Bubblegun comments

In japans case, highlighting an ageing population also ignores other aspects holding the economy back, that there is a falling a population, and a lack of immigration.

Even if japan increases immigration to counter balance the falling population, there are structural problems.It is not enough to just let immigrant workers in to work.ofcourse they will pay taxes but there are things that are huge long term purchases that immigrants will want or need for themselves family and just for their quality of life.

It is not enough to just give immigrants a 5 year visa in the hope this will reverse everything and then kick them out when there is a downturn or kick them out when they hit retirement age.

These young workers will want to buy big ticket items, eg a NEW car,(maybe even several times, or a NEW house, and this will need to be furnished, and redecorated and maintained over the years.Some will get married and wish to have a family and provide for them. Some may even set up business to cater for other immigrants.However if you hold them back i fear they will only set them up failure, because they are being held back either in employment or in access to the financial services they need to move up, which would help companies and the gov.

If you don't let them chase their life goals, they can't get any credit, they will save their money, send it home, and they will buy second hand goods, they won't buy big ticket items, which encourages them to put down roots. On top of that if they do have a family, their kids, who only know Japan will be marginalised, as their parents maybe kicked out of japan if they don't have a job,and locked out of a financial system.

So it is not just about an "ageing population" its much more.

Cough Cough Cough, someone call an ambulance, I'm chocking on this or I have now lost my ability to read properly. Did it I read "permanently"?

IN the mean time Japan must kick out a kid born here, raised here, knows the culture, speaks the language, is educated well, because his mum and dad over stayed a visa 20 years ago.

Next I'll be reading we're getting the vote.

MichaelBukakisToday  07:41 am JST

Hey Aso, how’s that 2% inflation target working out for you? I mean us?

wages are still flat and prices of fuel are rising,

Get your head out of it blueblood.

Wages will remain flat so long as companies can hand out huge bonuses.

After all there is no real benefit to a company to increase wages per hour, except when forced to do so by the gov.

If you increase the monthly wage, then you incur a cost every single month no matter what happens.

However if you hand out bonuses, you can sit on the money for months, gain some interest, and hand it out later in the year. If there is a down turn in the economy then the company doesn't have to lay workers of, but can just cut back on the bonuses. However, they can't do with wages. When the economy picks up they hand out the bonuses again.( Even though it was probably your money anyway. (They just never increased your monthly wage).It seems like a huge company money saving scheme.

The worker feels happy because they get a large bonus for all the big ticket purchases. New car, holiday to Hawaii,deposit for a home.

Even bonuses are becoming the way in certain other countries, but it's just a scheme to keep wages low, cause you because you don't have to pay a bonus.

Tangerine2000Oct. 8  09:06 pm JST

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/scots-and-english-hold-similar-views-on-immigration-poll-1-4549780

I'm all in favor of Scotland having another indy ref after Brexit has finished. 

But the point still stands, Japan and the UK won't have a political union as you were comparing it to the UK and the EU.

I totally agree with you on the UK and Japan won't have any political union, however when rules are set, closer ties maybe implemented, then I think the UK, and of course others too, will start to ask for exemptions.

You are totally right in having similar views, but there is a completely different discourse.

“There is a different, more welcoming tone to the immigration debate in Scotland, where as south of the border there is certainly a different flavour to the debate.

Scotland has historically suffered depopulation, and can certainly see benefits to immigration.

I suppose the where am i getting the "English" is primarily because there is constant belief that there is now more of an English nationalism, as well as Scottish nationalism. Even when you watch something as simple as and Englishman winning gold he is classed as English but when a Scotsman does something he becomes British.

As much a I feel British I wonder what is it that the British celebrate to be British?

Must it just be around the defeat of Germany in WW2, and WW1, the Battle of Britain, etc etc, and let's remember it was Churchill who advocated for a United Europe and at its heart Germany and France must be at the heart of it. I do think though maybe the Union has passed it purpose, when the South of the Border focuses just on London and the South to the detriment of the other regions for decades, and sadly I think the UK will suffer for it. When a decision is made in Westminster that only effects Scotland, it is seen as a decision made by the British. Poll Tax is a great example of that.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/may/20/england-identity-crisis-english-euro-scottish-elections-ukip-patriotism

BTW I'm glad for the discussion.:-)

Tangerine2000Today  04:23 pm JST

@Bubblegun

You are deliberately conflating "The UK", "The English" and "The Tories", It's intellectually lazy, but it's easy to make broad-stroke statements, so that's why people do it.

