JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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To be healthy, live in the big city
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Japan's nuclear safety standards flawed, says commission chief
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Teacher nabbed for using miror to peek up girl's skirt
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From carnivores to herbivores: how men are defined in Japan
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Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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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
ExportExpert. And exactly how do you know what these people want? Did you meet with a wide range of these people? Did you interview them? Did you study their responses? Have you talked with authorities in the area? With local representatives?
It is extremely easy to sit back and make broad assertions about what people do or do not want. But when we actually start to talk to these people we find out that the vast majority want the same thing you and I want. Stability, a job, safety, security for family etc...
Why is is to easy for you to dehumanize these people? And attack those who would hear them out to see if we can find lasting solutions to these problems? Are you that afraid of the poor classes?
Posted in: British PM unveils tough anti-riot measures, including social media controls
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tkoind2
bass4funk. If you want to accuse groups of certain attributes, you should become familiar with that those groups actually stand for.
This is part of my point. You toss around slogans about "liberals", "anarchics" and such with little or no understanding of what those movements represent or stand for. And you make broad assumptions based upon information that is suitable only for Fox News that is essentially propaganda.
This is entirely the problem. We dismiss the riots in the UK as being all about thugs only. When obviously there was more at work in the UK that led to these outbursts of public anger.
So what are the motivations that led to this? Who are these people rising up really? And why? We have to answer these questions with real, rational answers if we want to solve the problem and prevent future upheaval.
If it is police behavior that led to this, then we must address that. If it is economics, we must address that. Otherwise we invite a repeat of this series of events.
Blocking or undermining social networking sites will not solve the root problems or address the issues. It is simply a knee jerk repressive reaction by a government too lazy or too blind to seek out real solutions.
Posted in: British PM unveils tough anti-riot measures, including social media controls
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tkoind2
Jeffrey, as the number one economy and largest creator of economic activity on the planet, you should care a great deal what goes on in America. It WILL effect you no matter where in the industrialized world you live. And thus cannot be ignored even if we wish we could.
Instead we should take a vested interest in what happens and help American's hear voices of reason from their friends around the world.
Posted in: Republicans hit hard at each other in debate
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tkoind2
Oracle. The rioters are "Rioters" not anarchists, nor any other specific political movement. On the contrary it is arguable that these are people without the support of political ideology, representation or organization.
Anarchists, contrary to popular mythology, do have a pretty clear political belief system that does not invite or include violence and mayhem. The word has been coopted by propaganda that has made the term synonymous with chaos. When in fact, the word once meant a specific set of ideas that believed in small or no central governance.
So exactly how do rioters fit into that political box.
Orwell warned that the meanings of importan words would be corrupted by doublespeak and propaganda. I guess he nailed that as well as many other predictions we now see unfolding.
Posted in: British PM unveils tough anti-riot measures, including social media controls
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tkoind2
Labor in Japan is more or less slave labor. Live to work! That is most common scenario I encounter here. Most people I know spend far more time at the office than with family, kids or community. And yet Japan wonder's why japan has rising divorce, suicide and random violence rates.
Jeffrey, seriously? Do your homework. If China and the US go, who do you think Japan will buy critical goods from? Who will they sell exports to? If the big two go, Japan will follow them down the drain.
Time for a reality check.
Posted in: Japanese companies trail global peers in use of flexible work practices
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tkoind2
As for your small vs large government argument. Again this is nonsensical propaganda. Most people who care about working people do not have illusions of either. What we have is the rational idea that government and society must be both supportive and involved, while respeciting liberties and freedom. These are not mutually exclusive concepts. These are concepts that offer the synergy required to solve problems, build community and yet demonstrate the capacity to protect and save rights and liberties.
Trying to portray it as an A or B world paints a complex problem into a black and white choice. Which nothing in modern society is and never has been. Solutions must be comprehensive, flexible and above all in line with our values to protect civil rights and liberties.
Posted in: British PM unveils tough anti-riot measures, including social media controls
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tkoind2
bass4funk. "Anarchists" Where are they? No anarchists are out there waiting to steal away your middle classed world away. Look to corporate profiteers and corrupt government to pin that blame on.
There is considerable anger in our growing urban mega-cities. People who cannot find adequate work, who are not empowered to be invested in society. Those who do not have access to education, work or the opportunity to break cycles of poverty.
These are not illusions friend. They are realilties. Even growing as problems here in Japan. And when people are disenfrancised or disaffected, they can and will become resistant. Especially if incited by some event in their community.
You cannot wish these problems away with dreams of uber-happy socieites where government is abscent from benefits and ominpresent in law enforcement. This thinking has no basis in history, reality or political savy.
You must solve problems of the poor and disaffected to solve problems for the city as a whole. Political labels will not help solve this for you. You have to have real plans that put people to work, get people into education, address social issues and invest as many people as possible in society.
