Wednesday February 15, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

timtak's past comments

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timtakAug. 12, 2011 - 04:54PM JST

"Loved!" Does this mean Mr. Oakland has indulged in serial relationships for the past five years? Ned sounds more on the ball, aware at least that the deal is different and that serial dating of the type that one presumes Mr. Oakland may have habituated is not the done thing. "Marketing Tactics!" Yes, they go by different names. I would like to read Ned's book.

Posted in: Japanese culture and dating
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timtakAug. 10, 2011 - 12:26PM JST

While I have some sympathy with some of what Steve is saying, I read demographics scholars who claim that the full time housewife is a recent invention that existed for a period in the twentieth century. In times before that women and men in Japan worked together in agriculture and the family business, often leaving child rearing to other family members particularly grand parents. People were simply not wealthy enough to allow women to take care of children for all that pre-school time. The below is a quote from a paper by Prof. OCHIAI Emiko of Kyoto University.

"There is the commonly held view that modernisation results in the increased participation by women in the public sphere but as recent research in the field of women’s studies have demonstrated, this view is in opposition to the facts which show that modernisation has led to the establishment of clear gender roles whereby “Women have become housewives specializing in housework and men have support the family finances through the pursuit of salaried work”.

Posted in: Honey, do you mind going back to work?
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timtakAug. 09, 2011 - 07:35PM JST

How about, Japan Considers Back up Politicians for Emergencies? Japanese Men Consider Back up Wives for Emergencies. Japanese Wives Consider Back up Men for Emergencies. There are lots more possibilities.

Posted in: Japan to consider backup capital city for emergencies
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timtakAug. 05, 2011 - 08:58AM JST

I agree with Rob Heemskerk - Nagasaki dropped so close after Hiroshima is difficult to even start to attempt to justify or think through.

Gratuitous and criminal. As for Hiroshima at the very least sad, bad, regrettable slaughter. The first bomb could have been on the top of Mount Fuji or within view of Tokyo out to sea.

Posted in: Do you consider the A-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to be war crimes?
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timtakJul. 22, 2011 - 12:42PM JST

The average actual term for "muki-choueki" (indefinate imprisionment with labour) is according, to the Japanese wikipedia article is in the 1980’s 15-18 years 1990's 20-23 years 2004 25 years 10months 2005 27 years 2 months 2006 25 years1 month 2007 31 years 10 months 2008 28 years 7 months 2009 30 years 2 months

Ichihashi's lawyers will announce whether or not they will appeal next week.

Do rapists and rape-murderers get special treatment in Japanese prisons too?

Posted in: Hawkers 'pleased' with life sentence for Ichihashi
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timtakJul. 15, 2011 - 10:16AM JST

What does Ben Wedmore know about nuclear power?

Posted in: It would be a shame not to call the bluff of the nuclear engineers and their 'you need us, and we are the cheapest' slogans.
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timtakJul. 14, 2011 - 01:39PM JST

"We need to take a close look at what they’re saying" says the author, who yet tells us only that the patriots he vilifies spout "vitriol, hate and lies." (Unless he is refering to Abe.)

"The right wingers of Japan labor under the illusion that Japan's imperialist past was a good thing. They fail to see the fact that Japanese expansionism was doomed from day one." I think that some of them at least, agree that it was largely doomed, but claim, rightly or wrongly, that Japanese imperialism was a large part of the reason for the fall of European imperialism in East Asia and in that sense at least Japanese imperialism was a mitigated success. Another example of vitriol, hate and lies perhaps.

Posted in: The sound and the fury
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timtakJun. 02, 2011 - 09:28AM JST

This article is typical in its misrepresentation of Japanese society as a oppressive, heirarchical society, as shown b the conclusion of the original Japanese article (Google "J-Cast", "inu" and "aisatsu" the latter two words in kanji).

The J-Cast article concludes "Is it the permanent empoyees that make these nasty rules (regarding who leaves the toilet first)? It may well be that the part timers, eagre to maintain their 'position', are willing accomplices." I think that this "position" refers to status as part timer, and thus not having to work so hard and leave earlier and have to bear less responsibility, rather than to the possibility of their being sacked. So rather than concludig that Japanese companies are draconianly heirarchical, the original article is suggesting (the truth) that they are in fact far more democratic, or polyarchic, with a plurality of positions excercising power, both top down and equally, from the bottom up. The existence of the 'tail wagging the dog' aspect is the 'soft truth' found Japanese companies, and generally all Japanese interpersonal, including gender, relations.

Posted in: Employees reveal absurd company regulations
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timtakMay. 23, 2011 - 12:58PM JST

I have been watching him in "The Big Fat Quiz of the Year" and thought Russel Brand was okay.

Posted in: Russell Brand deported from Japan leaving Katy Perry behind
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timtakMay. 11, 2011 - 01:03PM JST

@Beer99 & herefornow Mine comment was just a prediction, whereas yours extollation. I do too, but I am also a government employee ;-;

Posted in: Kan to forgo PM's salary until nuclear crisis brought under control
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timtakMay. 11, 2011 - 11:52AM JST

Perhaps salary cuts for government employees will come next.

