JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- NPO法人グローバル教育推進機構（GLAD), Mie
- Salary: ¥230,000 / Month For a full working month. Some months differ.
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perspective
Why limit the discussion to the Futenma issue? Does anyone think he knows what he's doing on just about any issue? Has he kept one of the campaign promises that he made? And can anyone name one substantive improvement or action that his government has initieated and completed in the 6 months they've been in power?
Posted in: Do you think Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama knows what he is doing on the Futenma base relocation issue?
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perspective
I think it's pretty sad when you have to play to public opinion in another country when your own government can't come up with a plan to locate the bases elsewhere. What does that say about Japan and the way it looks at Okinawa?
Posted in: Anti-base ad
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perspective
Frungy, you've got to be kidding, right? All the police here do is sit in their little kobans or ride around (slowly) in their cars with the lights on not actually doing anything - that is when they're not getting drunk and groping women or committing other crimes. Ask your average J citizen, especially a woman, if they trust their police force.
Posted in: How safe do you think Japanese society is, compared to other countries?
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perspective
cold fusion, better solar technology, no need for fossil fuels.
Posted in: When you were younger, which inventions or technological developments did you think we would now have in 2010, but which have not come to pass?
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perspective
Now everyone will talk about how distraught she was, and because she's a woman, she'll be allowed to apologize, pay some money, and go free. Perhaps to stab someone else in the future.
Posted in: Woman stabbed at random in Tokyo park
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perspective
Looks like the boyfriend made the right call.
Posted in: Woman stabbed at random in Tokyo park
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perspective
What does it matter who left the kids alone in this circumstance, just how old they are or what generation? This type of behavior is common in Japan across ALL generations/ages/socioeconomic status. Every week there is/are another story(ies) about young children being left unsupervised or alone in any one of a number of settings, and getting seriously injured or killed.
Posted in: 2-year-old girl dies in Kawasaki apartment fire
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perspective
This thing will continue to happen until Japan starts to charge parents with negligent care of their children and collect a hefty fine for each offense.
Parents leaving children alone at home with access to a balcony;kids walking around in the car while it is in motion;mothers holding children while they drive;parents leaving toddlers alone in a car (even worse - with the engine running!); I can go on and on, we've seen these stories many times here. What gets me are the people who come here and say that it is an acceptable practice to leave young children alone - perhaps someday we'll be reading about you and your children here.
Posted in: Car fire in Miyagi caused by children playing with lighter
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perspective
Perspective at 12:19, I disagree with your comments of "stupid rules" and "miserable life." It is true that some Japanese have forgotten the "Edo manners" based on consideration for others. However, being a gaijin does not give you the right to do whatever you want on the trains. I commend people who actually speak up to point out bad behavior. I usually give people who use their phones a good glare. That shuts them up.
Well, Bicultural, you can disagree all you want. Do you dispute that Japanese society is just chock full of rules and obligations that control just about every facet of life? And often not in a positive way? Every society has its definition of proper manners and correct social behavior, the Japanese take it to a higher level. You can argue the point all day whether this is a source fo their greatest strength or a cause of unhappiness. Necessary because it keeps people who live practically on top of each other from killing each other, or excessive when children are taught from birth to live their lives according to what the neighbors might think? You think about that and how anyone that deviates, in the slightest, from "norms" of appearance, speech or thought is treated here, and get back to me.
Posted in: Train shame
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perspective
After turning down the volume, the second time he interrupted my listening pleasure I would have calmly suggested that he go.... well, can't say the rest here.
When they glare at you, I just smile and wave at them. When they don't want to sit down next to you, I don't mind, more room for me. When it's rush hour and people push against me, I push back. When they sit and sniff for a long time without blowing their nose, I start sniffing loudly each time they do.
I'm not Japanese, and as such I am not bound by some of their more stupid rules or those who try to selectively enforce them. I will NEVER apologize for being a foreigner, I openly call myself gaijin because I'm not deluded like Debito that I am ever going to be accepted here. I kind of feel sorry for Japanese people, because all of their social rules make for a miserable life and probably contribute a LOT to the suicide rate in this country.
One other thing, the poster that recommended hitting the guy - you're gonna end up in jail with a trainload of witnesses testifying against you, the gaijin, no matter what the provocation is.
Posted in: Train shame
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perspective
Raise the price of the tuna by 5000% - curious if they would still pay.
Posted in: Hatoyama, fish dealers welcome tuna ban rejection
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perspective
And, of course, no one called the police.
Posted in: Torso identified as that of missing Fukuoka woman
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perspective
adaydream - what's a "free pass"? And how is Israel getting one.
Again, I will reiterate - if Israel's Islamic neighbors wanted to make peace and create a Palestinian state it would have happened a long time ago. Why don't you tell me of one "concession" that has has been made by the Palestinians towards Israel? Simply calling a moratorium on launching rockets is not a concession or a negotiation. If the Palestinians can't stop killing each other, who exactly speaks for the Palestinian side?
Posted in: U.S. demands Israel cancel Jerusalem building plan
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perspective
Pretty hard to have peace with a people whose avowed intent is to destroy your country. Do you really think that a negotiated peace settlement is really going to stop Hamas or anyone else from bombing or shelling Israel?
While the US is Israel's friend, do you really think that a nation of Jews is ever going to really trust anyone with their lives after what happened a mere 70 years ago?
Posted in: U.S. demands Israel cancel Jerusalem building plan
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perspective
Getting their opinions on matters of state, and why not, can't be any worse than his cabinet.
Posted in: Time out
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perspective
No, actually I'm a pretty focused guy. You can argue all you want about whose land it is, go back some time and it was the Israeli's land. But what is important now is the realization that Israel isn't going anywhere; at the present time, the BEST course of action for all is to find a way to make a Palestinian state that can co-exist with an Israeli one.
What do people here think is going to happen once Israel locates all of the Iranian nuclear facilities and has credible intel that Iran is close to completing a bomb?
Posted in: U.S. demands Israel cancel Jerusalem building plan
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perspective
A very simplistic, and very wrong, assumption.
If the Islamic countries in the area really cared about the plight of the Palestinians and were sincere about making peace, there would have been a Palestinian state long ago.
Posted in: U.S. demands Israel cancel Jerusalem building plan
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perspective
^ months IS a little early to make an evaluation and it would be hard to do so given that the Hatoyama administration hasn't really done anything yet.
Posted in: How would you evaluate Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's first six months in office?
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perspective
All of them - especially these so-called "talents" or "tarento", which is actually an oxymoron because they have none.
Posted in: Which celebrities - Japanese or foreign - are you sick of reading or hearing about recently?
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perspective
LFRAgain, it's one thing to try and convict someone as opposed to arresting them. The police have the victim and the guy confessed to doing it which is ample evidence to arrest someone on suspicion of committing the crime.
I'm surprised they didn't use the old "abandonment of a body" crap.
Posted in: Man questioned after wife's body found in car trunk in Chiba