"The English" are not opposed to immigration. They are opposed to uncontrolled, limitless immigration which has caused wage depression.

The British Government, whoever is in power, does whatever its likes (including allowing mass immigration to continue) without the support of the of the majority of the public. 

Actually i disagree the UK is not based on the English and i was specifically referring to the English who voted to leave. Scotland did not vote to leave as neither did Northern Ireland. The tories which does not speak for Scotland or Northern Ireland was voted in by the English majority.

The whole point of the UK saying they are upset about immigration doesn't seem to be reflective of the views in NI or in Scotland. In fact, in regards to the immigration problem, there was a limit, however the PM May et al, who was in charge of immigration allowed unfettered immigration from other areas of the world, even though it was the Tory gov who constantly said they'd reduce it to 100,000 while immigration was the number one issue cited by the public during the referendum. However everyone wished to blame the EU workers doing the work that the Brits didn't want. The government, and T May certainly had control of immigration and when you consider more immigrants from outside the EU we should ask why the UK did not cut the numbers. If 150,000 brits leave the UK, then this has to be replaced by 150,000+

In fact if you look at the figures from the home office today, you will see that even though immigration from the EU has fallen it has only moved the figures to immigrants from NON EU nations.So immigration hasn't fallen at all.

Further more if this caused wage depression, then instead of blaming the immigrants the blame should be placed on the companies, government and share holders. It is they who control wages, and there was nothing to stop any of them increasing wages. Unfortunately, Cheap labour, shareholders, company profits are number one, not wage increases. Remember even tips are skimmed from the workers now.

Blaming immigrants for doing the jobs, nobody wants to do is the problem, and to a society that doesn't want to pay any more for goods and services .If you buy cheap someone is working cheap.

We should also remind ourselves that it was the Tory government that said, If you want to stay in the EU you must vote to remain in the Union.So Scotland voted accordingly only for the English vote to PULL Scotland out of the EU, and yet non of the English MPs were voted in by Scotland. Seems to be the same excuse used by the brexiteers that unelected people in Brussels make the British do things against their will.

However this could easily be the same situation in regards to Scotland. Unelected MPs forcing Scotland out of something it voted for, and that was to remain not only in the UK but also in the EU. As a Scot who voted to remain in the UK I now feel that the tories put party before country, and once the UK leaves it will take all the reason away for staying actually staying in the UK.

I can just see the UK joining.

We want to join, for all the nice goodies.

Eventually they will ask for VETO,( like the one they had in the EU) then they'll want exemptions,(similar to the EU) and then they'll want to cut all the visas,(Similar to the EU) that naturally they will give all the asian countries.(Instead of the europeans). Then when nobody really wants to listen to the UK's complaints, the UK will walk off in the huff.

They said immigration was the BIG issue, and yet it was the government of the day that controls everyones visas from outside the EU.

Notice how as the EU citizens are leaving the UK, visas are just being handed out to workers from outside the EU. And getting the best a brightest from the world was just an excuse. They don't need the best and brightest to do the most menial jobs.

Now the English can complain its people from other continents doing all the jobs the English don't want to do.

Or if they wanted to .... they could pay a better wages so the English would take those jobs. But the tories don't want that.

If they keep saying people are putting off purchases its because there is no reason to purchase them.

If the JP gov wanted to increase sales tax, instead of doing a 2% rise in one go and then waiting another ten years or so to do any other raises, they would be better to increase it by 0.5% every year, then people know there is no point in delaying any purchase of high value goods.EG computers, cars, houses, white goods.

However we do put off our purchases, until just before there is a tax rise. We haven't changed out computers since the last sales tax hike, and we might upgrade just to beat the next sales hike.

People don't buy things now because there is no need to purchase anything really unless it breaks especially if your living with your parents,

We ca't afford a house, so we don't need to buy any goods for the new house.

Young people can live in a 3 gen home and again, they don't need to buy any goods because they have them already. As you get older you see the stupidity in buying things just for the sake of buying things, but prefer to save, for other things in life, or to give to their kids, grandkids something.

