Andreas Zachcial comments

"Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appears to have decided to call an early election

In more democratic nations, it's not the Prime Minister or Chancelor wo decides when their is a new election but the parlament and the final say would have the head of the country, which is not Abe but the Emperor. But who am I kidding, Japan is not a Democracy but a Plutocracy.

Like some said before this survey needs a breakdown in more categories. 15 - 34. I was dependent on my parents income till 20-22 and that's quite normal for all countries if you are still in education. Most young people in Japan live with their parents till they get married, so I do wonder what they need so much money for? Shopping for brand items? A job starter in a common japanese comany will earn around 180.000 - 200.000 Yen per month, most can spend all the money for themselves and don't give any to their parents for food and lodging, like I did. So what they do with the money? Even with a part time job, you have enough money, if you still live with your parents, which the majority does.

MacArthur and the US can be blamed for this. They refused to put Hirohito on the stand. So for many Japanese he was declared not guilty. The Japanese soldiers who followed his orders were therefore also "not guilty" I can understand somehow that the US were concerned about Japan and the direction it would go but they could have at least force Hirohito to take responsibility and abduct his throne and make place for his son. They were even attempts from Japanese people to conduct their own trial but all blocked by the US. From the mid 50s, it was all over and the old power groups and people were back in their seats running Japan.

And this awful flag. It's like the german army would still use the Nazi flag.

Facemasks don't make sense against Ebola.

This is from the experts at CIDRAP (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy) "We believe there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients, which means that healthcare workers should be wearing respirators, not facemasks."

@5eriously. I agree with you " I would beg that you would not judge an entire nation based on your ONE example." but neither should you. There were over 100 POW camps in Japan. I am very much interested in the history of the Pacific War and did some research about those camp sites. I visited former camp sites in Takadanobaba, Shinagwa, Shinjuku, Ofuna and Kanagawa. Could not find any trace of the sites, even asked some people who live very near since long if they know anything. There were very surprised to hear that the place where they park their cars was a former POW camp were people were killed and tortured. I read "Railway man" but also "The forgotten Highlander" which tells more about POW life in Japan. Interesting fact is that quite a lot of the guards in the camps were not japanese but korean who often treated the POWs more brutal than the japanese guards.

@lucabrasi @ Sensato. Well I didn't know that. I apologize if this is true. But on the picture I can not see any description on the statue. Is it mentioned that this place was a former POW camp and many people were killed here and/or were used as slave laborers? I just know about the Aso mines (Mitsui Miike coal mine) in Fukuoka and at least there is no mention at all. So putting up nice Heiwajima Kannon statues is good but it means nothing, if there is no mention about why this statue is there.

It is a good step forward that Japan invites now those former POWs. Many of them were used as slave laborers and were treated very harsh. Many of them were killed while in Japan. But there is still no monument anywhere in Japan which remembers those former POWs.

He was not transported by helicopter, they brought him to the hospital by ambulance car and police escort. Even as the helicopter was there and ready to take off.　They said the helicopter was not safe because of the wind and rain, strange because the helicopter took off later anyway, but without Bianchi. One possible reason is, that if they would have used the helicopter for the transport they would have need to stop the race. (Safety Regulations) And that's what they didn't want to do because FI and Honda (Race organisator) couldn't agree on a new date.

This rumour is going on since last year. It looks like a few japanese went to the area as "tourists", or photographers. Some made friends with al Qaeda and/or ISIL members. It's a strange story and if they are still there some of them could be dead by now. More about this here: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2013/10/japanese_reporter_joins_al_qae.php

Wars often starts with words and through speeches. If he is seroius about what he is saying, he should do something against the hatesspeeches in Japan towards people from other countries. But like so often, Japan is good with delivering nice words but no action to make this words real.

Tax raises are necessary for Japan, but it will only work if also the wages for the people improve. Give the people more money and they will spend more. But so far this didn't happen. If the companies refuse to do so, the government has some tools in their hands, like raising the minimum wage to like 1500Yen per hour. If Japan only raise the taxes and the wages stay at the same level people will tigthen their belts.

It's just a show for the many nationalists here in Japan. I've been to Kanchanaburi in Thailand in the area where many of the POWs death camps were. There is a cemetry for the japanese soldiers who died during WW2. It is in a rotten status, no one really takes care of it. This is in such a contrary to the cemetry for the allied soldiers there which is well taken care of by the Dutch, Australian, British, etc. governments. The japanese government does nothing for them even after the Thai government asked them to do. Germany takes very great care of the german cemetries in Russia even working together with a russian organization there.

