BritishGaijin comments

If it’d happened a couple of days after the earthquake then I’d complain understand, but these weren’t desperate, dying victims. They’re thieves.

Looking at jma, it doesn't look to be a super strong one. I'm in Osaka and will store my bikes inside as a precaution, but after the huge one in 2018, I'm not particularly concerned about this one.

How on earth her mind twisted her bottled resentment towards her husband and mother in law into attempting to murder her own toddler is just beyond me. I hope she's locked away for a very long time.

Yup. If you want a long and healthy life, cut the processed junk (potato chips, white bread etc), cut sugar/fruit juices and up your raw, fresh veggies and fruit. You’ll feel you have more energy, more focus, and get better sleep if you do. I also recommend you take daily vitamins and mineral supplements.

Sugar and processed food is the enemy, and you’re fighting in a war against it. But most people don’t even realize it.

However, there will be no fines or any other punishment for anyone not wearing a helmet.

Oh okay, so just like Japanese won't stop wearing masks after some arbitrary date, none will suddenly start wearing helmets from April 1st.

I’m more outraged by the mother: she conspired with a 50 year old man to get her 11 year old daughter raped and videoed, and only gets 3.5 years… and she’s appealing it? Absolutely heinous! What a despicable mother!!

How do you know is was a "She" ?

Newborn babies come from women, and under normal circumstances don’t leave the vicinity of the mother for an extended period of time. Unless a recently pregnant woman reported her baby stolen back in February (which I personally don’t recall), we can assume the culprit was the mother herself.

If he didn't want to wear a mask in the pachinko and enjoy inhaling all the smoky fumes, why couldn't he have waited until a single day later when the mask mandate was gone? Idiot.

So instead of dealing with the cause (excessive consumption of beef) we're just gonna try with a stopgap measure? Beef is unsustainable. Please eat less.

I do think the kind of ‘immersive digital interface’ he’s envisaged will become a norm… but not for at least another 20-30 years or more. He’s way too early, and he’s burned a massive hole in the company’s wallet needlessly pushing it. Ah well, we all make mistakes… a $10bn a year mistake is pretty unforgivable, though…

Good. It’s just pure sugar with zero nutrition. My mother in law once bought one for my kids as omiyage, and I just threw it away. I restrict sugar with my kids and my own diet. There’s no need for it, and it causes faster cell aging, insulin resistance and dementia/alzheimer’s.

As a mother of a girl in Osaka, I’d like to get some scissors and cut something of his… Disgraceful piece of filth. Lock him up!

That cat bottom left is literally saying “Please help us.” Poor kitties. What horrendous conditions to be living in. I can’t believe they’re even breeding in such filth. It must have been so hot and musty for them over summer :) It’s awful because it’d take too much money to help them, so feasibly the best thing would be to put down the more injured/emaciated ones :(

I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not. The reliance on technology might make staff/teachers more lax and not check the bus as thoroughly.

Masks aren't going anywhere until the elementary/jr high/high schools stop enforcing them. Then it'll filter through the rest of the community. Next April (next academic year's start) would be a good time to put an end to it once and for all.

I run my own eikaiwa, and I'd love to just be done with masks come April, by which the next inevitable corona wave from the tourists dies down.

https://www.howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com/

There are two Russian men in space right now. Both in their thirties, and both have been on the ISS for over a year straight. Does she really think one of them would be messaging her, a 65 year old woman, via LINE (an app only popular in western Asia)... without a cell phone? I just... I just can't wrap my head around this. This is truly brilliant. The only explanation I can think of is she is not mentally well. Shame no one in her family had control over her finances...

Why do children have such easy access to waterways?

You propose we fence off and barricade every meter of accessible water near residential areas across the entire country? That doesn’t sound feasible.

There must have been a mixup with her mother over which park they were going to.

Agreed. Kids that age mix up names of things easily, or make presumptions . Totally understandable. So tragic. I can’t imagine the mother’s feeling when she arrived at the park and couldn’t find any trace of her.

So utterly tragic. With a seven year old 1nensei daughter of my own, I’d really taken Saya-chan’s disappearance to heart and kept checking the news for updates. I can’t even begin to imagine the distress of her family this whole time. I’m glad they’ll have closure now.

I’ve shown the news to my daughter every evening it was shown and warned her of going off alone, or approaching water. All we can do is hope this never happens again. This is nothing to do with Japan being a “safe” country or not. There was no crime. Just a very sad accident.

I'm so glad the children thought to tell a teacher! What an absolute nut case! She tried to inflict a very dangerous punishment on the children themselves, rather than the admin who changed her job role! What twisted logic in her brain led her to that conclusion???

@Yrral: It'll have run out of speed before it reaches Tokyo. It'll probably just dump rain all over the capital, making up for the short rainy season, and fizzle out. It's the West side of Japan that'll be in the dangerous zone.

Well said, Tokyo-m. And it’s not just the cruelty to the cows that made me turn away from eating dairy. There’s antibiotics in them and cow growth hormones. It’s not fit for human consumption, and still hasn’t been ruled out as a risk factor for breast cancer and PCOS in women.

There just needs to be more education about reusable options. Pads and tampons are wasteful, a recurring cost and non-environmentally friendly. It's a bigger initial cost, but I use a single menstrual cup (about 2500 yen) along with a couple of washable leak-proof 'bousui' hygiene pants from Daiso (they were 330 yen). Then that's it. That's all you need from then on.

Obviously I wasn't there, nor have I any more information to go on than this article, but I'm betting it was the cyclist's fault. I've lived in Japan more than 12 years, and I can't even count the number of times I've seen cyclists hurtling around or darting across crossings dangerously. The driver probably wasn't given enough time to see her if she'd just suddenly darted across the crossing from a blind spot as he turned.

I'm British, and honestly the system of allowing both pedestrians and turning vehicles to cross doesn't make much sense to me, but the risk can be minimized by making sure you are visible when you're a pedestrian and checking that the vehicle has seen you before you step/cycle out in front of it. That's my opinion as both a frequent city driver AND a mother of two who takes them to hoikuen every day by bike.

Can’t believe nobody’s mentioning Hong Kong. They have some of the most cramped living spaces in the world and many elderly have been forced to stay inside for weeks. Tokyoites have it good comparatively!