Immigrants on the other hand want to improve their lives, move up the ladder, set up business, travel home now and then, and maybe buy a house, but since Japan doesn't really allow for this, as the workers are only on limited visas, then it also holds back their life and also the economy.

There certainly isn't any point in buying a house that will loose 25% in value as soon and you sit in it. It's worse than a car, but you can at least trade a car in.

Maybe if they made buying a house easier, made homes cheaper, with a better quality of life, instead of a crappy little box, then young people might dip into their pockets.

Maybe slow incremental increases in sales tax over a number of years might shift peoples thinking to buy now. (if they truly believe people put of their purchases because people believe they will come down).

I have to also wonder if the internet is also responsible for pushing DOWN prices, and also inflation.

Stupid idea!

If people can't even fly a drone in a city, then i don't see it being profitable in the country side. All hype! So this drone carries 1 single newspaper.... I wonder how long the battary lasts? how far it can go? How much can it carry? How many trips/drones it'll take to deliver hundreds? and while this might be good for young people in the countryside, older people want to see a human being.

Kinda reminds of how people thought the kindle was going to kill off books, but it seems everyone who bought into the e reader craze put it in the corner, and now hardly touch it.

Sometimes we want something apart from a back light in front of our eyes, oh and we can drop a newspaper a book, a hundred times and we can even get them wet.Oh and nobody wants to steal it.

There are applications for drones, but I don't really see it being an every day occurrence.

Militarily, law enforcement, search and rescue, sports, but delivering pizza, newspapers, probably isn't one of them. Just a fad, like the flying cars we were promised.

I find the new lights on the cars are becoming way too bright and at times blinding, especially in the rain.

The combination of rain, fatigue and lights, "maybe" someone fell asleep.(maybe alcohol)

That street looks very straight, no crossing, no traffic lights. ( but that could be from where the photo was taken.

I really hope there are no kids involved.

So the mother is charged with this, just to compound her guilt and yet I don't recall any parent being charged for the death of their child in a car without a seat belt on, not in a child seat, or held in the front seat as an airbag.

This was an accident but a child not in a child seat, not wearing a seat belt, or held in a front seat is pure negligence.

They may have had child seat but there is no point if they are not buckled up.

I have seen so many cars with kids seats and they aren't used. On top of that kids shouldn't be in the front seat and this is so bad during the morning school run.

Gotta feel bad for everyone when a childs involved.Hindsight. So easy to blame.

Personally I blame the cops and the government for not making the laws tighter, TV campaigns, radio campaigns and posters.They should fine people, and give them points.

NO MORE EXCUSES! (imho)

CrickyToday  08:36 am JST

Not half, double and people are always jealous of those who have double anything.

Maybe it is not for you to decide but for the HAFU's to decide what they prefer. Not the immigrant who wishes to bring their preconceived racial beliefs on a language they may not even speak. This "double" that you say is annoying, when non of kids or adults I have met have ever used it. Further more i think it may also confuse some kids, and adults.Shall i sue this word or that word, and will fear offending the listener. The Japanese use the word HAFU, and from everyone I have ever spoken to, including my own two children, wife, other bi-cultural, bi-racial or what ever other term you use, is that there appears to be NO negative racial connotations implyed, but seem to acknowledge that are partly from another culture. While the word HAFU may bring up a sense in English of Half Caste or half breed there appears to be no obvious negative meaning to the word, and that has to be the main point. Is it meant in a negative way? Does the listener perceive it as a negative? From my experience NO! This is also supported by the HAFU project themselves. If anything the people explained there isn't anything negative about it, but is THEIR way to acknowledge who they are. Similar to how the US does it, but without the hundreds of separate labels they must put on you in the US. But as DenTok2009 correctly points output there is a difference between how they perceive Black Japanese people and white Japanese people.

I think the Japanese would probably use something else along the lines of, you're not Japanese. I could be wrong but they might use "Your not japanese, mixed blood, Chinese, Korean,your Dirty" if you have darker skin as a racial slur. But they don't seem to have the same ,historical, colourful, racial, vocabulary that the US has.

Btw if you use the word double you are also lowering the status of the other Japanese because somehow they must be HAFU too.