"Kisoji has announced that all customers who ate from the improperly labeled menus and bring their meal ticket stubs back to the restaurants will receive a full refund as an apology. " Yeah, because I always keep my refunds from chain restaurants where I ate, as you may never know, or what??!! This is just BS. If they are seroius about an apology they should offer a week or so huge discounts to everyone. But this kind of stories happened before and will happen again so long as there are not really strict laws against this kind of fraud. I gave up long time ago any believe in the honesty of japanese resturant managers. They are all businessmen after all and want to make a profit.

Expensive. Most products on the website you can get cheaper from iHerb.com

So a "A Japanese judicial panel has recommended that three former executives of the utility that operates the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant face criminal charges over their role in the disaster." And what now?? What do you expect? This will never go further than this. It's Japan for God sake. LDP will never allow than their friends will be charged and face the danger of a negative verdict. There is no independent legal system in this country.

Tokyo 2020 will be from July 24th till August 9th and the Paralympic Games from August 25th. And they all just keep talking about the terrible heat at the Qatar Fifa Worldcup. At least Qatar is not humid. If you add this to the 32-36 C in Japan during this time it's more hot here. People have no idea what Tokyo Summer means.

Yeah, right. 2 Million Yen tax money for one car. Because Japan has no debt problem. But you should know, that the president of Toyota is also a personal good friend of Mr. Abe and that Toyota Corporation paid 0 Yen tax in 2013. Future generations will be thankful for this.

But what about all the passerby who for sure must have heard and seen the child. They had three options, call the police, brake the window or ignore the child. Sadely they choosed the third option.

That was a really really bad and boring match. It looked like both teams didn't want to go to the Final with the prospect of getting massacred by "Die Mannschaft". Understandable, it's easy to take some pride and honor from a 3rd place at a worldcup than loosing by a wide margin which just leaves a mental scare on the players mind. Even Brazil would have won that game.

Best comment from the net: Brazil have Neymar. Argentina have Messi. Portugal have Ronaldo. Germany have a team!

Talking about japanese culture and they must behave like this because they are japanese,.... excuse me but this is just blah blah blah. They behaved exact the same way when they left for Brazil. The japanese mass media put them up so high that they might feel like superstars. At least they should have the decency and make an apology to the supporters for their performance in Brazil. But it's always the same with the japanese national team, talking about reaching semi final (Honda) and things like this. They never achieved anything at a World Cup. They got lucky in SA, winning against Denmark with two freekicks. Otherwise; just talking, nothing else.

And again, they show no respect for their fans. No smile or wave at them, no signing of autographs. But wait, they don't have to do that, they play at AC Milan, Manchester United, etc. I saw pictures from the Korean Team leaving, total oposite, smiling and waving to their fans.

Polit Satire at its best!! Does anyone take japanese politicians serious?

South Korea PM wanted: One condition only needed: Must hate Japan!!

@kyushubill, it is not about the workers. You are partly right here. Less population means less tax income (or tax increase) smaller GDP because less people produce less and consume less. Japan need mass immigration of skilled and educated young people.

The problem is that old men don't care much about the future. They just want to keep the status quo. Fact is: Japan will become extinct as a Nation if you don't allow mass immigration or find any other way that japanese women produce more children. It has nothing to do with if you like that idea of mass immigration or not, it is a must or accept the consequences.

Japanese companies never pay anything near 35% like Abe claims. This is just not true. According to data from the Tax Office, the actual rate of tax paid by Japanese corporations varies widely according to size and is never anywhere near 35% nominal rate. For most companies its between 23-27% and all the major corporations pay an effectice 13% rate of tax. What rates of tax are individual companies paying? Some examples: Toyota Motors 0% Mitsubishi 6.2% Nissan 10.9% Kyocera 13.9%

All those data are from the tax office in Japan.

A bit too little and a bit late. "Highly skilled" workers don't want to live in Japan (at least most of them) . What does Japan has to offer them? Not much. Those workers choose the USA, Canada or even Singapore over Japan. Japan should focus on young educated people. Europe for example has a very high level of youth unemployment. Portugal, Spain, Greece all have lots of well educated young and motivated people. Many young Portuguese go to Brazil for example. Japan should try to get those people. Offer them free or discounted air tickets, free language training and many might be interested to come, live her and build a family.

What a shame. A more experienced Ref would have seen the dive and given Fred a yellow card. 20 mins before the end with 1:1 this was the decisive moment of the game. The game was not won by Brazil but by Nishimura for Brazil.