akerusan comments

a corporate culture against reporting it.

they pay them out of their own pocket

Geez...just quit your job, there's a shortage of labor in Japan, you see advertising for tenshoku everyday every where.

That's what I did anyway, all interviews online from my home, april/may was a great time to switch job.

Regarding the girl’s psychological state, the judge ruled that “correctional education is necessary to prevent a reoccurrence of delinquent behavior.”

I'd love to see a documentary on what's going on in those correctional center for kids.

"Usual brainwashing didn't work at school? Don't worry we have our methods"

But even so, none of that prepared me for the narrow roads, cyclist who completely disregard traffic laws, people who cross the street right in front of a moving car

I don't follow, cyclist disregard traffic laws, people cross the street in front of your car, and still the problem for you is with the paper drivers that are "a danger for society" ??? That doesn't make any sense...

Good driving skills and experience will, and that's not something you acquire at a driving school.

We all start our experience at zero, I don't understand what you are trying to say and how that is supposed to back up your claim about stopping paper driver from driving.

The only thing I could agree on would be to make mandatory to pass some lessons if you haven't drive for a very long time. But that's not something possible at the moment.

Mirai Hayashi

One could say that because paper drivers lack confidence they are more carefull, I don't know for Japan but back in my country most accidents happens on peoples' "daily roads", and the main reason for that is that people get cocky after a while and stop paying attention.

A paper driver is just like a fresh new driver (some drivers get their licence by only driving in the school training roads, so zero real life experience, that was my case when I get my motorcycle licence here), they start from the bottom like everybody else.

Concerning their "gold" licence, yes that's stupid, but what do you care? Other people licence color has no meaning other that for the insurance.

Damn, looks like a totalitarian country in this comments section.

Someone hasn't drive for 10 years so he should never drive again? Gimme a break.

Most people drive like idiots, paper driver or not, at least the guy in the article had the good idea to take some lessons before going back on the roads, I wonder if the awesome drivers Subaru and Mirai Hayashi would have done the same.

Hey Mirai Hayashi, where are your statistics to back up your claims that paper drivers are a "nuisance" and a "danger to society" ? I watch the news everyday, most of the car accidents if not all are not because of paper drivers so far.

Elementary school Day 1 from an honest History teacher. Everything you are about to read in this book was written by those who killed all the witnesses.

I'm sorry I'm not from the US but are you saying that your history books don't teach about slavery and don't say it was a horrible thing ? It doesn't teach either about the genocide of the native Americans ?

Because if it does your sentence doesn't make any sense.

There's no room for urban sprawl, thus high-rise apartments.

High-rise apartments are not the problem here though.

... and have one world standard.

Whaou...that's seriously the most horrific thing I've read lately.

Tokyo claimed its quarantine was effective, but passengers, crew members, and physicians who examined the ship reported shortcomings, such as inadequate protection for quarantine officials.

To be fair, when was the last time you've seen a government or a political figure acknowledge, not even a mistake, but just the fact that they handled something poorly ?

Hold your horses if your waiting for a "we could have done better" from those people...

May be it is too human for them to say "we're sorry, we did not handled it the best way possible"

The Japanese economy doesn't rely on international trade. Most goods and services are domestically produced and consumed within the country.

Yup, because it is well known that Japan produce its own fuel and doesn't need to export the cars it manufactures. Economy's going down worldwide but, sure, Japan will be ok.

Hobbies: Playing Rugby and riding Harleys. Hmm... I wonder which gender this applicant is.

It could easily be either.

Statistically speaking, no, it's clearly a man.

 Traditionally, Japanese resumes are also supposed to include a photo, and not one that shows off your creative flair or quirky personality.

So...like anywhere else in the world no ?

I've seen many resumes with selfie-like photos on it for the past decade, generally people in charge of hiring think you're, at worst a moron, at best, a child not yet fit for professional environment (i just repeat what I've been hearing).

