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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tkoind2
This is a dog and pony show. Senators confronting big business to look like they really care about the working class families that are slowly slipping beneath the economic waves. The corporations could not care less about Joe and Jane average and their family's economic situation as long as they keep spending. And the government only cares as much as they have to due to public opinion and potential impact to their re-election.
It is not only oil companies that are raping the working class. Just about everything is overpriced and even more so when you account for the decreased size and quality of many items.
As long as we let the market economy people drive the world just so they can make a short term buck, nothing will improve. They are inherently short sighted and care just about stock values and profit opportunities. Until we directly impact those areas, they will gladly watch us suffer. So I say let's find ways to make them feel it.
Otherwise the little guy will just keep getting smaller while the big guys get richer.
Posted in: Oil executives defend profits before irate U.S. senators
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tkoind2
Great. Yet another means for business to track our every move. Next they will add this to our train passes or ID cards. Will they add this to trains to see our travel patterns? To shop doors to see where we shop.
I love technology. But all the chips and tracking is something we need to be cautious about if we are to retain any privacy. At the company it is ok for access. Already they know. But the potential commercial and social applications of this are scary.
Posted in: NTT turns flesh into keycard
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tkoind2
Japanese TV is honestly pretty soul killing for me. I don't like slapstick in any language and the endless shows hosted by random talento are pretty dull. The foreigners here and there are more or less the same as Japanese talent or are very bad "gaijin" stereotypes. They seem to be set up to show that "yes gaijin in Japan can eat Japanese food, do boring slapstick comedy and make goofy faces" like the J-Talento.
Would be nice if foreigners on TV here could just behave normally and be like anyone anywhere else in the world instead of becoming mockeries of their own existence.
Posted in: What do you think of the various foreigners who appear on Japanese TV?
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tkoind2
No it should not. And the reason is in Japan's best interests.
Japan needs labor. Skilled and unskilled to maintain her tax base and working population.
Should people moving here learn to speak? Yes. Should the state offer more language and cultural training courses to new arrivals? Yes.
But limiting visas based on language is counter productive. Many jobs in Japan with foreign companies do not require Japanese ability for even many modest jobs. Restrictions here would do harm not good to both the business community and Japan's future.
Japan also needs basic labor workers and must find ways to attract more.
If the government wants to make things better they should.
Make Japan more foreign friendly, like the Singapore or Hong Kong, to encourage workers to move here.
Better civil liberties protections and rights for foreigners must be put in place to make living here long term more desirable.
Permanent immigration must be more achieveable to encourage people to raise families here and contribute more to society.
Eductational and language programs must be improved to allow immigrants to learn. This could be done as a subsidy to companies to compel them to provide language courses as a part of employment for non-Japanese.
Eliminate more of the xenophobic practices that allow discrimination against foreigners in employment, housing, treatment by authorities and harassment by the police.
Then, and only then, will Japan start down the path to becoming truly international and begin to address its tax, social welfare and work population problems.
Posted in: Should Japanese language ability be a factor in determining the maximum length of stay on visas for foreigners?
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tkoind2
Easy50. Stress is stress. And you are right is is subjective. But for a working guy here who thinks his world depends upon his job, stress is as life and death for him as it is for the Phili cop. Everyone experiences his or her world as the center of what they understand. His stress is as real and soul consuming as a soldier in Iraq, a cop in NY or someone in Myanmar. Even if from the outside it may look trivial to another person. Psychology just doesn't work on a relativistic footing.
And yes there are laws. But laws are pointless if they are not backed with real world consequences for violating them. The worker who pushes back does get replaced and has no recourse. If he or she did have solid recourse, they would not be replaced. My point is that we need to have laws that protect worker's rights and have very sharp teeth to bite companies who ignore or violate them. Like France. Just because we are not there today, does not mean we cannot be there some other day. It just takes having normal working class people to demand it and votes and pressure on the government to make it happen.
Posted in: Dealing with stress in the office
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tkoind2
Work life balance exists in many developed nations Capone. In Japan it does not for a very large percentage of workers. I'm from a mellow west coast state and I fight hard for WLB in my job. But despite that it is still nearly impossible to achieve it. For most people it is a matter of work or not work to choose work or life. Balance is an often unknown concept. E.g. companies that praise the flu infected worker who soldiers on and infects the entire company or the guy who works 7 days a week and gets promoted over the one who does not.
The solution is not to "suck it up" or to "gambaro" as Japanese so often say. The solution is to force companies into rational work life balance policies with enforced labor standards and laws against unpaid OT for the vast majority of workers. This will put an end to a lot of OT and force companies to get behind things like Six Sigma to improve efficiency and get by without high OT outlays.
For now companies use workers up with unpaid ot while they suck up profits and wages remain fairly static. It is about corporate profit and greed and the working class people are paying the price daily. "Sucking it up" is giving up the basic human right to have a life outside slaving away for someone. But it is up the people of each nation to define rational WLB and make it happen through laws that have sharp enforcement teeth.
Posted in: Dealing with stress in the office
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tkoind2
Another rich idiot driving too fast in Japan. What do you need a Ferrari for in a country with crowded roads like Japan anyway? Except to show off how much money you can waste.
The starving masses around the world should eat the rich who can be wreckless and crash cars like this while others starve to death unable to pay for even a 10min ride in one of these cars.
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tkoind2
Surprised by the number of stereotypes being tossed around here.
I'll go out on a limb and say I do understand women at home (US) because most of my close friends are female. So I would guess that foreign women here as unhappy with the behavior of a lot of guys here as much as the rants against women here represent frustrations on the other side.
I for one miss spending time with a woman who can and will hold her own in a serious conversation. I miss that intelligent spark and intensity that women I know at home have. It is nice to spend time with someone who has her own agenda and life and isn't just waiting to follow you around.