Posted in: Kan to forgo PM's salary until nuclear crisis brought under control
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timtakApr. 28, 2011 - 11:34AM JST

@Stonecoldsoba

Or does this refer to those who have already abducted their children to Japan and those who succeed in doing so before Japan formally joins the convention?

I very much doubt that the law will be enforced retroactively.

So, I guess we are going to see a rush of abductions as mothers realise that this is their last chance to abduct.

Article Unavailable
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timtakFeb. 14, 2011 - 10:33AM JST

phew.

Posted in: 3-year-old boy falls between bullet train and platform during trial run
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timtakFeb. 07, 2011 - 02:43PM JST

Is Japanese property outside of the cities ever going to increase in price, or as the article argues does decreasing population mean decreasing land prices?

Land prices might increase outside of Tokyo: If desire for a place of ones own were to increase at a rate faster than the rate of poplation decrease. Are Japanese becoming more or less my-homey? Are apartments becoming more or less popular? If foreigners were to start purchase Japanese property for their own use. French rural property used to be cheap until British and Germans bought it and drove the price up. Japanese rural property is almost free. When are the Chinese coming? If Japanese start wanting to have a second home in the country. Will they ever get into that?

Posted in: How to make money on property in Tokyo
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timtakFeb. 04, 2011 - 01:32PM JST

Wearing raincoats over their bullet proof vests, the "robbers" were slippery, well protected, and very flexible. They bagged their load, put a sock on all police attempts to frustrate their well lubricated plan. And by "police" I do mean, yes, the Malaysian dick.

Posted in: Thieves in Malaysia steal $1.5 mil worth of condoms from Japanese company
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timtakFeb. 04, 2011 - 11:10AM JST

I was not aware that Sumo is a sport. Can't it go back to being Sumo? It is a lot more sport-like than "pro-wrestling," and it is a lot more than a sport too. Sumo is not a sport.　It is a kind of prayer, a way of life (and death for many of the participants who have a significantly reduced life expectancy). Freakonomics (2005) demonstrated (beyond statistical doubt in my mind) that collusion between wrestlers was going on. Often one could get a feeling for it too, by looking for wrestlers who are making a show of trying (too hard).

The problem is that wrestlers, Japanese politicians, almost everyone in Japan are gradually being made to conform to two sets of standards.

Posted in: After the latest scandal on match-fixing, can anything save sumo or is it a dying sport?
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timtakJan. 31, 2011 - 07:29PM JST

@goddog @Zenny11 Avian flu does occasionally cross over and infect humans. 500 case have been recorded so far with a 60% case morbidity. Most of these were spread by contact with sick or dead birds. E.g. some Vietnamese kids plucked feathers from a dead swan and died. Another child died after petting a sick bird. Contact with the bodily fluids of the dead birds is most common cause of infection. Cytokine Storm is implicated as cause of death. A few cases of human to human transfer. Search for "Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1): Pathways of Exposure at the Animal‐Human Interface, a Systematic Review" for peer reviewed details."

I think that these soldiers are wearing suits for personal safety reasons and should be careful if they want to stay alive.

If Avian flu were to mutate (via mixing with human and or swine flu in the same pig or human) and learnt how to spread between humans while retaining a similar morbidity then it would make the 1918 influenza pandemic (2.5% morbidity) look like the common cold, or be a cross between the common cold and the ebola virus.

As cleo says, "cramming hundreds of thousands of birds (or any animal) into a small enclosed area is just asking for trouble." There are those (see bird flu book dot com, without the spaces) that claim it is just a matter of time.

Posted in: Epidemic
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timtakJan. 31, 2011 - 06:00AM JST

Just after the victory, Nagatomo emailed a footballer/newscaster saying "We have a long way to go" ("Mada Mada Desu").

Keep that actively negative attitude and the rest will be history.

And make Nagamoto a forward.

Posted in: Asian champions
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timtakJan. 28, 2011 - 12:58PM JST

I am not saying that Japan has a shame culture, but greater minds than mine have assumed so, so I will run with it.

In a society which has a "shame culture," that is to say a morality based upon social interaction and cohesion, rather than from appeal to some (non-existant? existant? internal?) objective standard of morality, then social contraint among peers is an enevitable part of the system. There is no "higher authority" that might take the place of the peers. The teachers may attempt to take the place of that higher authority, but under what authority? If they attempt to distance themselves from the social foundation of morality, will be percieved as bullies.

When does pointing out to someone that they are out of line, become bullying? When should anyone point such things out? The folks that advise us to "judge not" are usually those that do believe in an independent foundation of morality. In a system where no such independent authority exists, "social constraint between peers" needs to be at an appropriate level. These days it is generally assumed that if there is any bullying at all then it should be eradicated. "Bulling" should be eradicated, but a policy of zero-tolerance towards social-constraint between peers, may have profoundly negative effects upon Japanese society.

Posted in: 8 graffiti messages pleading for help against bullying found in Shiga
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timtakJan. 28, 2011 - 11:07AM JST

I can see this method of brining attention to issues - graffiti in local toilets - spreading all around Japan. The modern day version of Ema (Shinto Votive tablets)? I don't mean to suggest that toilets are shrines, but they are often visited, and centrally maintained by respected authorities, and the message can be both written privately and displayed publically, in water based ink I hope.

Posted in: 8 graffiti messages pleading for help against bullying found in Shiga