JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Financial Advisor
- Select Asset Management KK, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥100,000 ~ ¥999,999 Paid Training Commission Based
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- Corporate Business English Trainers
- ACT Systems, Inc.（株式会社アクト・システムズ）, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥269,500 ~ ¥280,000 / Month
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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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plasticmonkey
I'm saying they should not have been executed by an enlightened governing body. Nothing is accomplished by doing so, and moral integrity is lost by doing so. If you want to talk about maximum penalty, why not torture people to death?
The death penalty is no solution to such a problem (and I question your data).
Posted in: New justice minister won't OK executions in near future
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plasticmonkey
@Breitbart
So by that rationale you believe in theocracy. And sharia law, were that the majority persuasion in your neighborhood. Which I doubt it is.
"Collectivists" and Marxists are right that religion (especially monotheistic, faith-based claptrap) should be ridiculed (I'd take out the maginalized and expunged). The history of Europe is a prime example of how power-hungry politicians and tyrants were co-conspirators and competitors with power-hungry clergymen, both of whom were eager to invoke the name of a fictitious God to impose a guilty, superstitious, and subservient spirit upon their subjects.
And it still works wonders for Rick Perry.
Posted in: A hot issue on the U.S. campaign trail: theology
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plasticmonkey
What? How about corruption and collusion between government, bureaucrats, zaibatsu, and gangsters? Not on the list? Oh, they'll take care of that after Japan's miserable trainwreck of an economy gets back on track.
This country will never get its stuff together, in any lasting way, until the greedy old elite squad is put in its place (i.e. the toilet).
A summary of Noda's plan is lots more construction projects at the expense of the middle class.
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plasticmonkey
@CrazyJoe
Yes, I agree. And that's why there is a thing called a justice system. Because without it people would be inclined toward inflicting justice based on raw anger and loss. That is what most crimes are based on. Justice should be the attempt to transcend that basal instinct in the best interests of all members of society. The death penalty is a profound example of the stubbornness of irrationality and willful ignorance.
I welcome this statement by the new justice minister.
Posted in: New justice minister won't OK executions in near future
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plasticmonkey
As many AKB fans are likewise unable to have relationships with the opposite sex, they too can love vicariously through her character. A real stroke of marketing genius here.
Posted in: Karina, AKB48's Yuko Oshima to costar in drama
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plasticmonkey
@the office:
Interesting view, but I doubt if Noda will raise taxes that fast. The DPJ doesn't want to give that card up too fast. Noda's just a temporary bandage.
Posted in: Noda to become Japan's next prime minister
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plasticmonkey
The smart powers within the DPJ want to save Maehara as a pinch hitter. He's popular with the public, and since this is not election season it would be a waste to have such a decisive player at this time. He'll be the DPJ's choice when the next election comes, or is forced.
Posted in: Noda to become Japan's next prime minister
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plasticmonkey
Couldn't have scripted that comment better myself.
Posted in: Noda to become Japan's next prime minister
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plasticmonkey
They tortured this poor kid to death. That's how the police should phrase it and that's how these so-called parents should be prosecuted.
RIP, young man.
Posted in: Parents arrested over death of 7-year-old son
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plasticmonkey
@Supercross
There. You admitted it. It's about idolizing (=sexualizing) girls whose image is a cross between sweet and virginal (i.e. the appearance of being underage) and trampy (i.e. violable). The marketing genius is getting teenage girls to emulate AKB while at the same time getting creepy otaku guys to leer at them. Do you think that is a healthy force in society? How can you admire the people who produce this crap? Personally, I wouldn't want you or your kind anywhere near my daughter.
The producer Akimoto ended up marrying one of his Onyanko Club members. A couple of other OC members went on to pose nude. Now we have him producing girls who are designed to look like high school students frolicking in lingerie and bikinis. How can anyone deny the perverted sexual element that's at play here?
As for not being able to put a historical perspective on pop trends in the past -- yeah, sure, there has always been resistance to new pop trends. Good pop has been able to defend itself with the quality of its music. And even among groups who have negligible musical talent, AKB is not particularly novel. There has long been disposable music and schmucks eager to buy it. However, the media hype surrounding AKB has turned it into a sort of religion, with its followers (Wota?) and their "fierce loyalty" to their favorite girls getting scarier by the day. Just witness the comments by the Wota on this thread and the thumbs down to any apostates who dare critique what (I think) is a pretty unhealthy social trend.
