JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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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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- Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Kanto region
- RCS (RCSコーポレーション), Kanto
- Salary: ¥180,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month includes performance bonus
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- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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sarcasm123
I think many people see whale eaters more like a problem too, rather than part of a non-existing culture.
Even though Japanese almost never ate whale meat before 1910? Or, are you an Eskimo? If you are an Eskimo, then what you are saying is correct. If you are Japanese you either have no idea about Japanese whaling history, or you are deliberately writing nonsense.
Wait wait wait... Hard to catch many whales? You mean that Japan did not catch many whales during the Edo period? So, not many Japanese could eat whale? In other words, it was not a major part of the Japanese culture?
I think you are right. It was only a minor habit.
You are not making a lot of sense. If whaling was spread all over Japan, there would be no need to go to Taiji, etc. What you are saying is that whaling was in fact only a habit in Taiji and a number of other places. In other words: just a minor habit, in some parts of Japan.
Yes, after 1910. Hard to call this a century old habit.
Posted in: Australian PM threatens legal action against Japan over whaling
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sarcasm123
No, I don't. I understand it is a minor habit. Smoking pot and doing chikan are more "Japanese culture" than whaling, for example, in my opinion. These have been done for centuries, and by a large part of the population, respectively. However, eating whale meat has not. Hence, it is just a minor habit.
Yes, the one Japanese have been done for centuries, according to you.
Which started to be popular around 1910.
How many ships did they use in the Edo period? In 1910 (Meiji period) there were only 28 whaling ships in Japan. Before that even less. So, my question to you: how many ships fished for whales during the Edo period?
If this uniqueness is important to you, you should support whaling using nets. However, at this time Japan does not do whaling using nets. Hence, it is not continuing its valuable tradition. Thus, we cannot say that the modern whaling is Japanese culture.
Meaning that before that there was only very few whale meat available in Japan. Which means very few people ate it. Which means it was just a minor habit, in some parts of Japan.
Please see the number of Japanese whaling fish in 1910: 28. How many during the Edo period?
Posted in: Australian PM threatens legal action against Japan over whaling
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sarcasm123
The "whale food culture" before that being just throwing spears from small boats, in even smaller numbers; or eating dead stranded whales. That is not "Japanese culture", but a "Japanese minor habit".
Most Japanese had never eaten whale before the introduction of modern whaling techniques. Thus, NOT eating whale was Japanese culture until about 100 years ago.
Nope, it spread from about 1910 to 1960. All in all 50 years of nation-wide whale-eating. Is this the "Japanese culture" you are talking about?
Posted in: Australian PM threatens legal action against Japan over whaling
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sarcasm123
I'll post it here too:
The funny thing is: Japanese do NOT have this tradition (of eating whale meat). Go check the facts everybody: Japan introduced modern whaling techniques about 100 years ago and had at that time just a few dozens of whaling ships. Did they feed the entire country with just a few ships? No, they didn't. It is impossible. For comparison, Western countries has hundreds of such ships at that time.
So, NO Japan does not have a tradition of eating whale meat. What we can say is that some specific towns had such a tradition. Given these facts all we can say is that eating whale meat was a pretty minor custom in Japan, until about 80 years ago.
Nevertheless, Japanese keep on claiming how this whaling habit is their culture as if they were eating whale meat 5 times a week for hundreds and hundreds of years.
There must be very little people who know so little about their own culture as the Japanese.
Posted in: Australian PM threatens legal action against Japan over whaling
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sarcasm123
Is there a reason why this guy's name does not start with a capital H?
Posted in: First Buddhist memorial to be held in honor of X-Japan guitarist hide
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sarcasm123
No you don't and the only time whale was being eaten at a large scale in Japan was after WW2. THAT is how far your ancient tradition goes back: 60 years.
I suggest you start eating Japanese. Because "Japanese eats many fishes".
Posted in: Australian PM threatens legal action against Japan over whaling
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sarcasm123
Well, they "count" the whales by killing them one by one. Yup, if you want to count something there is only 1 way to do it: kill them. Japanese might say that there is no other way to do it. But hey, this is supposed to be research right: I say let them THINK about a way to do it without having to kill whales. But then again, this would lead to a shortage of whale meat. Which is the main goal of this "research".
And for this research Japan is using 5 to 10 億円 tax money per year. The rest (about 90%?) of the money used to fund this "research" comes from selling the meat.
But hey, this research gives Japan so much in return. 0 papers in top journals, a huge amount of international attention, and lack of funding in other more important areas of research.
Posted in: Australian PM threatens legal action against Japan over whaling
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sarcasm123
I saw an interesting discussion on the net about whaling between a foreigner and a few Japanese some time ago.
It started with the usual claims form the Japanese that whaling was done for research. They could defend that argument for about 2 minutes. After that they more or less admitted that this whole research thing is a lie.
After that the topic shifted to "culture". The Japanese guy had a hard time defending whaling to be Japanese culture after the foreign guy told him that in 1910 Japan had in total something like 25 whaling ships, and even less before that. He also said that if it was a tradition, it should be done in the traditional way, not like it was been done recently.
After having to more or less admit that whaling was only a minor and relatively new habit in Japan, emotional arguments followed about how "the white men" had killed all whales. The Japanese had difficulties explaining how that meant that Japan had to continue killing even more...
Next one of the Japanese guys conveniently changed the definition of "culture" to be not what actually is, but what the population THINKS is important for the country. In other words, even if whaling is not Japanese culture, if the Japanese think it is, it is. Needless to say, this argument didn't last very long.
