far better. Then again the 787 is selling better than anything else even with the delays. Smaller plane, premium amenities and easier to fill the seats.

Posted in: Big bird
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motytrahJul. 13, 2011 - 08:11AM JST

It's not that the US and Australia don't have the deposits. They do. But China is substantially cheaper in terms of labor, lack of standards (safety, environmental, etc.) It's a fine needle China has to thread. They need to juice the market just enough to make sure raising labor costs in china are offset by materials export costs. But if the cost of the resources gets too high the west will start up mines and use domestics sources.

Posted in: Massive Japanese rare earth find underscores huge global demand
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motytrahJul. 13, 2011 - 08:06AM JST

JAL got rid of all it's "big birds". The 747-400s. Those were a brute compared to the 777s they have now. Fully loaded an old 747 will make you a lot of money. On the other side of the coin nothing loses you money quicker than an underloaded 747.

Posted in: Big bird
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motytrahJul. 09, 2011 - 12:36PM JST

Neither JAL nor ANA are keen on having Infants in the First class cabin. On the other hand Business or coach and you can even arrange a bulk head seat with a bassinet.

Most US based airlines don't care, but let's put this into perspective. A US airline gets between $5K-12K USD for a First class flight between the US and NRT. JAL and ANA get $15-25K USD. If you want to bring the family fly business class. It's still very nice compared to coach and frankly better suited to people traveling together. Most international first class cabins are set up so you don't see the other people, let alone be able to talk to them.

Posted in: What do you think of the decision by Malaysian Airlines to ban babies from its first-class cabins because of complaints from other passengers that they had paid big money for first-class seats but could not sleep because of the noise?
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motytrahJun. 02, 2011 - 09:53PM JST

@JeffLee It's not discrimination. It's just as bad in the united states too. The Wall Street Journal just had a story on how Delta is the most difficult major airline to redeem miles on. For all Northwests Airlines faults service wise, they were very good on letting you use miles for international flights.

Posted in: Delta announces new SkyMiles partnership with Agoda.com
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motytrahJun. 01, 2011 - 02:50PM JST

Why so many coats?

Article Unavailable
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motytrahJun. 01, 2011 - 02:48PM JST

@brotokyo When the merger happened Delta only flew ATL and JFK to NRT. NWA had been flying to Japan since 1933, and at the time of the merger the NRT operation was a hub with 21 routes. If you're flying ex-NRT you're most likely on former NWA metal with still unionized former NWA crews (instead of the non-union Delta Crews).

I agree about the third ring of hell that is ATL. It's just as bad as connecting in ORD. DTW is a slick connection but would only work if you're from the midwest.

Posted in: When choosing an airline to fly with, what factors influence your decision?
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motytrahJun. 01, 2011 - 11:42AM JST

What someone looks for depends on the class of service they fly. For instance I would never fly Delta (formerly Northwest in Japan) in coach. Older 747 cabin straight out of the early 90s with service to match. On the other hand the experience in Business Class is quite competitive in terms of hard product and cost. Since I only fly business class or above I'm a lot more forgiving with most airlines. Be that as it may, I'm under no illusion about what I'm flying. Typically JAL and ANA have superior Business products than any US based airline, but they also cost 30-50% more. All that being said, when ANA, JAL and Continental will have the 787 soon. That might be a game changer for me on ultra long hauls.

Posted in: When choosing an airline to fly with, what factors influence your decision?
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motytrahApr. 02, 2011 - 01:51PM JST

Japan would be just fine to do a fund raiser for China for the same reasons that China is quite happy to do a fund raiser for Japan.

Posted in: Beyond borders
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motytrahNov. 24, 2010 - 01:43PM JST

Yeah, I wouldn't take a kid to the Deadly Hollows movies.

Posted in: Harry Potter stars sad to say goodbye
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motytrahNov. 18, 2010 - 01:58PM JST

Even if they set quotos it has been shown by the EU that its members are overfishing

Sure, and who's buying the illegally caught Tuna? Japan. This problem is 90% Japan. The vast majority of Tuna consumed in the US and Europe is Skipjack. That's a small and relatively sustainable tuna usually found in canned and frozen varieties. Look up the import numbers, In the first three months of 2009 Japan consumed 69,096 Metric Tons of Fresh Tuna (a good chuck of it imported). In all of 2008 the US consumed 12,300 Metric Tons of Fresh Tuna.

Japan is the problem, the numbers don't lie.

Posted in: Tuna tussle: How much fishing is too much?
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motytrahNov. 17, 2010 - 03:18PM JST

I was involved in a full acquisition of a Japanese company in the late 90's. Even though it was a wholesale food company most Japanese people had never heard of it was still a big freak'n scandal in Japan and took years to close the deal.

Posted in: Ford to reduce Mazda stake to 3%, Nikkei reports
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motytrahNov. 09, 2010 - 10:30AM JST

No money in Anime anymore. These companies use old distribution methods. They need to short circuit the fan-sub pirating by getting episodes out soon after they air in Japan. Anime distributors in the US have been dropping like flies over the last 5 years and that's not helping out the creative side of the equation. $0.99 cent episodes sold with days of the original air date.

Posted in: The freefall of Japan’s anime industry