Besides, what's the revolution here? You still have to go to 1 or 2 interview and show your face right ? If someone's going to reject you because they don't like what you look like (something I condemned, just to be clear), is it not better to be put aside during the resume screening process and avoid a waste of time...

Not my president thank you.

I'm confused, are you an american citizen ?

If not, why the comment ?

if yes, then, does that mean you do not believe in democracy ?

We do not know if he was "barreling" through. A K-truck does not sound like a sports car to me. From where I sit, a 3-year old should never be allowed to run alone in a restaurant parking lot. I blame the parents. Alas, this story is so typical.

What's wrong with you guys? I mean seriously ?

We do not know if he was "barreling" through? What does it mater ? what do you nor understand in the word ILLEGAL, it is illegal to go through a parking lot to avoid traffic light as it is to ignore a red light, end of discussion.

Do you understand that you're saying that if someone ignore a red light it's ok as long as he is not speeding?

Geez, think before writing.

A month ? Are you kidding ? I've never heard of a japanese man taking a month of leave for anything. What a joke, the poll should have ask for men that took more than a week of parental leave (would have got a similar result I think)

Damn I really would like to know the crime rate for the unemployed people in here.

In more than half of the articles about crime I read, the perpetrator is unemployed...

You simply have to ask your wife/partner to join you on a building site.

Geez....Have you seen the average man these days? You take any random man on the street, take him to a building site and he won't see the end of the day.

Yes man and woman are not physically equal, then again, all men are absolutely not physically equal, so...

I have some friends (male) that are as small and big as her.

Those comparison are just ridiculous. The dude has 25 years of exp as a marine, he has probably seen women in action and during training, but still you can't believe what he says or try to even imagine he may be right ?

Back when I was a kid we add 2 months summer vacation and I spent 1 of those with my grandparents, I haven't heard one single person say they would send their kids to their grandparents to look after them. I thought there were more grandpa' than kids here ?

I understand it may not be possible for everybody but is there so many people that doesn't burden their parents with their kids? Because it feels like it's not even something they would consider...

I'm all for eliminatng discrimination and I'm not questioning your terrible experience. But I have to question how good your "Japanese" was in explaining your condition.

I didn't want to say anything (because it may sounds like bragging...) but honestly I thought the same when I read the "Mou shiwake gozaimasu!". That shows a quite poor level of Japanese in my opinion. Nevertheless this does not change the fact that he shouldn't have be treated that way!

"you were not allowed to rent an apartment"

Yeah, I already checked the law about that, and there is absolutely nothing that forbid a landlord to refuse to rent to someone. So...what they're gonna do about it ?? Tell the real estate agency that this is not nie lol ? The real estate agency is not going to say anything to the landlord because this one will go to another real estate agency if he's pissed off.

Many laws need to change if they really want to drop the discrimination rate.

I don't understand the downvote forTokyo-m messages...

Tokyo-m if you are young fit healthy with no underlying health issues yes, but if you are elderly with some health issues then maybe not so likely.

Yeah, so, like any other diseases and viruses, no ?

Rest assured it does not, particularly here in Japan, which believe it or not, has one of the highest rates of adoption in the world, just not children, but adults!

I already said something about it in one of my comment above.

Still the subject of the article is about fostering so it does not really concern adults, no?

My reluctance to put too much emphasis on culture is because I think it gets over-used as a way of explaining things in Japan which are different, and it can also be used by those in authority as an excuse for maintaining the status quo in the face of substantive criticism.

That's one thing we can agree on, and I am usually very reluctant to explain every different things about Japan as a cultural difference (which seems usually far too easy)

I suspect that doing so might reveal another reason for my reluctance to put too much emphasis on culture. A lot of people in Japan might definitely say they only want to raise their own kids (blood connection) but I suspect that a large proportion of people in the US or Europe would also say that. I mean, I'm Canadian and I would say that. So this might be more of a universal preference than just a Japan thing.