Next stop: the Japanese claimed that the US is supporting whaling by Eskimos. They found it a double standard to support whaling by Eskimos, while being opposed to whaling by Japanese. (Note: I do not know if their claim is true). Anyway, the foreign guy explained that Eskimos have - unlike Japanese - been eating whale meat for hundreds and hundreds of years due to the lack of other things to eat in their territories. The Japanese side tried some weak arguments about how "that was long ago" (a funny argument for someone who started with claiming how Japanese had been eating whale meat since "long ago"). The foreign guy told them how the eating habits of the Eskimos where reported to be like that even recently in a number of studies.
Next argument: how mink whales were no longer regarded as endangered species since xxxx (I forgot the year). "No longer?" replied the foreigner, "meaning that Japan had indeed being hunting an endangered species just to eat it?". The Japanese side didn't really like that one :P
Moreover he said that some other organisation still regarded mink whales as endangered. So, Japan is hunting a species which might still be endangered.
After that the discussion was pretty much over. The Japanese side was completely humiliated, and ended up with claims about how tasty whale meat is (probably in an attempt to upset the foreign guy), and with claims about how the foreign guy's way of discussing things was not fair. Ironically, THEY ended up calling HIM "emotional"...
As a conclusion: even though many Japanese feel very strongly about this whole whaling issue, most of them seem to have absolutely no idea what they were talking about. Every single argument they made could be easily shown to be not true. Still, no sign of changing their mind of course. No, they were too busy being offended by how this foreigner kept on using facts to support his claim.
Posted in: Australian PM threatens legal action against Japan over whaling
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sarcasm123
The one in the blue jacket?
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sarcasm123
But but but, I thought "the locals love them"? At least that`s what I have been told so many times on JT...
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sarcasm123
Indeed they were. Even samurai had fish only about 3 times a month (meat was out of the question, of course), and the entertainment possibilities of Edo were quite interesting too: about 99% prostitution. Pleasant times indeed.
The romantic view on the Edo period is getting old.
Posted in: What we can learn from Edo Period about recycling
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sarcasm123
Pukey, my dear...
Thank you so much for making fun of my poor English, which is - I have to admit - not my first language, but my third.
Yes, I agree! My English is sooo bad, and you were very right to point out this huge mistake of mine, writing "surprized" instead of "surpirsed", a mistake native English speakers would never make... What was I thinking!
I am sure that your foreign friends here in Japan would never make such a mistake in Japanese. For example, making mistakes between 2 very similar Kanji, using "ga" when it should be "ha", or "ga" when it should be "wo". No, such big mistakes, they never make them!!
No, you were absolutely write to criticise (wait, should that be "criticize"?) me for such a big mistake, and pointing out that I am in no position to criticize people who live in Japan yet wouldn't be able to make a 3 word sentence in Japanese without failing horribly.
And smitty, my friend
Because I presume you are an adult and most other posters here are also adults. There seem to be many here who think learning Japanese is very easy, all kids should be at least bilingual, etc... BUT! The cold reality is that most of the Western foreigners here (yes, you seemed to have missed "Western" in my previous post, but I forgive you) speak Japanese at a kindergarten level.
Hence, my conclusion: I have a feeling there might be quite a large gap between what is posted here and the reality.
Posted in: Unraveling how children become bilingual so easily
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sarcasm123
I always say it because I think it is true.
What I frequent, my dear WMD, is mainly postdoc and researcher circles. Not exactly idiots, I would presume.
I personally know only 2 or 3 Western foreigners that I would dare to call fluent. Maybe your definition of "fluent" is significantly different from mine. Do your friends read novels in Japanese? Do they discuss the present political situation in Japanese with their co-workers? Do they know what 皆既日食 means when it suddenly comes up in a conversation? I would be VERY surprized if they did.
How about English? How about French? Why the sudden urge to compare to Russian and Mandarin? But anyway, if Japanese is SO easy it makes me wonder even more about why so many Westerners seem to be talking in English all the time...
Posted in: Unraveling how children become bilingual so easily
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sarcasm123
I don't know about this... Reading this discussion on the importance of second and third languages makes me really wonder why so many of the (Western) foreigners around me have a Japanese language ability that will barely allow them to buy a stamp at the post office.
I have a feeling there might be quite a large gap between what is posted here and the reality.
Posted in: Unraveling how children become bilingual so easily
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sarcasm123
You should ALWAYS have your passport with you when traveling abroad. Not only in Japan but in all (?) countries.
Posted in: U.S. Embassy issues new warning over drink-spiking in Roppongi
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sarcasm123
Sony... Doesn't that mean wel have to add about 15000 Yen to the price to get any non-Japanese support?
Posted in: Souped-up snappers
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sarcasm123
As always, the mother 3~5 meters ahead of the child. When will people learn?
Posted in: 2-year-old girl dies in hit-and-run while crossing street in Yokohama
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sarcasm123
This country has no child porn problem, very low unemployment, very few rapes, very little crime, relatively little overwork, and little corruption. According to the data, that is.
It also has 100% literacy. According to the data, that is. But don't ask Japanese how to write 識字率 by hand. They can't do that.
Posted in: Japanese urged to take pride in their safe society
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sarcasm123
"I forgot the cat."
That woman is older than the main character, btw.
Now, how about the title "1Q84"? I have a feeling we can re-write this novel without ever having read it!
Posted in: Murakami's novel a hit in Japan before it arrives
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sarcasm123
"In a clever marketing scheme, the contents of his new novel have been kept secret."
But I bet the main character will be a young guy loving jazz.
Posted in: Murakami's novel a hit in Japan before it arrives