Posted in: British PM unveils tough anti-riot measures, including social media controls
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tkoind2
BreitbartVictorious. Your posts sound like propaganda posters for the ultra-conservative American right. Government bad, and yet government repression somehow works out to be good for you. No social programs, but ok to have a repressive policy imposed upon society. This bipolar thinking is sadly out of touch with reality.
steve@CPFC nailed it. The late Victorians and Edwardians had the good sense to realize that passification and represssion would only lead to further upheaval and social discontentment. So they took steps to improve the lot of working and poor people. And for some time these efforts yielded positive results.
The sad fact is that as long as the UK and other countries have large disenfranchised communities who are under increasingly dire economic conditions, there will be a risk of public uprisings. And it will only get worst if you add to that impossitions on civil liberties as these will invite more anger and from a wider demographic.
You cannot resolve rioting by becoming repressive against liberties. It WILL NOT WORK. Spend some time studying history and you will see that such efforts have invariably failed.
For the near term all you can do is leverage law enforcement to do the best you can to stop violence. But over the long term you must solve the many problems that give rise to these problems.
The educated classes like my colleagues and I will resist your efforts to repress freedoms EVERY step of the way. It is wrong and even Franklin new this kind of thinking was wrong 200 years ago. It is time the right and people like you came into the 21st century with a better grasp of both history and political theory to resolve problems in meaningful and non-destructive ways.
Posted in: British PM unveils tough anti-riot measures, including social media controls
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tkoind2
BreitbartVictorious
If we had only web posts to judge the past few years, one would be led to believe that Obama, all by himself, should have been able to solve all of America's problems. But no one who takes politics seriously believes that.
Congress has weighed in heavily in making nearly everything Obama has tried to do, impossible to do. And the nut job Tea Party wackos have made it even hard for the GOP side to come up with any rational alternatives to Obama's ideas.
In short, the polarized nature of American politics since the end of the Clinton era are to blame for where we are today. Two intransigent, self interested parties who don't give a damn about working people failing to do much more than have testosterone pissing matches.
Government is in the pocket of the corporate world and their interests and working class interests are in direct conflict.
What America really needs is not another shift from right to left, but a new shift entirely off the usual playing field and the establishment of leaders who actually give a damn about people. Something none of the dull dry candidates in this article can offer.
Posted in: Republicans hit hard at each other in debate
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tkoind2
paulinusa. Can't argue with that. Life behind the Zion-curtain did improve a bit with Huntsman. But to put him in perspective, he is still well right of the majority of American's on too many topics to appeal to the majority. Though the GOP would do better to run him that most of the poor choices that are lining up out there.
Posted in: Republicans hit hard at each other in debate
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tkoind2
One more thought. If your desire is long term security and peace, why invite a whole new round of protests by passing impositions upon civil liberties? This is planting the seeds of an entirely new problem.
You cannot solve problems by compromising liberty. History teaches us clearly that this always fails over time. It will result in greater long term public damage than any local riots would cause. And your solution fails to look at the plethora of other options at the disposal of the state to secure and maintain order.
Do try again....
Posted in: British PM unveils tough anti-riot measures, including social media controls
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tkoind2
Bass4funk. Because I am more concerned by the violation of civil liberties than I am by the rioting.
The solution is to use law enforcement, as was done, to suppress lawlessness. And you must take it a step further by working on the causes of the riots to help assure that they do not happen again.
Only dictatorial thinking leaps from law enforcement to the restriction of civil liberties beyond the scope of the criminals involved. And that is where the analogies come in to other dictatorial examples.
Got it now? You do not "Put your country back in order" by violating the civil liberties of the general population. For anyone freedom and liberty oriented, this is common sense. It seems only hard for more repressive thinking people to grasp what Franklin was trying to teach us.
Posted in: British PM unveils tough anti-riot measures, including social media controls
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tkoind2
"Blame the scum and the rioting thugs for any loss in freedoms and rights, they're the ones who will have brought the difficult policy changes down on everyone."
Sorry this thinking is wrong! Blame government for violating the rights of the majority to address the issues of a few bad people.
You can and MUST address crime in a way that protects and retains freedom. Anything that fails to do that is wrong.
Posted in: British PM unveils tough anti-riot measures, including social media controls
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tkoind2
Bass4funk. " If these hooligans pose a serious threat, ignore the rule of law,.." so your solution is to then empower the state to do the same thing by infringing upon access and the right to use social media? No one is saying they cannot read public posts to help with enforcement, but to infringe upon the majority to address the issues of a small minority is a violation of liberty. You need to learn that such violations are equally dangerous to a free society as rioting.
"The Patriot Act is necessary," Utter propaganda and nonsense!!! Remember Franklin's admonition that giving up liberty for safety means we deserve neither. Are you going to call Franklin a "liberal" now? This idiotic support of the Patriot Act in the name of combatting terror was utter nonsense from square one. It repressed Americans and did nothing to stem the tide of terror. I for one stand for LIBERTY and against OPPRESSION.
