JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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To be healthy, live in the big city
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Teacher nabbed for using miror to peek up girl's skirt
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Japan's nuclear safety standards flawed, says commission chief
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Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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From carnivores to herbivores: how men are defined in Japan
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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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taikan
@nandakandamanda -- The warrant was issued by a U.S. Magistrate Judge pursuant to U.S. law and requires the production of records maintained in the U.S. by Twitter. Therefore, the U.S. Constitution is applicable, regardless of the location of the people using those Twitter accounts.
Posted in: U.S. government defends tactics in WikiLeaks probe
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taikan
@skipthesong -- There are many large cities in California (and elsewhere in the United States) where one does not need to own a gun. Indeed, the majority of city dwellers don't own guns. I have lived in Richmond and Oakland (both known for their high crime rates) without ever owning or needing a gun, even when I was working as a prosecutor. Admittedly, if one habituates certain parts of town a gun might come in handy, but except for the poor people with no other alternative most people avoid those areas.
As for gang fights, they only involve gang members. Sometimes innocent bystanders (such as the woman in Sacramento) get killed, but that's because the gang members tend to be relatively unskilled at using guns.
Posted in: Mother killed, 5 hurt in gunbattle at California mall
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taikan
That would be interesting if it were true. However, the GDP of the Osaka-Kobe area is reported as being equivalent to $341 billion, compared with the GDP of California which is reported as being $1.8 trillion.
Posted in: Why Japan matters: iPad mania, cloud computing and social intelligence
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taikan
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea defines "piracy" in Article 101 as including "(a) any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed: (i) on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft; . . .
I don't know the actual facts, but if he went from one ship to another, armed with a knife, for the purpose of demanding money from the captain of the ship he boarded, it would appear that a charge of piracy is appropriate.
Posted in: Antiwhaling activist Pete Bethune is facing 5 criminal charges in connection with his intrusion onto a Japanese whaling vessel. What do you think about it?
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taikan
One of the biggest problems with stories such as this one is that, when translated, they refer to a lay member of the panel as a jury member. Japan had a jury system in the 20s and 30s, then got rid of it. When Japan decided to "reform" its criminal justice system at the turn of this century, it explicitly rejected the notion of instituting a jury system such as that used in the US and in the British Commonwealth countries. Instead, it chose to adopt a "citizen judge" system that is an amalgam of the systems used in France and Germany.
Posted in: Jury member loses cool in Miyagi high school girl rape case
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taikan
When financial systems in other countries, such as Indonesia and some of the countries in Southeast Asia, suffered serious problems, the US advised them to let the banks fail and then pick up the pieces and move forward. The countries that followed that advice rebounded far more quickly than those, such as Japan, that did not. Ironically, the US is not following its own advice, and thus likely is doomed to suffer a lengthy period of stagnation, just like Japan.
Posted in: U.S. risks following Japan's example of stagnancy
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taikan
The key phrase is "any religion." Even the three monotheistic religions that sprang from the Middle East (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) cannot agree on what is, and what is not, "grossly abusive" or "insulting" in relation to matters held sacred by each other. Once you add in religions that believe in multiple deities the problem becomes even greater. Then, add in groups that are some countries treat as religions but that other countries do not recognize as religions (such as Scientology) and the possibilities for what might be outlawed are virtually limitless. What a joke.
Posted in: Muslim countries seek blasphemy ban
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taikan
The US has not "accepted" it. Admittedly, the US has not started a war over it. However, ever since NK conducted its first nuclear test the US has been engaged in active efforts, short of war, to get NK to give up its nuclear weapons. NK thinks the US never will go to war over this issue, and NK likely is correct in that regard. However, if the US ever can persuade China to cooperate fully in imposing sanctions on NK, the US would not have to go to war to get NK to give up nuclear weapons.
Posted in: Gates says U.S. won't accept nuclear North Korea
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taikan
After the United States, the combined EU countries spend the second highest amount on the military. Next comes China, followed by Japan and then Russia.
Posted in: Hatoyama unlikely to change U.S.-Japan alliance
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taikan
No. This is one of the rare castles that was not destroyed at or about the time of the Meiji restoration. It also managed to survive WWII. There is at least one other such castle, Matsumoto-jo.
Posted in: 007, 'The Last Samurai' and Himeji Castle
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taikan
Americans tend to patronize large chain stores and service businesses than the Japanese do. Although the people who started those large chains were entrepreneurs, the people who manage those stores today are not. On the other hand, Japan is full of small, neighborhood stores and service businesses, each of which is owned by an entrepreneur. The fact that many Japanese entrepreneurs appear to be content to make a living, rather than intent on creating a bigger business and getting rich, may be due to cultural differences.
