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
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yabits Jan. 21, 2012 - 01:17AM JST. will actually increase the price of gasoline by 20 to 30 cents per gallon in many regions as well as subject a major aquifer to environmental harm, they would be soundly against it -- just as the Republican governor of Nebraska and a majority of people of that state are opposed to it.
Leaving aside the fact that an increase in oil supply of at least 700,000 barrels per day would drastically DECREASE petroleum prices,not increase them. U.S. Department of State conducted a thorough environmental review and concluded that the pipeline poses few environmental risks. DOS studied and addressed risk to soil, wetlands, water resources, vegetation, fish, wildlife, and endangered species. They concluded that the construction of the pipeline would pose minimal environmental risk.
This is not leadership. Somehow Obama believes U.S. will be stronger turning its back on secure supplies of oil that will be needed for decades to come. U.S. will need more oil. They see the benefits of importing more from Canada while also producing more at home. This political decision offers hard evidence that creating jobs is not a high priority for this administration,
Posted in: Obama rejects contested Canada pipeline
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mikemiroJan. 20, 2012 - 05:10PM JST Having worked at GM in Canada in the past, I know that Toyota's comment that being no. 1 "is not the most important thing" for them is absolute rubbish. No one wants to be in second or (in their case) third place. The issue is that US automakers have begun to catch up in terms of quality & value for money - Japanese still make better cars, but their service & customer response levels have fallen behind those of US/EU manufacturers.
It's not that Toyota is comfortable being number two. They prefer to be number one. The problem is that Toyota wants to avoid repeat of bogus "sudden acceleration #2" inquiry from the U.S. goverment. This has nothing to do with Toyota making better cars for not. It's more political.
Posted in: Toyota says No. 1 spot not top priority
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YuriOtaniJan. 21, 2012 - 12:39AM JST. Today's GM is not much different than the GM of the 1960,s. True the body is a bit better but the electrical is still brutal. My 86.5 Supra is more advance than a new corvette. Compare the features and tell me I am wrong. One item "lifting rods", my guy has twin overhead cams and 24 valves vs 16.
If Supra was so good, Toyota would've continue to make this today. It's a sloppy handling car with a numb steering. What does Toyota have to compete with Corvette today? Nothing. Toyota discountinued the expensive inline 6 cylinder engine design that only produce around 200hp in non-turbo form because nobody wanted to buy Supra. BMW has the same inline 6 design for decades and demand is still strong. The Supra had only half the horsepower of todays Corvette. How can you compare with todays Corvette? The small block chevy engine in a standard Corvette produces 430hp at $45K. They are the best bargain in performance cars. They handle better than anything Toyota produces for the money. Besides, the parts are cheap and the small block chevy engine can go 250K miles without problems. Put your Supra in the track comparison with a new Corvette and see how outdated your Supra is.
Posted in: GM reclaims world's biggest carmaker title as Toyota skids
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Darvish's 6 year $60 million is comparable to Gio Gonzalez 7 year $66 million with last two years as option for Gonzalez. A better pitcher would have negotiated a shorter deal and made more money on the next one. That's what Felix Hernandez, Justin Verlander and Jered Weaver all did in recent years, and it's what Tim Lincecum will do now that his two-year, $23 million deal with the Giants has expired, making him eligible for arbitration heading into his walk year. Clayton Kershaw will likely do it as well, unless the Dodgers want to break Gonzalez's record in the coming weeks. After posting fee, I doubt Rangers would've offered shorter term contract. With the posting fee, it's costing the Rangers $18 million a year. This is three times more than Nippon Ham paid him last year.
Posted in: Fighters manager says $112 mil too low for Darvish
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Fully prepared for what? Spend more money? One of the biggest causes of U.S. soaring debt and economic insecurity ends up being Pentagon spending. The budget for the Pentagon consumes more than half of U.S. discretionary spending. We have seen countless stories of U.S. taxpayer dollars going unaccounted for in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have had countless high profile hearings on contractor fraud and the lack of oversight at the Department of Defense. So what we have is the U.S. financing war on borrowed money. The soaring debt and these two wars, the war in Iraq and war in Afghanistan. Between 2003 to present, the U.S. debt increased by almost $4 trillion. A quarter of that debt is directly attributed to the war in Iraq. The cost of the war in Afghanistan has been over $500 billion to date. U.S. is spending so much money on defense, that is affecting the ability to be able to provide for the American people at home. And we have to start taking care of things here at home.
What will we sacrifice? Will we sacrifice the education of our children for these wars? Will we sacrifice Social Security for these wars? Will we sacrifice Medicare or Medicaid for these wars? Will we sacrifice our infrastructure for these wars? Or will we say the war in Iraq was based on lies? Will we say that Afghanistan is a hopeless, corrupt mess and it's time to bring our troops home, and then begin to use the resources of our country, those resources that are hard-earned taxpayer dollars, use that money for things here at home? Let's have that debate as we talk about cutting the military budget.