"What's shameful is, is when people don't understand, you try to reason with people, but they didn't respond,..." I am sure Hitler, Mao and Stalin would equally subscribe to this approach to governance and problem solving. When those pescky citizens don't understand, you can impose understanding on them. Don't waste time protecting civil liberties and freedom, get those peasants to comply by any means necessary.
Well done mate. Way to support making the US and UK like China!
Law enforcement and Liberty can and do coexist. But you must have the good sense to know where to draw the line and assure that you achieve both!
Posted in: British PM unveils tough anti-riot measures, including social media controls
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tkoind2
BreitbartVictorious.
Well no worries for you my friend, not one of the potential candidates on the GOP side have a snowballs chance in hell of inspiring anything but concern in the general population.
As for competence....well... no wins there either. Huntsman is probably the least dreadful of the lot having done a few modest good things for otherwise dire Utah. But that would not encourage confidence in many.
So I guess with that in mind, and based upon your criteria, I guess you have not a single soul to offer up as a viable candidate using your vision of "progressive criteria" and yours.
Posted in: Republicans hit hard at each other in debate
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tkoind2
Democracy in 2011 is a propaganda illusion. Who actually directly elects their political representatives? Who directly elects the top leader of the state? Who has the greatest influence over the decisions of the government? Who do the actual representatives listen to?
How many people have any kind of economic democracy?
England, with their assault on social media IS like China IS like the US Patriot Act and IS NOT democracy.
Posted in: British PM unveils tough anti-riot measures, including social media controls
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tkoind2
Jeffrey, " I say shoot any and all violent rioters and let God sort them out."
Way to demonstrate an understanding of repression. Really? Kill people for rioting? And let "God" sort them out? Are you for real? I pitty such thinking as barbaric, inhumane and lacking any understanding of the rule of law. Further to invoke "God" shows you have no understanding of religion either.
Shameful post.
Posted in: British PM unveils tough anti-riot measures, including social media controls
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tkoind2
Where to start with this line up? Here goes!
Romney: "corporations are people" ehhhh? Great thinking. In a country where corporations have laid off so many and exported so many jobs, this will come back to haunt him. Combined with his Mormon background, something looked at closesly will scare many mainstream religious types, his chances are about as good as mine for becoming GOP nominee.
Gingritch. Do we really have to relive the 90's? Really? This guy was a collossal pain in the neck in those days and I am sure he has not gained many friends since. A relic best left buried in the Clinton era. He could be a last ditch option if the GOP cannot invent someone better in time. But would rally my generation who would rather launch a second civil war than live under Gingritch rule.
Huntsman. Having grown up in Utah I have little good to say about the place. Huntsman is the least of most evils unleashed by the Mormon rule in Utah over the past decades. That said, again the bible thumpers from the GOP are not likely to look kindly upon this fringe faith background.
Ron Paul. I think all I need to write is "Ron Paul" kind of a self acting defeat building there. No debate required.
Perry sounds like the most viable if he joins so far. But that box has yet to be thoroughly explored. We shall see.
In short, there are no spectacular leaders here that can sweep the nation with a powerful mandate. Like Obama or hate him, he is thousands of times more charismatic than this lot put in a blender.
The GOP must do more soul searching to find their next big "thing" for the coming election. As of today, this line up is only just a hair more exciting than Japan's potential line up of PMs. More of the same old thing in slightly different packages. Lack luster, and uninspiring.
Posted in: Republicans hit hard at each other in debate
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tkoind2
Ok.... let's be realistic. If people have nothing to eat, they will learn to be flexible and stop being so picky.
The world is filled with so many wonderful varieties of rice, that a good cook can do a week's worth of rice based dishes and not touch the same type of rice. Each with a unique quality and flavor.
Now is Japanese rice special. Sure. Is it univerally better than any other rice. NO! Can you eat and live upon other forms of rice? YES!
So Japanese eating people, unite brothers and sisters and join the rest of us on an exploration of the wonders of global rice!!! Or do without rice until the radiation issue is entirely over.
It is up to you. I and my friends will be eating well and enjoying the rice you don't buy... :)
Posted in: After the earthquake, there's been a prevalent feeling among people that you can make do with replacements... It doesn't have to be beef curry, it could be pork, or chicken, or the beef could come from another country. It's not quite the same with rice.
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tkoind2
"He reiterated that police had been given powers to use water cannon and plastic bullets, and also suggested they use technology to control future unrest, by stopping rioters using Twitter, Facebook or BlackBerry Messenger to organize themselves."
We are all against rioting, but why empower police to invade social media sites? Especially when it is obvious that anyone intent upon using web communication to organize would be aware of and bypass any such restrictions.
What this results in, is another violation of the general public's rights with no net benefit for society. Like America's "Patriot Acts" this is just another constriction of privacy and liberty in the name of addressing fear and terror. When in reality none of these solutions address the problems, they all simply impose undue restrictions upon liberty.
Posted in: British PM unveils tough anti-riot measures, including social media controls