I think so too, I'm French and adopting would be the very last solution if it had to come to it (like not being able to have kids of my own). I think what I was saying was more about the general acceptance. I have the feeling it is kind of a taboo in Asia (in general), to adopt kids or speak about it.

No need to use culture to explain it: institutional incentives are driving it. Culture might explain why people put up with it, but that would involve a different cultural norm than one emphasizing the importance of blood ties.

Well, that's where we'll agree to disagree I guess (no offense taken btw, even though my previous answer was pretty sarcastic).

I really think it is a cultural problem (and blood being one of the main reasons but not the only one) that keeps people from adopting, AND keeps the country to let people adopt because even if some want to adopt, it seems to be a very long and difficult path to take)

If you ask a 100 Japaneses in the street the reason why they would not foster a kid, you really think most of them are going to say it is because of the money ? I have a hard time seeing that happening.

adoption has been practiced as far back as the Kamakura period and later became widespread during the Tokugawa period and has continued until today. It was particularly prevalent (and remains so) as a way of securing male heirs to childless Samurai

Oh yes, the elite adopting male children to secure the family name...

Thanks for pointing out the 1% exception of the population.

Here another one for you, you can add it up to your 1% exception, even nowadays there are old people without children, that adopt (young/adult) men, so to keep their family name going on.

Damn I was so wrong, this is so relevant to this discussion, thanks a lot.

This just isn't true though. Japan has a LONG history of adoption being a culturally accepted practice going back into ancient times. 

Source please ? I majored in Japanese culture and history and never heard of a so called "LONG history of adoption"

ancient times

What is that supposed to mean ??

Culture changes, a lot, with a lot of time, that is ridiculous to compare cultural Japan of 1000 years ago and cultural Japan of today. For example homosexuality wasn't a taboo and was quite common "a long time ago", to use your language, but it is not so much nowadays.

I would suggest the reasons most people don't want to raise other people's kids here are the same as they are everywhere else: it costs a lot of money and time and effort. Few people have these to spare, especially in Japan.

That would just explain why people don't have kids and not why they don't adopt though. And the "don't have time or money" excuse is a really simple way to see things...

@Strangerland

Here lies the cultural difference that explains this situation, Japan and like many Asian countries, by culture, favoritise blood above soil or anything else (that was the case in the west a while ago).

That is why a foreigner will never be a Japanese (i didn't say japanese citizen but Japanese) and why people here don't want to raise a child of different blood.

That's one of those things that won't change for a very long while, and the very very low birth rate won't help.

Dukeleto:

comparing their behaviour to other fully Japanese children around them there is a marked difference in displays of raw emotions and general behaviour

Geez...

You do know kids mimic their parents right ? That may be if their emotions are raw it's because yours are too, aat home. Not because of some japanese special gene =_=

While such vandalism is deplorable regardless of the hateful logic behind it, it’s especially puzzling to see a Japanese restaurant being targeted, since the coronavirus outbreak originated in China, 

What is puzzling ? Is that some extraordinary news that most people don't make the difference between chinese and japanese ? My japanese friends leaving in France get their fare share of "nihao" and "chinese??" on near daily basis. (I'd argue that I used to get my fare share of "halo" here).

I mean, do you expect people that degrade building for fun, to be able to understand that asia is not one big giant country full of Chinese ?

@Jonorth

Calling someone you don't know own daughters "outliers" is not a great start for a discussion, That could explain the downvote.

If you look at the studies you speak of, you will see that this concernes women above 30, generally, first mid 20 everybody get the same salary, so this is not really relevant in this article. Saying that the difference gap seems outrageous but....sorry, speaking of my own experience and the japanese women I have met...most of them chose to stop working after getting married...in my own friend circle on 5 couples, only one of them wanted to go back to work after giving birth. The wage gap problem is a big problem in Japanese but in my opinion many women are part of this problem...