As you say, people are people, so maybe we should let the japanese HAFU's decide, and not the immigrants who can't speak Japanese.

http://www.hafujapanese.org/eng/bg04.html

Well, you won't have to worry about renewing your contract every year, cause you won't have one.I wonder how many teacher will loose their jobs. They'll have one teacher visiting 10 schools a week. Might have to get that job in the convenience stores.... or join the Union.

BertieWoosterToday  07:23 am JST

There is no ONE pronunciation to check. *

You mean.... you mean...... you mean....... the American accent isn't the correct one? I thought it was the ONLY ONE. But... but....... trousers is now totally wrong.

You mean the American "cyaaaaaaan't" is the only one and British CARn't is totally wrong.

God help us when they get a Scottish, Irish, South African accent.

And why oh why do they over complicate the R and L pronunciation...

It's obvious they are saying I "LOVE" you and not I "RUB" you. It's good for some entertainment, and fun but once you've drilled it into them for 8 years, its time to let it go, and accept it, just as we do for the pronunciations around the world.But some teacher make it their mission.

The students don't have to write anything, so of course it bad. They only have to write a Word to fill in the blank or choose the NUMBER.

Can't tell you how many students have been marked down because they wrote,

I "had" breakfast, instead of I ATE breakfast.

Or, These are the "words" you "should" remember, instead of These are the "English Words" you must to remember. Well, if there studying english its obvious they need to remember the ENGLISH words.

And don't get me started on I'm going to watch TV tonight, and I "will" (probably) watch TV tonight.

Some teachers, don't seem to give students any leeway on anything that would be acceptable by any native speaker.

Anyway it all about the test, there are no points for speaking well in the Uni tests.

cleo

The national debt does not come from the government overusing credit cards. It comes from politicians being incompetent and/or not caring about the state the economy will be in ten years down the road when they're retired and living off a nice padded, subsidised Diet pension. If no Japanese person ever used a credit card again, it would not affect the national debt one iota, or the sales tax.

Totally agree but the government do want people to spend.So they can get that tax revenue. Wether that be in cash, which you don't advocate, or by credit card. They want people to spend cash.

Cleo. Your problem is you think everyone else in japan is as good as you at paying off their credit card bills. Just because YOU can do it, doesn't mean everyone can.

BTW I've used credit cards for over 30 odd years so there is no need to try and dismiss my experience. I use a credit card to purchase a holiday, and I get free health insurance, and I also have insurance, if a company goes bankrupt, and am insured with lost or stolen goods.

Cleo while I am fully aware of all you said, I am actually discussing this from other peoples perspectives.while you totally discount the experience of millions who have got into debt, and wether through stupidity, by going on a spending spree, ignorance because young people don't have that financial life experience you have or circumstances, maybe they lost a job, sick for a while and have lost income, or suffer from a mental health condition.(hypomania) They can't control their debt or as you call it "credit", as well as you. When they got ill, the credit card companies didn't give one iota about the situation. They just wanted to restructure that debt.Not credit!

I will acknowledge, your experience, but don't for one minute assume that just because you can do it, everyone else can. You seem to be only expressing your experience from your own financial behaviour, and think everyone else should or can follow your behaviour or have your perspective and think credit is great. Sadly not everyone is as great as you cleo.

Credit is still spending more than you have, and while there are benefits for those who are good financially, there are risk for those who can't.

Personally why would anyone really want to pay 1000 yen on a credit card is beyond me.

I'd use my debit card or cash.

Kazuaki ShimazakiToday  04:51 pm JST

@BubblegunToday 12:38 pm JST

Here's a question for you. Why is the option of leaving well-enough alone and NOT pressing for unconditional surrender not even on your list of variants?

I think having something unconditional was agreed by china, the UK, US, and Russia, and they all had their reason to ask for that. After all Japan wanted all those countries to submit to Japan conditions.

I'm not really sure why Japan thought they should be given the right to determine the conditions of surrender. Germany, Italy weren't give the right to dictate the conditions of surrender either, so I'm not sure why Japan should have had any special rights to dictate a surrender for a war it started in the 1930s.How many were killed for the idea of an empire, that for all intents and purposes was a time that was passing. The Ottoman empire collapses, the Austrian/Hungary empires had collapsed, German, French, British, empires were all starting to collapse, while Japan was wanting to emulate these empires, by taking other countries, but that time was coming an end. There was no point trying to say we are freeing you from the europeans only to put them under a new master. People were wanting to independent.

