brotokyo comments

Toshiko, in some circles, Taiwan is a province (or some such part) of China, therefore not considered a country. Just saying.

Inside job?

stop thinking that you are different because you are Japanese

Amen!

This is sad in the extreme

. so true, hope the mother (and family) can recover from this horrible tagedy. RIP little one

Sack him, he's in the wrong job.

LOL Thank somebody he wasn't in Oklahoma!!!!!!!!!!

crystayle@

It's unbelieveable how bad the men have it here.

Why do you think more men here marry non-Japanese than JP women marry non-Japanese (see cleo for links)? I guess the JP men know more than some here give them credit for. By the way, Emiko Inoue has been behind bars for 7 months and still counting. For the moment this is a Wisconsin event; I hope the IRS steps in to see if she has filed a US tax return over the last five years, since she is, after all, a permanent resident of the USA. I like tightening more screws.

Mabo@

Maybe some one here knows more about the legalities of this.

I will never profess to know all, but here is the info on Japanese citizens and the passport issue. Sorry it is in nihongo only:

http://www.geneve.ch.emb-japan.go.jp/image/pdf/jp_national.pdf

By the way, ports of entry have no reason to ask if you provide a "valid" passport, just make sure your daughter doesn't mistakenly pull both passports out at the same time in the States, although she is safe until age 21 (I think if still in college it is extended). Bottom line in the Japanese--if/when a Japanese surrenders his/her Japanese passports, naturally he/she can reapply for Japanese citizenship, but there are conditions--see the pdf above.

There are a number of famous Japanese who have surrendered their Japanese passports--a Japanese female ice-skater turned Russian (last year) so she could appear in the Olympics, a Japanese man, as of Nov 9, 2011 (less than two weeks ago), turned Cambodian so he could run in a marathon--the list of Japanese turned "other" is longer than you might think, so to insinuate that losing a/"your" Japanese passport is highly suspect. I checked and my Japanese wife, who has renewed her Japanese passport a number of times has never had to answer a question on any application as to whether she has held any other nationality, My in-laws, also Japanese haven't dealt with that "held other" nationality question either each and every time they renewed. I suspect Mr Cleo probably hasn't seen that question either and my suspicion is Mr Cleo "JR" has recently turned 20 (renewed his passport since "coming of age" and when renewing his passport (because he is, hmhmhmhm, excuse me, half) possibly met with this question and since he has come of age must decide his nationality. Maybe not, it doesn't matter, but to write that that question is on an application for renewal of a Japanese passport application is misleading.

cleo@

The last time my son renewed his Japanese passport the application form specifically asked whether he held any other nationality.

so, what exactly does your comment mean? Your son does have another nationality (or passport) or are you just simply offering us points listed on applications?

Happy Veterans Day to all those who served on this week's "fateful date"

The current retirement age is 60

used to be 55 (you've been here long enough to know this, although probably not old enough back then to care about it), but it was not "law" then (the age of 50), and niether is "this" age 60 law now.

The current retirement age is 60

laugh out loud

We called them "freedom birds" back in Nam. How life has changed-- now they get a Sesame Street name.

wonder if he'll be able to hook up with the J-Women's football team and catch a match while he's there, or is this all parade and pomp over a 150-yr-old treaty

Delta (formerly Northwest in Japan)

Delta has always been Delta, well actually in 1928 it was called Delta Air service, so one cannot say it was formerly Northwest in Japan, especially since Delta began its flights across the Pacific in the 1980s--a merger happened; Northwest has become a part of Delta.

Always like flying business class with them, but don't care for the extra security hassel in Atlanta after the long NRT to Atlanta flight.

I will try this once again peacewarrior:

I sure pray someone's daughter isn't killed in the "line of duty" because someone close by refused to pull the trigger to prevent a "wrongful" killing.

