JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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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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- FT English Teachers for Kids - Osaka
- Kohgakusha Co., Ltd. （株式会社興学社）, Osaka
- Salary: ¥255,000 ~ ¥275,000 / Month Travel Expenses, Encouragement of Japanese learning*
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- Translator
- ZAIHON, Inc. (日本財務翻訳株式会社), Tokyo
- Salary: ¥6.0M / Year Negotiable
9
senseiman
The agencies that create Japanese pop groups are staffed by some of the most creative and vibrant people in the world. See what they did there? They ascertained that one massive girl group was popular and had the number 48 in its name.
They then ran with that idea and created something entirely different - a massive girl group that has the number 48 in its name but ALSO has the letters N and M in the title, which you will note are not in the name
AKB48.It is such an exciting time to be living in Japan when all this creativity is in the air. I imagine Vienna in the 18th century when Mozart and the other greats were coming up with their own creative works must have felt quite the same.
Posted in: NMB48 song tops Oricon chart
3
senseiman
Very good article. I do hope they have some success in opposing this project.
Posted in: Views of valuable cultural assets threatened
5
senseiman
I have to agree with the above comments about putting some insulation in the walls and introducing central heating rather than these idiotic air conditioners in the ceiling. I use about 4 times more electricity in the winter months than in spring/ fall and double what I use in the summer thanks to that.
Posted in: Japan's emissions rising after nuclear crisis
0
senseiman
Smithinjapan - my point is that the panel was formed at the request of Olympus. Yet it implicated Olympus` own auditors rather than the outside accounting firms.
The point of appointing a biased panel (ie not independent as you suggest this one was) would be to protect insiders at Olympus and deflect the blame onto other companies like those accounting firms. Yet the panel did the exact opposite.
That, and the fact that as nigelboy pointed out everyone on the panel were independent lawyers and accountants with no ties to Olympus, makes me wonder why you are accusing it of not being independent solely based on the fact that they found the Olympus auditors at fault.
Also it should be pointed out that this isn`t the only panel investigating the fraud, nor are the auditors the only ones being held liable. Virtually every member of the Board of Directors has been dismissed (or will be dismissed pending the next general shareholders meeting) along with all the senior executives involved in the fraud and cover up. They are also all being sued for billions of yen. So not only is it inaccurate to say that the panel is not independent, it is also inaccurate to say they are only using these auditors as scapegoats.
Posted in: 2 accounting firms cleared, 5 in-house auditors blamed in Olympus cover-up
-1
senseiman
Er....there seems to be some confusion here. If the panel was not independent, as you seem to imply, it would have been more likely to pin the blame on the accounting firms (Olympus outsiders) rather than blaming Olympus` own auditors (Olympus insiders).
Posted in: 2 accounting firms cleared, 5 in-house auditors blamed in Olympus cover-up
1
senseiman
I like to compare the price of cookies in the supermarket.
Foreign brands like Oreo and Chips Ahoy are in packages that are almost 100% packed with actualy cookies. The per-cookie price of those are far and away the cheapest. There is very little empty space in the boxes/packages and no redundant packaging.
The Japanese brands like Country Ma`am are puffed up with packaging and air. They usually cost more than the import ones yet the same sized package usually yields about half as much actual cookies. You basically are paying twice as much for the privilege of getting a bunch of useless extra packaging.
Quality wise there isn`t much difference. Basically the Japanese cookie firms are just grossly inefficient compared to the foreign brands.
Tis sort of comparison can be done with a lot of things in the supermarket and elsewhere. Its what Chalmers Johnson called the dual economy in Japan. You
ve got a bunch of export oriented industries like the auto and electronics makers who have to compete on the international market and have thus become quite efficient. Then youve got the rest of the economy which only caters to the domestic market and, until the US started demanding Japan open up its markets, didn`t have to deal with much in the way of competetive pressure.Mind you, even these inefficient industries are surviving. Japanese cookie makers under normal economic logic should have all been driven under by the importation of better quality, cheaper imports by now yet the supermarket store shelves are still stocked wtih lots of Japanese made cookies at grossly inflated prices. They probably have an advantage in terms of better catering to local tastes there than the foreign ones.
Posted in: Six things that foreigners feel are overpriced in Japan
0
senseiman
Man, that is a good business. 20,000 yen just to write a review? Of course I suppose they are out of a job now that they have been exposed.
Posted in: Operator of restaurant rating website Tabelog says paid posters manipulated rankings
1
senseiman
A private company can`t fine people. Probably what the article means is that the company is demanding a 300,000 yen payment as a settlement for any civil claim they might have. Or it might mean that the company asked the relevant government authority to impose the fine (or the police imposed the fine without being asked). Either way it is poorly written.
I
m not sure if it is ridiculous or not. If it was just one can, then yes. On the other hand, people dumping huge piles of personal garbage at places like that is a serious problem, so if they just brought a big bag of cans from home and dumped it then Id say it was reasonable.Its actually a bit unusual though as cans, unlike most garbage, actually have a bit of value to them.
