BarnabeJay comments

@elbudamexicano: Indeed! American military presence in Japan isn't so bad when compared to the alternative: a much larger Chinese military presence.

I would bet real money they will find something of Unit 731 there, but that it will be labeled "inconclusive" by the government, and either not reported at all, or reported and immediately ignored. The few truth-seekers in Japan will be viewed as disturbing the harmony of the nation, and promptly ignored. The media will follow suit and either avoid covering the story, or spin it so fiercely that it will be unrecognizable. Media outside Japan, though, will pick it up and report it, and the evidence will become part of the historical record. And Japan will be one more step removed from the reality of the world around it.

China is once again being blatantly threatening to it's neighbors. If I were Taiwanese I would be gearing up for total war. I hope China will realize that it is not invulnerable, and stop acting like the newest bully on the playground. Dare I use the word "uncivilized?"

It does seem like the centuries-old social rules that controlled Japan are breaking down without anything to replace them. Thus Japanese people are going to have to change.

This doesn't apply to foreigners, or women who marry foreigners, is that right?

These kinds of crime stories seem to end up on JT every other day, and the perp always seems to have the most utterly inhuman comment about why they did it. The attitude these people have is uniquely disturbing, devoid of empathy and conscience. Are there really so many sociopaths in this country?

As has been stated a number of times, the rankings are not all that important when compared to the various economic systems and their abilities to adapt to change. One of Japan's biggest weaknesses is its inability to change and adapt its business styles, laws, and economic policies. Unfortunately, this weakness runs rather deep, all the way down to the education system to the very core of Japanese culture, and it is going to take some big changes to turn Japan around again. The good thing, though, is that Japan seems to be changing. I'm fairly optimistic about Japan's future.

And though China is currently growing like crazy, they have a lot of structural problems to overcome, and their government is one of them. I suspect it will take at least a couple generations for China to become a stable, developed superpower.

Teaching morality effectively would require first that students were taught how to think critically about anything. Schools in Japan, for the most part, discourage critical thinking skills, and moral reasoning is not about memorizing facts at a cram school. Until Japan's schools get on par with the rest of the civilized world, the Japanese public will continue to live their lives with little ability to think logically about their actions and choices.

@miamum and Boratlikebarry: You are absolutely right. Japan is deep into an epidemic of mental health problems which will go untreated because of cultural biases. Suicide, karoshi, child abuse, random aggression and murder are directly caused by Japanese culture, and may well be considered a part of Japanese culture. In a way, yes, this is normal Japanese behavior, and both the murderer and the murdered are victims.

Stop with all the paranoia about the A/C making you unhealthy. So many deaths occur because lunatic old people buy into weird myths about air conditioning making you sick, refuse to turn on the A/C, and die of heat stroke.