Posted in: AKB48's newest album sets music industry sales record
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plasticmonkey
'Flying Get'?
They must have put a lot of work into this album. It's been a full 3 months since their last one. I'm sure they sing better in unison than ever before. It is sure to put a smile on the faces of lonely otaku everywhere.
Posted in: AKB48's newest album sets music industry sales record
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plasticmonkey
Mmm, competition bad. Me want Noda. He good.
Posted in: Ozawa, Hatoyama meet to discuss who to back for PM
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plasticmonkey
Who writes these stories?
Oh, I'm starting to get the idea . . .
Posted in: Parody of Girls Generation song proves big hit on YouTube
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plasticmonkey
does his daddy pay for his trips on the limousine bus?
Posted in: Man arrested for making fraudulent reservations on airport limousine bus
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plasticmonkey
@patty cake
Which allied power are you referring to? The Russians? I'm not an expert in Russian media. As for American voters for Bush and their responsibility for the war, yeah I'd be willing to consider that reasonable. The American media and public though, while far from selfless or global in their outlook, have certainly not whitewashed America's sins wholesale. Wounded Knee? The internment of Japanese-Americans? Hiroshima and Nagasaki? My Lai? Cambodia? El Salvador? Abu Ghraib? Drone strikes on weddings in Afghanistan? There has been public discourse about all of these and more. And demonstrations.
How often do you see that in Japan?
The Japanese public's culpability in the war is reflected in the way that to this day there is virtually no discourse on the atrocities committed in the name of the emperor, least of all by the media. The only postwar change in the mainstream Japanese public was an overnight shift from gung-ho war supporters to platitude-spouting peaceniks after Japan's decimation. Nanjing? Manila? The public is not interested. Meanwhile we continue to hear a lot about the suffering of the Japanese side.
If you had read my post carefully, you would have noticed that I mentioned (twice) that what the Soviets did was terrible. Let me add that it was unjustified and worthy of attention, just as the firebombing of Tokyo was. Let's just aim for a little balance, shall we?
Posted in: Memorial service held for Japanese who died in Siberian labor camps
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plasticmonkey
Just plain idiocy.
Posted in: Cool beauty
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plasticmonkey
and we all know what Ozawa's 'experience' is in
Posted in: Maehara calls on Ozawa, Hatoyama for support
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plasticmonkey
While what happened to the Japanese POWs under the Soviets was terrible, I find it interesting that in the past few weeks I have seen nothing in the Japanese media about atrocities committed by Japan, which had by far the worst record for their treatment of POWs. Overall, 30% of prisoners held by Japan died in custody. And only 52 Chinese POWs survived.
I have seen stories on the atomic bombings, lots on the internment of Japanese-Americans (who were Americans, BTW, so why should the Japanese give a rats?), the tragic tale of Tokyo Rose, and now this story on the 66th anniversary of Stalin's order to send captured Japanese soldiers to the gulags.
Again, I am not denying or poo-pooing these tragedies. What concerns me is the Japanese media's selective way of presenting history to the public, to reinforce the narrative that Japan was a victim, not only of the Allies' superior war machine but also of inevitable political movements (such as militarism) led by a few bad men (of course not the emperor). Anything to avoid dealing constructively with Japan's real culpability in the war, which extends to the public itself and its eagerness to embrace the party line.
Not much has changed, has it?
Posted in: Memorial service held for Japanese who died in Siberian labor camps
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plasticmonkey
They all kissed Ozawa's ring and vowed to always be ready to change political direction based on the whims of politicians and bureaucrats' egos, their grudges, their schoolyard tiffs, their grudges and rich-boy neuroses, their greed for money and power, or how they feel in the morning. Politics first, policy last.
Posted in: PM candidates visit Hatoyama to garner support
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plasticmonkey
The one about the brain sounds interesting. That's something you don't see coming out of Pixar very often.
Posted in: Pixar plans films on dinosaurs, the mind