Posted in: Elderly couple fined Y300,000 for disposing of cans in freeway service area restrooms
0
senseiman
While I normally post snide comments like Virtuoso
s under articles in the commentary section, I really cant on this one. It is not a bad article and I enjoyed reading it. Like other posters said, it isnt an article meant to convey factual information, I thinkcasual essay` is a good way to describe it. I think Eddie is about the only writer who publishes stuff in the commentary section whose stuff is actually readable (save for the stuff of the wire services, etc).Posted in: The story of love hotels
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senseiman
Um, yeah. You just responded to an older post of mine for the second time for some reason, more or less repeating yourself. I guess you are just being combative here for the sake of being combative?
Posted in: Epileptic crane driver gets 7 years for deaths of 6 children in Tochigi
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senseiman
senseiman: Or better yet, please tell me, from the viewpoint of the families who lost their children due to this liar, how seven years is a just sentence. You can't, can you?
Unless you are going to tell me that you are willing to go to the same families and tell them
THIS sentence (whatever sentence you think is right) is a just sentence and you should be satisfied about itthen you can drop the dramatics. It does nothing but show that you are incapable of engaging in a rational discussion.Posted in: Epileptic crane driver gets 7 years for deaths of 6 children in Tochigi
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senseiman
So....capitalism is bad and corporations are bad and blah blah blah......violence is coming?
Usually if you are going to write an article or commentary piece in which you identify a problem it is useful to suggest solutions to the problems you perceive. This reads more like just a string of random bad stuff that you attribute to
capitalismwithout stating what other-ismyou think will save the day.Posted in: Free enterprise: Triumph, disaster and crisis
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senseiman
Smithinjapan, so 42 years = justice? How do you arrive at that equation? Seems like just an excuse to vent outrage rather than a serious argument. You say you aren`t advocating an eye for an eye argument, but your logic is more or less the same since the only objective standard you are judging his punishment by is how long the families of the victims will suffer.
And how serious are you in raising the argument that if when he is released he will lie in order to get his license again?
Posted in: Epileptic crane driver gets 7 years for deaths of 6 children in Tochigi
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senseiman
Mirai - * We have to disengage from the fact that this guy didn't "intend" to kill the children. Of course he had no intention (otherwise it would be murder by every definition of the word). but we're not judging nor should the prosecution should be trying to prove "intent". Rather, they need to prove criminal negligence and there is OVERWHELMING evidence that he was intentionally negligent. *
They did prove criminal negligence. Otherwise he wouldn
t be going to jail. Intention was never an issue, I just mentioned it to distinguish this from an actual murder case since you said it was murder. It isnt.That's not why people are so upset or surprised at. The biggest reason is the leniency of the sentence. I think we can all agree at this point that this is not just a mere unfortunate accident that couldn't be avoided. Despite the fact that he killed several children, while knowingly having a disability that adversely affects his mobility and ability to stay conscious, and have prior incidents because of this disability, he should be doing much harder time.
Well that is a problem with sentencing. I
m not sure what you would hope to accomplish by sentencing him to more than 7 years. Are you afraid that the threat of spending 7 years in prison and having the deaths of 6 kids on your conscience for the rest of your life wont be enough to deter future epileptics from getting behind the wheel? I highly doubt that. For that reason I find this obsession with the math to be a pointless exercise. 7 years or 42 years - what is the difference? The kids are still dead. This guys life is ruined and making him spend a few decades extra in jail at public expense isnt going to make it any more so. What exactly do you expect it to accomplish other than to satiate your own sense of outrage?I`ve worked in the criminal justice system (breifly and not in Japan I hasten to add). I can say that there is only a very narrow range of criminals for whom lengthy sentences serve any social purpose. Those are the dangerous, violent ones who are basically career criminals and have no fear of serving short stints in jail. The only way to deter them is through the threat of long sentences. For everybody else, including the vast majority of criminals, even short sentences (and 7 years in a prison here is not that short a sentence) have a massive deterent effect (its actually the risk of getting caught rather than the risk of a long sentence that deters most people).
This guy does not fit into that hardened category nor does anybody else likely to commit a similar offence.
Posted in: Epileptic crane driver gets 7 years for deaths of 6 children in Tochigi
2
senseiman
Mirai - fair points. As a law school graduate I can correct your assertion that it is as good as murder. Murder requires a specific intention to kill. No legal system in the world (at least among developed countries) would recognize this as murder because it lacks the element of intent to kill. It is manslaughter or criminal negligence causing death, which is also what drunk driving causing death usually is. He did, of course, intend to get behind the wheel while knowing he posed a severe risk to others by doing so, which is why he was charged with a criminal offence, but the offence he committed was not legally murder.