Posted in: Panetta: U.S. 'fully prepared' for Iran challenge
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Signing Darvish is risky. Price Fielder would have been a better choice for the Rangers. The Rangers main competition in the AL West is the Los Angeles Angels. The Angels decided to go on a spending spree to try and overtake the Rangers next summer, but no matter who the Angels threw in their rotation, they would still have to face a lineup without Prince Fielder. Adding a great power hitter like Fielder would make the Rangers lineup even scarier. Pitchers would find themselves in a situation where they would be facing Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz and Prince Fielder in the same inning. That would be enough to even give AL East rotations nightmares. The Rangers aleady have most underated starting pitchers that posted 3.45ERA (3rd best in the AL).
Rather than signing Darvish, Rangers could've move their hard throwing closer Neftali Feliz into the starting rotation. Rangers already signed Joe Nathan as a closer. Feliz's minor league numbers may indicate that the Rangers may have a new ace on their hands. Feliz went 10-6 record as a full-time starter in the Rangers organization couple years ago. Feliz had 150+ strikeouts in 127 innings pitched tells you jthat Feliz should have little difficulty becoming an effective starter in the major leagues.
Posted in: Rangers sign Darvish to six-year $60 mil deal
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Darvish will have some problems with MLB as he challenges hitters with pitches down the middle of the plate and up in the zone and will have to learn that he can't dominate here like he did in Japan, but he has great movement and will have some room for error due to that. His control is good but his command within the zone seems a little spotty.
Posted in: Rangers sign Darvish to six-year $60 mil deal
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Japan and China are in the high 98 percent conviction rate, but does really this tell us about criminal convictions? Are these two systems remotely comparable? Do prosecutors really screen cases better so that they lose fewer of them, or is the system one in which being charged with a crime pretty much results in a conviction or both? Is a practice of torturing those arrested relevant to the conviction statistics? Hey, don’t laugh at the question, considering that was considered standard procedure in this part of the world in “olden days”: “In Europe and the New World, until the early 18th century, it was common for the justice system to have suspects tortured to extract confessions from them, since circumstantial evidence was rarely analyzed or admitted in those times. Although this practice is generally and has generally been disallowed in the more recent past, except during 20th-century fascist and Soviet governments, there have been attempts to introduce evidence obtained from suspects tortured elsewhere.
Posted in: U.S. ambassador says human rights in China worsening
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For many people in Tokyo, subways are crowded, noisy places only marginally better than being stuck in traffic and most of them are. But the best of them are not only efficient, they reflect the character of the cities they serve and the people they carry. Tokyo subway system is the busiest system in the world. The system is famous for its oshiya (pusher) who shove passengers into packed subway cars so the doors can close. And you think your commute is hell. Best in the world being pushed into the train?
Posted in: What do you think are the good and bad points about the subway systems in Japan's cities?
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sfjp330
At the time, the only way to win against Google was, really, to ally or sell to Microsoft, which had the deep pockets to fund such a needy technology. Jerry Yang should've realized that the part of Yahoo! that Microsoft was after, was not the culture that he worked so hard to create. It was the part that never really integrated itself well into Yahoo! anyway. If he could have averted his eyes from the piles of money Search was bringing to Yahoo!, he could have reached the logical conclusion much earlier:
Posted in: Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang leaving company
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On some major lines, if there is enough hight space, use double deck trains to ease congestion.
Posted in: What do you think are the good and bad points about the subway systems in Japan's cities?
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wanderlustJan. 17, 2012 - 02:33PM JST There are huge conflicts of interest with these big four accounting firms; tasked with both audit and minimizing costs and taxes, even acting as external consultants. It is very hard to believe that they knew nothing. It seems as if one of these big four is always involved when some company has been found to have been fiddling the books, avoiding taxes, corrupt and combinations of these...
An accounting firm who has trust or special relationship with Olympus may be held liable for a third-party’s embezzlement if the accountant refers the client to the third-party and fails to disclose material facts or makes representations on which the client relies. One does not have a duty to protect another from a crime unless a special relationship exists. Most business relationships are not fiduciary relationships, an accountant may be held to be a fiduciary in circumstances where a client justifiably relies upon the accountant as a trusted advisor, as when an accountant renders personal financial, investment or tax advice to a client.
Posted in: 2 accounting firms cleared, 5 in-house auditors blamed in Olympus cover-up
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Such gross misconduct and deception to the point of criminal act should not to be treated lightly. If Olympus is allowed to simply go on with their business as normal. It signals a very bad example. It might be a very painful one, but for the good of the wider Japanese Corporate goverance and fairness to investors through investigation must be done to unearth the truth.
Posted in: 2 accounting firms cleared, 5 in-house auditors blamed in Olympus cover-up
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Robert DykesJan. 16, 2012 - 03:17PM JST "She was traveling at up to 150 kilometers per hour" I love how in Japan they make that sound fast! my 250cc Honda MOTORCYCLE tops out at 139 my Nissan Cube got up to 163 on the IC. I have not taken my 1997 Prelude SiR on the IC yet, but on (2 lane) back roads I have reached 155. I have ridden with my friend in his Subaru B4 also on back roads @ over 160kph.
