JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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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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- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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sk4ek
Ha!!
Huh?!?
Posted in: Leading a digital 'evilution'
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sk4ek
For a second there I thought it was Rita Moreno in the original production of "West Side Story"...
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sk4ek
Great, police-sanctioned illegal wiretapping and use of underage teens in sting operations. Just what this country needs to combat crime.
But that's the way it is. "shrug"
Posted in: 'Nippon Civilian Police' skirts a fine line between vigilance and vigilantism
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sk4ek
I have a little more respect for her after reading the full article.
Posted in: Erika Sawajiri: Inside the head of Japan's outspoken star
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sk4ek
This is not ambitious, it's simply irresponsible, and in many cases, illegal.
Posted in: We youngsters lack passion and ambition? Hardly
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sk4ek
manfromamerica:
No, I was referring specifically to the government's intentional suppression of statistics clearly indicating a growing below-poverty-line segment of society (often the live-alone elderly and single mothers) as long as they thought they could push the tried-but-not-so-true "we're all middle-class" myth. It was only when many other factors converged in the past decade that they've been forced to be honest about this social and economic stratification.
I don't think the younger generation expects to be taken care of, at all.
Posted in: We youngsters lack passion and ambition? Hardly
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sk4ek
Most of my Japanese friends are in their 20s and 30s, and I wouldn't characterize a single one of them as unambitious. Those who are stuck on the salaryman treadmill are constantly studying and searching, looking for ways to hop off and explore a more fulfilling life, and those who get by on part-time jobs or work in less secure industries such as retail and food service usually have some other project they're pursuing, whether it's eventually owning their own businesses, or focusing on raising a family, or going abroad, etc. They work hard, scrape by on a pittance, buy only what they like and can afford (often a really good pair of shoes, certainly not a car), and in general seem remarkably optimistic about their lives.
The least ambitious, and most conservative, 'millenials' I know have gone to good schools, absorbed all of the traditional lessons (and really, upper education here--as is increasingly the case in the U.S.--is mostly just a training ground for corporate drones), and are determined to hang on to the rails of whatever track they've chosen for themselves. Most of them have no interest in what goes on in the world, would be horrified at the prospect of being transferred overseas, and still believe that material things can define their worth as members of society.
The real concern should be for those in their teens, twenties, and thirties who have been most directly impacted by the recent decades of recession, deflation, and growing economic disparity. This is true in any country where the social safety net is stretched too thin or extended unevenly. An unrelenting cycle of poverty can breed poor nutrition and health, tumultuous home lives, failure in school, and delayed social development, eventually robbing the individual of the skills, ambition, physical fortitude, and psychological wherewithal they need to deal with, and eventually escape from, the very conditions that perpetuate such a cycle.
Much of the convulsive crime seen as being on the rise these days (stabbings in the street and the like), the domestic violence and child abuse, the youthful suicides, come out of this environment, and much of the blame lies with the government, which until quite recently refused to acknowledge even the statistical existence of a segment of society mired in poverty, desperation, and hopelessness. To this day, the government continues to believe that the nation's problems can be solved through more exports, more babies--in short, more of the same. An entire generation, maybe two, are being left behind as a result.
Social commentators here tend to lump the NEETs with the "freeters" with "otaku" (and, by association, the "hikikomori"), and try to treat it all as a single phenomenon under the rubric of "Young people these days...blah blah blah". But they're entirely different issues, and this approach only exacerbates the problem and encourages the government to think in sweeping generalizations rather than tackling real, specific issues.
I agree with the writer. The issue is not so much a lack of ambition, it's a difference in values. Young people don't necessarily lack direction, they're simply choosing to take a different direction. And that, in the long run, is bound to be a good thing for the country.
Posted in: We youngsters lack passion and ambition? Hardly
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sk4ek
Shouldn't this headline read "Ken Watanabe to appear in Docomo ad with actor dressed up as Darth Vader"???
Posted in: Ken Watanabe to appear in Docomo ad with Darth Vader
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sk4ek
I have stopped eating beef almost completely in the past few years--aside from a little ground meat in taco or in my spaghetti sauce--not out of any concerns about BSE or other diseases, but because it's simply too expensive, and, as it turns out, certainly not an indispensable part of my diet.
Japan could eliminate many of the problems it has with beef by adopting the practices of one ranch in Hokkaido, which raises its cattle completely naturally--they eat grass! they forage in the woods!--and produces a much redder, meatier product that is safer and far less fatty than traditional wagyu. No drugs, no imported feed (filled with corn, which cows aren't naturally able to digest, not to mention animal byproducts and fillers), no spritzing with wine or beer, no massages, no induced birthing or veterinarian midwives to yank calves from the womb with a chain, as is normally done.
Unfortunately, in the market, wagyu is ranked by degree of marbling--the more the better--so although this beef is tastier, healthier, and better for the environment, it regularly gets ranked a C or C-.
I still get the occasional craving for a nice sukiyaki or sizzling steak, but I think I'll continue to take my chances with chicken. Free-range, if possible.