Cultural differences may also make it more difficult for entrepreneurs in Japan to start businesses that are designed to be national or global in scale. Silicon Valley has many people who started multiple businesses that received VC funding and that failed. Some of them nevertheless were able to get VC funding to start yet another business, perhaps one that succeeded on a long-term basis. Is it likely that an entrepreneur whose first business (or two) failed would be able to attract capital from a Japanese venture capitalist, especially if the business(es) that failed had been funded by a venture capitalist?
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taikan
It's a solution in search of a problem.
It also is likely to lead to claims of unfair trials because of artificial time constraints that will be placed on trials in order to avoid forcing lay jurors to spend "too much" time in court. As a result, defense attorneys will not be able to present all of the testimony that they would like to present, and that they would be able to present to the court under the previous system.
Posted in: Many people are expressing concern about the lay jury system which starts on May 21. What do you think about it?
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taikan
In the US at least, sexual harassment is a subset of discrimination based on sex (gender). Gender discrimination in the workplace became illegal in the US in 1964 upon passage of the Civil Rights Act. Sexual harassment was not illegal until 1986, when the Supreme Court said that it constituted discrimination based on sex.
Saying or doing things of a sexual nature that offend a co-worker is sexual harassment. Refusing to deal with a co-worker because of gender may be discrimination, but it isn't harassment.
Posted in: Dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace
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taikan
Yanai's suggested solution (reduction of the consumption tax) assumes that consumers would use the savings to spend more. However, in the absence of some sort of supporting data, it makes no sense to assume that reducing the consumption tax would eliminate or even significantly reduce people's worry about the future. Thus, there is no basis for assuming that consumers would spend the additional 5% on more purchases rather than adding it to their savings as a hedge against economic problems in the future.
Posted in: Japan's richest man calls goverment policy 'superficial'
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taikan
The end of "rampant consumerism" definitely would be a good thing. However, whether the current recession will result in the end of "rampant consumerism" is likely to depend on how deep the recession becomes and how long it lasts. As a result of their experience, most of those who lived through the Great Depression in the 30s were more frugal and less willing to accumulate debt than the current generation. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that if the current recession causes serious economic disarray and lasts for years, it will have a long term impact on the behavior of those who live through it (and perhaps even their children).
Posted in: Amid the global recession, do you see the end of rampant consumerism and is that ultimately a good thing?
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taikan
Rather than calling it an "arc of freedom and prosperity," why not call it the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere? Oh, wait, that's already been done.
As a scholar, Mr. Green should be more sensitive to the historical context, and the emotional impact, of the particular words chosen to describe something.
Posted in: Japan-U.S. alliance needs freshening up
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taikan
Rather than thinking of this as an infringement of the employees' rights, think of it as a means of avoiding layoffs by slightly reducing each employee's salary/wages on a one-time basis. Managers have their salaries reduced by 200,000 yen (less the value of the goods purchased for that amount), and lower level workers have their salaries reduced by 100,000 yen (less the value of the goods purchased by them). Production levels do not have to be reduced (at least not any more than they already may have been reduced) because the excess products are being purchased by the employees, and therefore layoffs can be avoided, at least temporarily.
Posted in: Panasonic orders 10,000 employees to buy its products by July
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taikan
It depends on whether the offer was accepted before it was retracted. If the offer had been accepted, then by retracting the offer the company reneged on a deal. Such an action would make the company unworthy of being trusted, and thus unsuitable in a business relationship as either a customer or a supplier.
Posted in: What do you think about companies that retract job offers to graduates because of the economic downturn?
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taikan
Sarge --
The only reason a pardon may not be necessary is if the next administration decides, for political reasons. not to prosecute. Waterboarding is a crime under both US law and the international law of war. The United States has prosecuted and convicted members of its own armed forces and members of the Japanese army for waterboarding. Cheney has acknowledged that he took part in making decisions that resulted in people being waterboarded. Therefore, under US law (I won't bother to cite the specific section of the federal criminal code) he is subject to prosecution for conspiracy to commit a federal crime.
For those who think waterboarding works to obtain useful information, it should be remembered that it was part of the SERE program developed by the US military to teach US armed forces what to expect if captured, and it was based on the most successful techniques used by the North Koreans and Chinese to obtain false confessions from US military members during the Korean War.
Posted in: Guantanamo should stay open, waterboarding OK: Cheney
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taikan
This is done by every incoming administration. Unfortunately, in most instances the "evaluators" are people who want jobs in the very agencies/offices they are supposed to evaluate, so they have a vested interest in finding fault with the job being done by those currently at that agency/office, regardless of the actual facts. However, given how badly this administration has screwed up the operations of most agencies, this time it is likely that the negative evaluations will be justified.
Posted in: Obama forms teams to study government agencies