The distance for Funabashi straighway is only 308m, which is less than 1200 feet (around 1/4 mile). Your Subaru can top 160kph? Maybe in your dreams. Funabashi race tracks is narrow oval track with very tight turns and has very little margin for error. So, even at 150km, which is not that fast, is exceptionlly dangerous on this tracks. The accidents can happen at a split second. If you take your same 1997 Prelude SiR on the same short track, I doubt you can top 120kph.
She enjoyed what she did. My condolence to Sakai's family.
Posted in: Japanese woman speedway racer killed in crash
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sethwrightJan. 17, 2012 - 03:45AM JST A tax increase is needed - there is no way around this fact and cutting spending is going to do more harm than good.
I disagree. Japan’s consumption tax is only a small part of the picture. Both Japan’s corporate tax and income tax are significantly higher than South Korea’s, with some individuals paying up to 50% of their salary in income tax. Overall, Japan’s taxes are significantly higher for its citizens and businesses than Korea’s taxes.In fact, J-goverment ought to be lowering taxes right now to encourage more spending instead of attempting to lower the deficit. Unlike many other countries’ debts, 95% of Japan’s debt is owed to its own citizens and not to other countries, which means there is minimal time pressure for Japan to pay the debt off and lower its deficit. Also, Japan is borrowing at a low interest rate, the government can currently borrow from Japanese investors for 30 years at a mere 2% interest rate, which is another reason that paying off the public debt should not be the J-government’s first priority.
The J-government’s first priority should be to stimulate its economy, not to pay off its public debt. PM could stimulate growth by lowering taxes to encourage consumer spending, which could reverse the deflationary spiral that created the debt in the first place.
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Patrick HattmanJan. 14, 2012 - 04:14AM JST With the Rangers losing Wilson to the Angels and not keeping Lee the year before, it's really important they sign a potential standout SP in Darvish to do well in the division title fight this season.
But what happens if he doesn't sign? What options do the Rangers have left in adding a starting pitcher? The first option is that they could do nothing and go with a rotation of Colby Lewis, Derek Holland, Matt Harrison, Alexi Ogando and Neftali Feliz. That's still not a bad group of pitchers and they made it to the World Series last season without an ace.
The second option is to sort through what's left in the free agent market. Fans seem to like Roy Oswalt but they only see his name and not his declining numbers. If he was still that great do you think the Phillies would allow him to leave? I don't.
Then there's Hiroki Kuroda. In four seasons in the majors he has a 3.45 ERA, a 1.18 WHIP and has a K/BB ratio around 3. He has good numbers; however, he is limited by his age. He'll be 37 next month and therefore not worth giving a long-term deal to. One or two years maybe.
Posted in: Nolan Ryan confident Rangers will sign Darvish
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WolfpackJan. 14, 2012 - 07:35AM JST. when his nation called, he turned and denounced his country instead.
I wonder why? There were over 58,000 dead and 500,000 soldiers with mental problems in Vietnam war. Even today, many still have mental problems and are homeless and VA hospitals turn their back on them. What were we fighting for? Many young people turned their backs and left for Canada. Ali went through legal process and paid the dues. If you were drafted in the Army at that time, most ended up in MOS as 11 Bush or 11 Charley after basic and after AIT, you would end up in Bein Hoa for further assignments. You probably never shot bazooka, M60 or let alone M16. I have. What Ali did was made young people aware of the problems with this war.
Posted in: Ali at 70: Legacy endures for new generation
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U.S. needs to re-affirm the Algiers Accords In 1981, the U.S. signed an agreement with Iran in which the U.S. pledged "that it is and from now on will be the policy of the U.S. not to intervene, directly or indirectly, politically or militarily, in Iran's internal affairs." Since U.S. already signed this, let's affirm that it's still U.S. policy and will remain so.
Posted in: What can be done to ease tensions between Iran and Western nations?
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I respect Ali for his stance on Vietnam war. Ali brought awareness to the problems of Vietnam war. He was publicly vilified for his refusal to be conscripted into the U.S. military, based on his religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War. At the time, widespread protests against the Vietnam War had not yet begun. Ali articulated the reason to oppose the war for a generation of young Americans, and his words served as a touchstone for the racial and antiwar upheavals in the 60's. Ali's example inspired Martin Luther King Jr. to voice his own opposition to the war for the first time.
Posted in: Ali at 70: Legacy endures for new generation
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SSCSforeverJan. 13, 2012 - 07:04AM JST. Paul was not lying. He was completing the plan that the men wanted.
If Paul wasn't lying, and he was completing his plan, then here's a question for you: Will the average Australian taxpayer love whales as much when they see the bill for retrieving those three goofy anti-whaling activists from the Shonan Maru 2? Cost is estimated in the vicinity of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' dollars. The Sea Shepherd group, whose boat the activists were purportedly trying to help, should contribute to the cost, and was met by outrage from, guess who: your buddy Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling group. Paul Watson wrote in a letter to Gillard, stating bill for the recovery of three Australian citizens from the Shonan Maru #2 is absurd. The Australian goverment should file a suit against Sea Shepard to recover the cost. There is no reason why taxpayers of Australia has to pay for these three stooges rescue.
Posted in: 3 Sea Shepherd activists detained aboard Japanese whaling vessel