375sensei comments

Glad to see the Supreme Cort showed a good degree of common sense with their ruling. The ruling, however, doesn't specifically mention the Supreme Court's take on the old man's family claim of a casual relationship between the accident, the onset of dementia and death from pneumonia which they said were directly linked to the injuries from the crash.

To say that the broken leg from the accident was the trigger of this 80 year old's dementia seems to me to be a bit of a stretch. Unless there was some kind of brain trauma involved which can lead to vascular dementia he was probably exhibiting signs of progressive dementia prior to the accident. The pneumonia most certainly was the leading cause of his death and unrelated to the accident.

Kansas continues to be a HUGE white elephant. Unless the government or new private ownership can reduce the high landing fees (currently the second highest in the world after Narita at around $7,500 for a Boeing 747) attracting airlines and passengers will continue to be a big problem.

Congratulations to Ariana and I hope she does Japan proud! The use of the term "haafu" always makes me laugh because it naturally leads to the notion then of who is "full" ? (or as many people in Japan say "pure") In fact, based on the study of mitochondrial DNA, no one is "pure" as "everybody on the planet carries the midochondrial DNA of one woman who lived 150 thousand years ago in East Africa". (One African "Eve" for All World's People, Charles Cobb Jr 2002) A timely reminder that we all came from the same place.

Due to the large number of innings Japanese pitchers clock up in their high school years and in NPB, most who go to the majors have, on average, a 3 year window to perform at their peak before arm fatigue or injury derails them. There are very few exceptions besides Hiroki Kuroda. If Tanaka makes it through the season I'll be amazed.

Kids are pampered, mollycoddled and tied to their mother's apron strings for way too long. Getting kicked out of the bird's nest at 18 seems to be a thing of the past.

I'm surprised there aren't more accidents and fatalities than there are. With the level of basic common sense shockingly low in this country especially when riding a bicycle, coupled with people's unwillingless to take responsibility for their riding actions and often complete disregard for traffic rules you have a recepe for disaster. The new law should have more teeth, greater patrolling of these idiots by the police and automatic fines on the spot.

English conversation schools are first and foremost a business and the bottom line is to make a profit not the advancement of the students English ability. As such the motive of these "schools" is to keep the students paying into the system regardless of whether they do well or not. Hiring young teachers with little or no teaching experience keeps costs down and with teacher and staff turnover high due to the large number of lessons and subsequent burnout (the average teacher stays for 1 year) labour costs from year to year remain low. Lessons are too short to achieve anything substantial (often 40 minutes in duration), the materials limiting with a large focus on situational based learning. Combine this with the inexperience of the teaching staff and commercial focus of the schools and you end up with a hit and miss product. Elementary my dear readers !

When I came back to Japan around 6 years ago I moved into a brand new apartment building after convincing the landlord that I wasn't HIS image of the typical foreigner- loud, dirty and unreliable. The building contained only single mezzanine style rooms and were quite expensive. A young couple moved in next door and their fights were legendary. When arguing the guy would bang his fists on the wall, throw glasses on the floor, chase his girlfriend around the room and then wale when she locked herself in the toilet. After complaining on a number of times to the owner I then became the target of their anger. After I'd had enough I moved out and into a building where I only had 1 person above and below me- no one on either side. I thought my chances of having difficult neighbors would be slim. To my shock, the couple above me (actually the girl) were so noisy during their "rabu-rabu" time that the neighbors wrote to the landlord asking him to do something which only resulted in the couple opening their bedroom windows to amplify their antics more. To make matters worse, a hostess moved in below me and she would routinely come home at 3am drunk with her boyfriend whereupon they would talk or have parties out on the balcony. No thought whatsoever of how their actions were affecting other people. Bottoms line is "You can pick your friends but you can't pick your neighbors!"

"This is why deep waters scare the crap out of me. Anything can come at you from any direction in complete silence..."

Sounds like the premise for a good movie script! Maybe I should start writing!

Must be a wi-fi hotspot for seniors!

When I first came to Japan in the early 90s, public toilets in Japan seemed as if a human waste bomb had hit them. Having navigated the stains, the cigarette butts and fast food wrappings that littered the floor (yes, people would use public toilets to "rest" and have a snack) the user was faced with NO toilet paper. That always confused the hell out of me until I was told that people were expected to bring their own. Nowadays, they are generous with the paper but the new fangled Captain Kirk style seats now make it too difficult for novices to even find the flush button.

I totally agree with a Yubaru and idf66 about Abe and his policies. He and the LDP are trotting out the same out-dated policies that "worked" in an era when the population was growing, people were spending and the economy was expanding. If this continues, it'll possibly bankrupt the country unless the people wake up and smell the coffee.