Posted in: BSE and foot-and-mouth disease give beef producers plenty to chew on
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sk4ek
Errrr... Educate them in two languages???
Kids under the age of 10 or so will generally be able to acquire facility in multiple languages with much less effort than would be required for an adult to do the same. If they're learning in one language only at school, the parents can work to ensure the second language is emphasized at home. Supplemental classes can help if the home linguistic environment is not so clear-cut, to avoid raising a child who comprehends the second language but doesn't speak it. (Such as was common in Hawaii when I was growing up--a lot of Japanese-American friends with mothers who only spoke Japanese at home could understand the language well, but because they seldom spoke it, and never read/wrote Japanese, only attained fluency by continuing to take classes in Japanese as a second language).
In any case, if the language environment outside the home is not also bilingual, eventually the child will acquire--by choice or otherwise--greater proficiency in one language at the expense of the other, but with early enough exposure, reasonable fluency in both can be retained through adulthood.
Posted in: What is the best way for parents of children of mixed heritage to make sure their kids grow up bilingual?
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sk4ek
*I'll be rooting for Hawaii in the final- also a surprise finalist- but at least they "won" their way to the championship game. *
Not such a surprise, Waipio won the championship in 2008, too, and a Hawaii team also brought home the trophy in 2005 to start the U.S.'s 5-year winning streak.
Posted in: Japan to play Hawaii for Little League title
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sk4ek
I'm torn--long-time resident of Japan, but from Hawaii... IN the end, I guess I gotta root for the home team--Hawaii No Ka Oi!!!
Posted in: Japan to play Hawaii for Little League title
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sk4ek
Mixed fruits and whipped cream on white bread--not so strange, I suppose, if you think of the bread as a kind of pound cake...
When I first came here decades ago, I used to get confused at bakeries--what I thought was an orange danish would turn out to be squash, what I thought were raisins on my cinnamon roll turned out to be azuki beans, etc. etc.
Yakisoba on a bun is almost as good as a spaghetti sandwich... :-)
I once ordered what the menu said was a クラブハウスサンド (which I automatically read as "clubhouse") and got a crab salad sandwich instead.
I draw the line at kim chee croissants, though.
Posted in: What are some of the weirdest sandwich or pastry items you have seen in Japan?
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sk4ek
What an utterly pointless idea for a book.
Posted in: The Biographical Dictionary of Notable Figures with Hilarious Names
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sk4ek
I used to think it was "layer" too... but now, partly based on the katakana spelling, I think it just refers to a cheesecake that is chilled rather than baked, hence "rare".
Posted in: Fruit Sweets
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sk4ek
This is why I like the term we use in Hawaii (and which has since spread to the West coast of the U.S. and other places) -- "hapa", which means of mixed race, but without any specific "half this/half that" implication. At this point, "hapa" kids are more the rule than the exception in Hawaii, and the term has kind of gone out of use there, but people are still proud of their various mixed heritages, often pointing them out in (not very scientific) fractions of an eighth or even sixteenth. Japan has a long, long way to go to get to that point, and perhaps never will--or even, necessarily, be expected to--and I think these kinds of discussions, and self-driven efforts to examine and understand that progress, or lack of it, are part of a healthy, positive process. Besides, something needs to be done to counteract the still-persistent attitude of google-eyed amazement, especially on TV, with which bi-racial or multi-racial individuals born and/or raised in Japan are treated on TV and elsewhere in the media, and it's the so-called "hafu" population that needs to lead that effort.
Posted in: The Hafu Project: Exploring the question of what it means to be Japanese
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sk4ek
Well, "rare cheese" is really just a Japanized English term for cream cheese, so if you think about it, this is not all that much different from a cremesicle, which is orange and cream (or, err, creme). It's the use of the term "rare cheese", which conjures up something completely different in standard English, that throws it off.
Posted in: Fruit Sweets
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sk4ek
What was pathetic about it? The fact that he had to rent from Tsutaya? That he had to rent porn, period? Or that he was half-paralyzed, middle-aged, Japanese, and on crutches?
Why? Exploitation of whom? Isn't it also then exploitation to pay a care worker or home helper 800 or 900 yen an hour to go into the home of the same disabled individuals and cook and clean, or bathe and toilet their clients?
Or maybe you're talking about the price? I don't know what "deli-heru" services for the able-bodied cost, but these don't seem particularly exploitative, given that even above-board (i.e. no sexual services) massage services run 6,000 yen and up an hour.
Posted in: Business caters to sexual needs of disabled
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sk4ek
Maybe it's just the phony poses, but the heads look Photoshopped on...
Posted in: Universal values
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sk4ek
The cost of LED lamps is well below half of what it was just a year or two ago--I think Sharp's run about 3,000-4,000 yen, some models from Panasonic and Toshiba are even less. But there have been some complaints about longevity not being what it's claimed to be--though some of that is expected, since many, if not most, LED lamps are being used in fixtures originally designed for standard bulbs, and compatibility is still a little spotty.
Posted in: Bright lights