I should also note that if it had been an
accidenthe wouldnt have been charged with anything at all, so Im very confused by why people think this distinction hasn`t already been taken into account by the judicial system. He committed a crime and he is being punished.As for the license, I
m sure they did ask him if he had any disabilities before giving him his license. Note that he had a special license to operate this kind of equipment and not a regular one. I think it would be reasonable for the employer to accept the fact that he has the license as evidence that he doesnt pose a safety risk in operating it. The article says he hid the illness, which I take to indicate that he lied on his application. My point was simply that that sort of thing happens in every country (the earlier poster had implied this was something wrong with Japan).About his livelihood - you might be right, I hadn`t heard that before (I only faintly remember watching the news when it happened). That would certainly be relevant to sentencing and would suggest a harsher punishment was warranted.
Posted in: Epileptic crane driver gets 7 years for deaths of 6 children in Tochigi
2
senseiman
No question, the tragedy was entirely caused by the guy`s decision to get behind the wheel knowing the risks he posed to others by doing so.
At the time this happened I wanted them to lock the guy up and throw away the key. In retrospect though I think 7 years is fair. This isn
t some cold blooded killer. He was just a stupid guy who made a terrible decision that cost six kids their lives. Its not hard to see that he was in a hard situation - hide his illness or lose his livelihood. There is no excuse for the decision he made, but at the same time I can see how desperation could drive otherwise decent people (assuming he was one, we dont know) to do stupid things.Before I get slammed, I have to state again that I am not defending him. I
m just saying that in the circumstances I dont think life imprisonment like one would recieve for intentionally murdering people would be appropriate.Also, Utrack, if you`ll notice the article said he hid his illness in order to get a license. No country in the world to my knowledge actually tests people for epilepsy as part of their driver licensing process.
Posted in: Epileptic crane driver gets 7 years for deaths of 6 children in Tochigi
0
senseiman
I have just read the relevant schedule and text of the IWC and I have a lot of trouble seeing how you can say Australia has no case. I
m not saying they have a strong case, but my reading of the relevant texts seems reasonably open to Australias arguments.Also, an ICJ finding would only validate Japan`s interpretation of the exemption to the moratorium for scientific research and not the moratorium itself.
As for the strength of the commercial whaling in disguise argument, it might not fly in the ICJ, but it is a powerful political tool because (if my understanding is corrrect) the research conducted could just as easily be gathered through non-lethal means. I say it won
t fly in the ICJ because I dont think that is the test they will use to determine if it constitutescommercialwhaling, but in terms of public opinion, it is hard to accept it as anything else (as you have more or less admitted in previous posts regarding the purpose of the program, which you described as being to keep the industry alive while it was banished).Posted in: Japan using quake disaster budget for whaling aid
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senseiman
I actually am familiar with the legal concept of good faith and legally if Japan is basing any case on arguing that Australia, by not voting in favor of lifting the moratorium, is not acting in good faith as per its international obligations then it has no case whatsoever.
I looked up the Australian claim that was filed at the ICJ. It relates solely to the issue of Japan engaging in de facto commercial whaling, in violation of the letter of the law which bans such activity. The question of whether or not Australia has some "good faith" obligation to vote against the moratorium or reconsider it is not an issue and would not provide Japan with a defence. The case is purely a question of fact. I don't know enough about the facts at issue to speculate as to who will win, but I can tell you that this case will not resolve the moratorium issue as you seem to think it will, unless there is another case also pending which I am unaware of.
If Japan wants a legal remedy along the lines you indicate they would have to bring a seperate claim, and not just against Australia but against all the other parties to the convention (if my understanding is correct, Australia alone does not have the power to overturn the moratorium, correct?) I'm not familiar enough with the ICJ's rules of civil procedure to know if such a claim would be possible though.
Of course they could also simply leave the treaty or have entered a reservation to the moratorium, which they did not do.
Posted in: Japan using quake disaster budget for whaling aid
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senseiman
David -
The way you have described it does not sound like there is any legal obligation whatsoever to lift the moratorium. The mere fact that they cannot institute a permanent ban does not mean that they cannot continue to approve the extension of the current moratorium (or continue to enact new moratoriums, I'm not familiar with the exact process).
"Fighting for international agreements to be honored" is, I should add, a ridiculous statement in this context . The agreement is being honored, it is merely the result that you object to. The agreement that the parties entered into clearly made this exact result possible within the rules and processes that it set down, otherwise Japan would have either left the organization (as they are free to do at any time) or pursued whatever legal remedies were available to them for its breach.
Posted in: Japan using quake disaster budget for whaling aid
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senseiman
How many other industries do you expect to prosper after being essentially banned?
None that I can think of, but that is part of the point. Why go to the expense and trouble of trying to prop up an industry that has been effectively banned? It isn
t a necessary industry, doesnt employ many people, etc etc. I understand why people in whaling towns want it propped up and that they have political backing, but that does not in and of itself make it good for the country.Somehow I feel that every post you have written here is part of it.
Posted in: Japan using quake disaster budget for whaling aid