And when you start a war, you aren't there to negotiate. Japan had its chance to negotiate for years.

Personally i have to agree with bomber Harris, when we only had one option as we stood alone.

"They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind"

stormcrow brings up many good points, and the best one is, just as japan did, when you go into a fight, you use the biggest gun you've got. Dropping the A bomb showed Russia what the US had, it forced japan to surrender quicker, saved way more lives.

btw if you think that the A bomb is a war crime, even though japan was warned would consider that japan commit many war crimes?

cleoToday  06:44 pm JST

If I pay with plastic, then on the next due day that ¥1000 disappears from my bank account in just the same way that the cash would have disappeared from my purse if I had paid cash.

I don't pay interest to any shareholders. 

cleo

you end up giving interest to shareholders

This I don't understand at all.

Well credit card companies have to make a profit, while you can clear your monthly bill, millions of others cannot clear the balance so they incur interest. Thats how they make profits, and pay shareholders.

If you borrow 1000 yen and pay back 1000 yen the company earn nothing and they aren't lending you money out of the kindness of their hearts.

And lets look at Japans debt....... it has to be paid back sooner or later, and that will be by ....the consumer. Thats why they are hiking the sales tax up, and i will expect sales tax to increase much higher over the coming years.

What has that got to do with credit cards? The national debt is a completely different animal and is all to do with the govmint printing money.

You have a point that they print money, but you forget that debt must be paid back.

The Japanese government is in debt and is increasing the sales tax to compensate for this, so You and others have to pay more for the goods you want on credit. The government get their sales tax, guaranteed! It doesn't matter if loan company A goes bankrupt, or customer B is in so much debt that they cannot repay the loan, commit suicide, loose their home or can't fund their lifestyle they want. The government got their sales tax. Now these are extremes but people do get into a mess, and it only started off with a few thousand yen.

While you may use the example of say 1000 yen, some people may have a credit limit of a million yen +++, may become suddenly ill, loose their job and suddenly can't afford the payments that they could easily afford before.

Taxes go up, wages are stagnant, people still want to buy those nice things, but the tax increase has eaten into their earnings, and some will turn to credit cards to fund what they want with an interest rate that also eats into their purchasing power, but the government will always get their sales tax.

When a recession hits and debt it being payed off by consumers, the tax revenues will go down as people are tightening their belts and paying down their debt, and not spending.Nobody calls it credit then.

It's easy when everyone can pay 100% by the due date but sadly many cannot, and if everyone could pay 100% of the balance, then there was probably no real need for a credit card anyway after all it was only a pay day away.

cleo

Spending money you can't afford is not good, of course. Neither is raiding the kiddies' piggy banks. It's easy; don't spend money you don't have. Whether it's paper or plastic is not the point.

I understand you think it is easy, but it is hard for many people when they see their kids friends having all the latest games, computers, switch, iPhone, or latest fashion, and telling your kids, NO is the hardest thing to do, when it just seems to easy to just stick on the credit, and have your cake and eat it, and your kids are happy.

Totally agree with you, if you can't afford, don't spend it.

cleo

And that is relevant to Japanese cash/credit preferences how? The article states, Many Japanese people fear inadvertently spending too much money if they use their credit cards. Which means most Japanese do not simply rack up as much debt as they can get away with, until the card company pulls the plug.

Well, that is the relevance, the Japanese don't want to spend too much money, because you end up giving interest to shareholders.

Lets look at the US, UK et al.

They constantly keep telling the public... when the economy is going well.. "People aren't saving enough for their pension and this must be addressed". Well, how can you save if you OVERSPEND on credit.

Then when the economy tanks, the same politicians will shout out loudly, "people aren't spending enough" and then loosen the pension rules. The UK is now a good example of people now dipping into their pension pot to spend today.

Then the same politicians will tell you that "everyone is living longer so, to cut the costs, EVERYONE MUST WORK LONGER", only for joe public to get less out of the system they payed into.either by Tax, by sales tax, or by saving. Lets remember, not everyone loves longer, many die younger, and never collect, some will live longer, but they have done their match.