Sounds like you have a really high opinion of the US justice system

Legality? What is legality? Justice? What is justice? Hate reading "crap" like this as it reminds me of The USA's "distant??" cousin's justice system (should we now say, "sadly the USA follows the "cousin's system too closely" as remembered from this July 2005 incident?): a Brazillian was gunned down (shot in the shoulder once and in the head SEVEN times--talk about overkill -- at a tube station in London because the system "feared" he was a suicide bomber! (The PM offered an apology for the wrongful death--sure brought that man back to life, didn't it?!). Memory tells me he was UNARMED, but (BRITISH) security forces believed he had an 'out-of-date' visa.

I still maintain a high regard for the UK legal system--sure beats HERE and God please grant me an automatic entry if Al Quada somehow manages to get the upper hand, latches hold of me and gets a glance at my passport--I offered no SPIN back in 2005 when this story made JT, then again I am not anti-British: I simply prayed for his soul. I dislike/detest the anti-USA sentiment from our dog-loving Cleo without, at least, the offer of evidence to back up the SPIN that the USA went in to gun Bin La down without any other options on the table. I cannot disprove the USA went in to kill him. Can you prove the USA went in to assassinate Bin?

One thing on record: Bin challenged the USA, armed to the teeth--I don't believe the 27-year-old Brazillian challenged the UK and he had no weapon. Oh, but there was a British apology. I do detest a legal system that merely BOWS with an aplogy and believes that ends it. At least the USA took out a known "bad guy": I don't believe an apology is necessary here. Was justice served? I cannot answer that for the thousands who lost loved ones that day, including the several who jumped from that burning building. I would have prefered that the USA capture him, put him on a plane and then called up Saudi Arabia and said we are dropping your boy off above Mecca and then dropped him off without a parachute and offered CNN, BBC, NHK, CBS, et al the rights to the highest bidder to follow him for a real "down-to-earth" interview," (of course they could've either rented or bought parachutes, but that just proves how sick I am. Seriously, however, I sure pray someone's daughter isn't killed in the "line of duty" because someone close by refused to pull the trigger to prevent a "wrongful" killing.

skip@

Why is the U.S. burying him at sea?

Indeed, I was certainly not happy with that as I am a fish eater.

ND@

I'm no doctor but suddenly losing consciousness is connected to head trauma right?

well, I can certainly ascertain that both drugs and alcohol have rendered me unconscious and I awoke with no head trauma that "hair of the dog" or aspirin couldn't fix.

Ichiro, Matsui, Matsuzaka, Fukudome, Uehara in that order--at least their faces appear on NHK more than any other

take a number: PIGS, Japan, next USA

lostinNag@

What you guys missed

what this guy "will" miss is this "majestic" wedding. I wonder if HNK will be going door to door, ding-dongin' for payment during this four plus-hour pomp?

Can you point me in the direction of the JT media thread?

LOL, good luck with that.

wow! Sara, be extra careful and good luck with that.

I remember the days when it looked like this inside Shinjuku Station. Take away the concrete around those boxes and put in a tree or two and a river bed and it looks like any typical homeless area scattered along rivers, etc.

well let's see, two yrs ago a Japanese DJ got a three-year suspended sentence for snapping a foreigner's neck--(needed to calm the foreigner down). In this case the "defendent" needed to keep her "from crying out." Good thing he didn't ride her like a horse while "deeply" puncturing her body multiple times with a knife like a former student did while riding his former professor, or he might receive a total of 18 years (wow, that loon will be back on the street before he's 50). Hard to predict the sentencing for our former man on the run, but more will be appalled than satisfied coz I doubt he will be swinging from a rope regardless of the international coverage. Of course a few here will be happy that my taxes will provide him three squares a day until his release.

If we must have a monarch

Then let's stick to butterflies.

seems you just can't win if you're a foreigner, damned if you don't, damned if you do. Actually who cares. I suppose I was a "flyjin" the day I left my country to settle here in Japan--wow! about a quarter century ago already.

Benevolent Deception!

Cleo@

The first thing I said is that solar power to the exclusion of all else isn't going to work.

Wow! You speak of "scientific facts" in one breath (earlier comment) and then make a comment like this. ALL energy comes from the sun--that's right, even down to the green beans you eat.