Now to be fair I know some fantistic Japanese women who are equally wonderful to know. After all it is about the individual and not the nationality in most cases anyway. Though the overall culture here does discourage otherwise smart women from openly behaving so. Which is sad for everyone really.
Maybe someone should suggest how people can better meet each other and maybe dispell a lot of the misconceptions that are clouding the issue.
Posted in: Foreign women in Japan sometimes remark how hard it is to get a date with foreign men. What are your views on this?
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tkoind2
I think there are a few problems.
Where to meet like minded foreign parnters. I've been in Japan a long time and have very few foreign female friends. I just rarely meet foreign women.
If if you can meet, can you find someone with a similar set of interests, values, etc...? When I have met foreign women in Japan they have been mostly investment expats. While I work in that world, I don't live for it and prefer more liberal creative women as friends or dates. Which I rarely meet in Japan.
Most of my female friends from abroad love Japan. For a visit. They see the male dominated society and submissive J female issue as painful. Why give up relative equality for what most women live with in Japan day to day? So these very interesting, liberal, creative women just don't come here. For a lot of guys those a qualities they are looking for.
Add these up and it is a big problem on both sides. I think women must be having a hard time finding suitable guys too.
Posted in: Foreign women in Japan sometimes remark how hard it is to get a date with foreign men. What are your views on this?
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tkoind2
Probably.
Posted in: Supermarket operator Seiyu starts selling Dell PCs
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tkoind2
Shopping list.
Carrots, celery, milk, eggs, Dell laptop...
Doesn't just about every station with a big super suitable for selling PCs already have some kind of electric shop anyway? And how many people spontaneously buy PCs?
Posted in: Supermarket operator Seiyu starts selling Dell PCs
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tkoind2
There is still no cure. Only better treatment. You get to live with it a little longer. And I have not read anything solidly indicating that a cure is close.
I think this article is mostly sham. Perhaps there are a few people out there who don't care or are angry and taking it out on others. More likely this is a moral urban legend intended to encourage people to think about their actions or to underline the moral problems with this kind of dating service.
Would recommend that people be careful. Use a condom.
Posted in: AIDS spreading via dating sites: fact or fiction?
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tkoind2
sarcasm123 I don't think anyone sees JT as THE anything for Japan. But it is A resource for news and information in Japan. In any case criticism does not indicate a lack of intelligence. It indicates an interest in change and development. Why not encourage a weak web rag to become something more than it is today? In your view should we just be content to have things be marginal? Or do you expect everyone to conform to your definition of intelligent news resources.
Most of us read JT for a little local gaijin flavor in our morning rounds of news and information. I, for one, would like to see this web rag evolve a bit. Thus the criticisms I frequently post. Instead of criticism aimed at people who care enough to post, how about offering something constructive yourself?
It would be nice to see JT show something other than the latest canned add campaign photos here. Consider it a challenge to JT to spend a little more energy trying to write and publish something useful. The potential of one more good news resource is worth a few lines of text, don't you think?
Posted in: Platinum
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tkoind2
I don't think you should look at marriage as advantages or disadvantages. The problem in Japan is that too many people go into like a practical partnership or because of preset expectations. True elsewhere too.
Marriage needs to be about two people who have decided to formalize their relationship. It needs to be realistic about the challenges that it entails. And it needs to be about accepting a committment that may not always fit individual objectives and will require considerable personal compromise and tenacity to work.
If you can't accept or expect these challenges, then no advantages will matter. You need love, strong friendship, communication, devotion, committment and sacrifice to be your expectations. Nothing else will really matter.
Posted in: What advantages does married life offer in an era of increasing divorce rates?
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tkoind2
This kind of thing makes me sick. There are people living on $1 a day who have to walk miles for water and fight to keep fed day to day. But here we are in Japan thinking how wonderful it is for someone to parade arond with 3.9 mil in useless trinkets.
Would rather see Mori and Chibana supporting carbon neutral products or fair trade items. Isn't it time we quit admiring wealth and start thinking about other values and qualities to aspire to? Like creativity, charity, volunteerism, compassion, empathy. And respect for people doing good in the world like helping the aging, teaching, providing care for someone, working to improve the environment.
Just sick to death of the materialistic goo that spews out all day everywhere you look in modern society. We admire some model and her jewels and ignore people who struggle every day trying to do something truly meaningful.
Posted in: Platinum
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tkoind2
These old LDP guys are too personally invested in protecting the status quo to do anyone any good. Japan needs a good shaking. Imagine your average housewife beating dust and mites out of a rug on the balcony and apply that to the Japanese government. Time to beat out all the old dust and start fresh. Sadly a very unrealistic wish.
I blame your average Japanese voter. Like I blame my average US voter. If people care enough to become truly politically active and get out there to make change happen, it will. But keep voting for the same cluster of priviledged class twits who couldn't care less about normal working people and the public get what it deserves. Nothing. Change means sacrifice and involvement. Time to get involved people.
Posted in: Dumping Fukuda won't solve LDP's problems
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tkoind2
The Death Penalty lowers the moral level of society. How can a society say that murder is an absolute wrong if we then use the death penalty as a punishment for crime. If murder is a solution for problems for political society, why not for individual problems? It is a moral conflict. We already know that it is not a deterrent to crime, it is more costly than long term incarceration due to appeals and legal battles and the frequency of wrongful convictions makes it a danger to the innocent who have been unlucky enough to be convicted. We should mature as a society and ban the death penalty as the barbaric revenge motivated moral travesty that it is. Murder is murder. State sanctioned or personal.
Posted in: Executions to resume in U.S. after high court OK's lethal injections