Furthermore, how is this relevant, well when the US economy sneezes, everyone else catches a cold. I'm sure the last banking crisis proves that.

And lets look at Japans debt....... it has to be paid back sooner or later, and that will be by ....the consumer. Thats why they are hiking the sales tax up, and i will expect sales tax to increase much higher over the coming years.

There is nothing wrong with using debit cards, or other tech, but credit cards are not CREDIT, it is DEBT by any other name. They have their uses if you get some benefit like free insurance, when you are on holiday, or if a company goes bankrupt in regards to the sale of goods. (depending on the countries laws).

Otherwise I'll stick to my debit card and stay away from the credit card.

I'm not an economist, but any house wife who earns $1, knows she can't spend $3 without having to cut back to 90 cents for the next few months or years.Which in the long term makes you poorer.

cleo

don't think there's any link between how a person pays and how they behave. 

I am not sure where your evidence is for that theory, because there certainly is a lot of evidence to show how you pay influences how people behave.

Why do you think companies reduce the amount of clicks you have to do to complete a purchase online? Payment is made because the person has gone through so much, or if they reduce the clicks, before you have second thoughts, you spend more.

If you are unsure about how credit cards are related to behaviour, well beg to differ as the credit card companies seem to find value in credit SCORING, which is partly based on BEHAVIOUR. Now I have no problem with a debit card, because that is link directly to our bank accounts. On top of that that, if a certain group of people see the MONEY they DON'T actually have,EG the money in their wallet, then they are more likely to delay that purchase.Good for the customer but bad for the shop, because they loose out on that sale.

If you are still unsure how credit cards and behaviour are connected then you can see even from todays CREDIT crunch, than people are increasing their credit debt, and that fuels the so called economy. And if it isn't a credit card its some other form of debt. Remember endowment mortgages. Pay the interest now, and pay the loan 25 years later, and that blew up in everyones face. However once the bubble pops, people will start to stop spending. The US credit card debt is over 1 trillion dollars.

Another area of people taking credit they can't really afford is in Personal Contract Purchase for a car they would normally not be able to afford. Some people find they are loosing out due to all the terms and conditions. Yes some people will win something, and some will loose, but the SHOP will ALWAYS WIN.

So while you may not think there is a relationship with behaviour and how one buys something, there is a ton of evidence, either retail or financial that there is a lot of behaviour related to purchases.wether that is cash or credit.

Consumer psychology is huge. There is a reason why something is priced at $199 and not $200 dollars.There is a behavioural reason why every time you go to a shop the tabacco/candy is right in front of your eyes at the till.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/retail-therapy/201306/why-we-overspend-credit

More people died from the air raids in Tokyo and Dresden than the A bombs.

While dropping one bomb may be the worst thing ever to have been created, this probably saved way more lives, military and civilian, Japanese and American than if Russia and the US invaded the mainland.

While horrific, Japan wanted to surrender and asked the Russian to intervene.

On July 12, Tōgō directed Satō to tell the Soviets that:

His Majesty the Emperor, mindful of the fact that the present war daily brings greater evil and sacrifice upon the peoples of all the belligerent powers, desires from his heart that it may be quickly terminated. But so long as England and the United States insist upon unconditional surrender, the Japanese Empire has no alternative but to fight on with all its strength for the honor and existence of the Motherland.[46]

However Japan knew the terms, the emperor was to be maintained, but Japan had no intentions of surrendering.

But lets consider this, if the bombs were not dropped and the war continued, how far would the russian army come down into Japan?

They took the northern islands and it wouldn't be that hard to see them taking Hokkaido, and the US would have moved up from the south if the war continued for.....well however long it took, and there would be an iron curtain not only in Europe, but also in Japan. So ironically these terrible events probably ended a war sooner, saved more lives and stopped Russia taking more of Japan and dividing Japan.( Russia was happy to get revenge for the Russo-Japanese war 1904-05

How many Americans, Russians, British, Chinese had to continue to die?

Sometimes, when you have a double loose situation you have no choice but to choose the lesser of the two evils. Hopefully to the better of your family and friends instead of the so called enemy. Don't know anyone who would allow their father, son, friend to die over that of a person/country that started a war decades before.