I've gotta say that I found some of those cases very comical! Smokers had their hay-day back in the 60s when a whopping 87% of men smoked and smoking was ubiquitous. Non-smokers had to suffer in silence in almost every public and private area. Now the shoe is on the other foot. Welcome to the New World, smokers!

And the arteries of people around the world and in Japan can breathe a sigh of relief!

When I first came to Japan in the early 90's the guy was expected to take his girlfriend to an expensive restaurant on Christmas Eve, whereupon he would give her a present (usually some kind of jewellery ) and then cap the evening off by staying in an expensive hotel. The jewellery alone was often more than 50,000 yen (Tiffany didn't come cheap). In return, his girlfriend would knit him a scarf or sweater as an expression of her love for him. Exchanging gifts is not about getting an equal return from your significant other but I couldn't "fathom" why some guys went to such great lengths. Thankfully, girls nowadays seem to have lowered their expectations.

"Singer" ????

Very succinct! This columnist summed up the election in a nutshell.

Number 1 would be a stretch but a top 3 ranking is definitely a possibllity with Nadal's injury history and Federer nearing the end of his career. To be number 1 a player needs an X factor which gives him an edge over other players. Nishikori has a great backhand and foot movement but he needs to improve his serve and be able to beat players more quickly in straight sets. Playing full set matches increases his risk of injury, makes him less able to beat the top ranked players and thus makes becoming number 1 more difficult.

This is referred to as the "Gaijin effect" when a Japanese person will not hear the fluent Japanese spoken to them and will simply assume that anything coming out of your mouth must be English as you are a foreigner. At first I laugh because it's pretty comical and then I think why don't they just relax and simply listen to what is actually being said.

As mentioned by Ostap Bender the disparity in the way the Police react to left and right protests and demonstrations is huge. The Right Wing seem to move around with impunity protesting noisily in their buses but any discernible dissent from the left is smashed like an annoying bug in summer.

Every day I venture out onto the roads and side-walks in Japan it's a constant battle trying to avoid possible accidents. Anyone who has lived here for a lengthy period of time is struck by so many people's lack of spatial awareness and general common sense when moving around on foot or by bicycle. This is just made worse with people continually fixated on their smartphone screens. Do these people feel they don't have to take responsibility for their actions and can simply rely on other people to watch out for them? Because this is the impression I get. The only way for these people to learn is to more strictly police the streets. However I'm not sure this will happen. Just the other day I saw a police officer on his bicycle waiting at an intersection and a student was on his bicycle next to him carrying an umbrella AND looking at his phone. Yet the cop did nothing! Oh well!

When you see Diet members talking in smoke-filled rooms and with Wikipedia stating many have "interests" in the tobacco industry, stricter legislation, such as a complete ban in public places, may be a pipe dream. ( no pun intended)

JAWS would have to be at or near the top of this list. Seminal music score!

The fact that non-smokers are by now the majority seems to have no sway on law-makers. A declining minority of smokers still has the power to affect people's health and enjoyment in many public areas. Is it because of the government's majority share in JT that they prioritize tax revenue over the public's health? Tell me it ain't so! Just bite the bullet and make all public places in Japan (not just Tokyo) smoke-free !

Did I miss the memo or has this been gambling week on JT this week? First, yesterday led with the story of gambling,alcohol and internet addictions being rife in Japan.Then we had the somewhat contradictory story of the decline of pachinko parlors in the lifestyle section and now the quote of the day about Universal Studios having the capability to open up more than one casino. Maybe JT is addicted to stories related to gambling.

What this guy is saying is a grace period of 4 years (seems too long) should be brought into effect whereby the international player can get accustomed to his new surroundings, have enough time to become functional in English and then be released from the safety net their interpreters provide. The majority of Latin American players, unlike the Japanese imports, do not have the luxury of an interpreter and in many cases English classes are compulsory for them. (Admittedly, this is when these players are offered contracts and start in the minor leagues) I agree that a programme should be put in place to make ALL international players, whether it's the majors or NPB, become more self reliant.

A lot of these observations are in some way linked to the somewhat robotic "manual" style approach to customer service here in Japan. Rote learnt spiels are delivered to customers whether it be when you sit down at a restaurant and the staff recite the ordering procedure to simply walking into a convenience store and being greeted with a chorus of “irasshaimase”. Often service is not personalized and so this "one style fits all" approach begins to wear thin, lack sincerity and doesn't promote thinking outside the box.

Perhaps their apology should be "labeled" as disingenuous! It probably should read "We are terribly sorry we got caught. We will work tirelessly to make sure this does not happen again."

"TBS reported that in 2000, Nomura was issued a warning by the chief of police after another case in which he groped a woman in a train carriage."

Why was he allowed to continue working as a police officer? Are the police here held to a lower standard than the general public?