While horrific, Lets consider if Japan had the bomb? They were certainly trying to develop one too. I would have no doubt in my mind, given the atrocities that Japan had committed in WW2,that had they developed such a bomb they would have used it to bring and end to the war for their people.

ref Ni-Go project, F-Go project, Yoshio Nishina.

Is this a war crime? I don't see any difference between this, and the air raids on Tokyo, Nagoya, shanghai, canton, Nanjin,Dresden, Coventry, London, Bristol,plymouth, etc I don't know but maybe War in itself, is a crime.

Unless we are living in a world of double speak where War is Peace.

If Truman could have ended the war in a week, but didn't, he would have been impeached,who knows but he had to do what was BEST for the Allies.

And for that there are many allied soldiers today, who went on to have families and grandchildren.

The white house could be renamed the Ministry of Truth.

Sarah Sanders sounds so much like the girl who worked in the Fiction department, deleting the truth, and replacing it with alternative truths.

As certain people in the US watch the Telescreen, which seem more like FoX or Twitter, they see Goldstein tweet the truth, and as big brother twitter and facebook track everyone on the internet sucking up your thoughts and ideas and political leanings, they feed the voters the news they want to read, or feed some articles to sway their thinking so certain voters, vote for the leader of the party.

The Trump loyalists drown out anyone with any dissent, with threats and intimidation so the party is no longer the party , but the party of the leader they follow.

PerformingMonkeyToday  09:14 am JST

The main reason is Japan's aging population – younger people have been post-cash for years.

Unfortunately, old people have most of the money.

And probably one reason why the older people have the money is because THEY DIDNT USE CREDIT CARDS. and probably one reason why young people are in debt.

So a shop doesn't use credit cards because the credit card companies "charge the shop" money, for the credit card company to "charge customers for the debt". Whereas, i can pay 100% of the price at the counter, the shop can receive 100% of the money, maybe even pass those savings onto the customer, or keep it for themselves.

I don't think I have EVER in my life, managed to haggle a better deal with a Credit Card.

Maybe the Japanese customer sees these cards for what they are, NOT credit cards, but DEBT cards. Imagine if a company told every customer... would you like to increase you debt limit? They would run away and thats one reason why the DEBT CARD companies start you off light, just a few hundred dollars, and gradually over the months and years, stealthily increase you DEBT limit by thousands without your permission. They track those DEBTORS and increase their debt level on those customers who can't control their debt/spending.

Credit cards=Debt cards. Once you understand that, you'll be a lot richer.

Je Hoon Lee  is the kind of salesman you'd never want to meet. He makes it sound as though he's actually doing you a favour by getting you into debt, so he can increase his bonus, increase his sales and his companies profits.

Cash all the way.

Burning BushToday  07:27 am JST

I'd rather burn to death than humiliate myself.

You may well do sir. You may well do.

Melanoma, may well be the death of you.

I don't have a problem using an umbrella with rain, maybe its time to reconsider, what we think is MANLY.

I think they should start with the boys at school, then maybe when they grow up they WON'T feel so.. as you said..... humiliated. I bet the teachers wished they used some kind of sun shade for kid who died of heat stroke in Toyota....just a week or so ago.

Maybe NHK et al should start doing Public Health Commercials every year, to push this deeper into their minds. While they are at it, they could start by also doing safety belts too. And not to hold your kid in the front seat.

You maybe the greatest driver, in Japan and you think You won't hit anyone, but it doesn't mean everyone else is.

They are happy to print posters, about manners and fine people for smoking OUTSIDE, but they do nothing about stuff hat KILLS people.

We hear this time and time again.

Think we might want to change how people actually refer to there companies. They're not really car sharing /ride sharing services. It's just another Taxi service by any other name.

We share taxis all the time, if we are going in the same direction, especially at certain events.EG New Year.

If anyone wants to share their care with someone, go ahead, there is nothing stopping anyone picking up their friends family or work mates and going to said place.

If you really want to RIDE share, why not use the bus, train, subway,after all. It's using the same roads, you'll save way more money,(if thats your reasoning for promoting UBER et al), you'll help a public service, and help the environment.

And lets face it, uber doesn't want to set up shop in the country side, does it?

They want to move into the BIG cities, undercut all the black cabs, make them loose, money.( and UBER will cream all the profits, and take non of the responsibilities.

If you can afford to ride an UBER et al my guess is... you can afford to ride a taxi.

There have been some complaints about UBER bullying driver who have refused a few rides,( for whatever reason) and UBER then, didn't give them any work for a few days.

This is just an agency, but they just reword the contract to say your SELF EMPLOYED. So they get around the EU et al labour laws. I won't support UBER, just to save a few stupid yen. And if i really needed to save money, I'd use the train/Subway. Btw there are a ton of Japanese APPS to order a taxi that looks after their staff.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/13/uber-practices-company-london-consumer-sumofus

Ride sharing? So we want to fire all the taxi drivers, with other people, who do the same job, for crap wages, no holidays, no sick pay, no other contributions, and we'll put them on a yearly contract or call them SELF employed, so companies can wash themselves of ANY responsibility. Like UBER! Thankfully the laws are catching up with these companies trying to screw workers out of money. London, is a good example of clamping down on such companies.Eg Uber! And lets face it. i find the service of the Japanese taxi driver way way better than any Taxi driver i have ever had in the US, or the UK. So whats to improve on.

Amazon are also being investigated by claiming everyone is SELF employed as delivery drivers, but amazon control what they do, when they do it, and how many they deliver. fail to meet the target and your contract isn't renewed. Sounds rather similar to the teaching gig in japan. Work for a school for decades, fired every summer, and claim not to be directly employed by the schools, or just fired to meet some legal loophole.

These companies have only one loyalty and that is SHAREHOLDERS.

It doesn't matter how much profit the company makes, there is no incentive to increase wages when the shareholders want it. It doesn't matter how well the stock market rises, the workers aren't really getting any benefits either. Because a person is a cost, and if they can fire someone, replace someone with some tech they will.

Further more, in Japans case, if the companies can't find people to do certain jobs, then according to what some people say, the wages should rise to attract workers, which in turn pushes up inflation, and prices.Well non of that seems to be working in Japan, the UK, US, et al. People still going to food banks, working poor jobs, for poor wages. Great for the company, great for the shareholders but it doesn't really push up anyones earnings up. They eventually just pushes workers earnings down, puts them on minimum wages, government subsidies, food stamps, while profits go up and shareholders dividends go up.

It might make the customer save money, but some workers are loosing money.

I think amazon is a good example. We save a few yen, but we'll see the profits go to shareholders on the other side of the globe, dodge tax, while a mom and pop shop goes out of business.

We are aware that thousands die every year from PASSIVE SMOKING and will try to ban it.NOT!

In the mean time, how in the world are they going to even think about trying to stop kids buying these drink when they can't even bother to stop kids PASSIVE smoking in every single place that serves food.

While kids shouldn't be drinking certain energy drinks like monster or red bull, I'd rather the banned passive smoking which every single kid in Japan has to put up with.

Well When the US president actually thinks he's running a democratic "protection racket", what do you expect. He actually thinks, that the members of NATO pay the US for protection rather than each country trying to pay 2% of GDP into "its" defence.

Of course trump wants those countries to pay more like the US does, because he thinks they will go to countries like the US to purchase their weapons. Of course NATO countries can buy from say, Airbus, BAE, Dassault, SAAB et al . The US president thinks that way, and he wants them to BUY MORE US goods, or in this case, more weapons from the US. Now It might actually work but it may work against US weapon manufacturers, as NATO member may just spend that money closer to home and decide to look somewhere else.

Trump forget thats the only time NATO enacted its defence protocol article 5 was on 9/11.

The US never came to the UKs help when the Falklands was invaded, did they?

I won't support our government or troops going to war for TRUMP.

Nintendo are really bad for this. I can understand the new stuff being pulled, but the older stuff... surely they could let us play it if we wanted to.

I find this very confusing, We can rent a CDs, we can rent Manga, and we can rent DVDs.

So I wonder why the game company that initiated this case couldn't come to an agreement with the owner.Especially if the games were retro and basically, out of production.

I could understand if they were playing the latest call of duty game but it just seems extremely petty.

My guess is maybe it was Nintendo that initiated this as they are one of the worst companies to do this. Especially on youtube.

Maybe they could get around this by "selling the second hand game" to the customer, say for a couple of hundred yen, (as they do already) and then getting the customer to "SELL" it back to the shop, for say 50 yen, when they don't want to play it again.