CEOB55 comments

Posted in: First strike in six decades closes famous Japanese department store See in context

Softbank is not closing on the deal to sell 90% of Fortress to Mubadala (an Abu Dhabi fund) until 1Q 2024. The decision to sell and the agreement to sell was signed under Softbank's watch. The decision to sell was made at a time when Softbank controlled the Fortress Board.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: First strike in six decades closes famous Japanese department store See in context

Not surprisingly, the Japanese media is rarely identifying the so called US fund that is purchasing Seibu/Sogo. It's Fortress Investment Group which, wait for it, is owned by Softbank, a Japanese company. The media is trying to spin this as evil American private equity vultures exploiting Japanese workers -- the fact is that Seibu/Sogo brought it upon themselves and Ito Yokado just does not view Seibu/Sogo as a core business.

2 ( +9 / -7 )

Posted in: 'Transformers' edge out ‘Spider-Verse’ to claim first place at North American box office See in context

Bad look and sad future for the movie industry when the hits consist of comic book retreads and sequels to sequels and remakes. Why bother to spend money on this unimaginative and unoriginal trash

2 ( +7 / -5 )

Posted in: Imperial Household Agency launches public relations office See in context

Wait….there needs to be a cuddly mascot character or characters. And maybe a superhero mascot too. The IHA needs to open a shop on Character Street in Tokyo Station.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Posted in: China's Xi awarded third term as president, extending rule See in context

China is on its way to oblivion in an interesting article in today's WSJ which may mean they begin making pre-emptive strikes:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-revolution-is-coming-for-chinas-families-demographics-one-child-policy-middle-age-kin-explosion-economic-development-welfare-state-3c1e0091?st=7mtxxkzy6iouipn&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

3 ( +7 / -4 )

Posted in: 4 killed in vehicle collision in Fukushima; man arrested See in context

The television video on NHK 7pm news—shows that there was no stop sign, the line that would generally give a pedestrian the right of way and maybe a car coming from the other direction is nearly completely faded and the lines on the suppose “through” road are also very faded. The police should be arresting the local officials and maybe other police for negligent homicide. Would have been very difficult for a person unfamiliar with the area to know who had the right of way.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Posted in: 64% disapprove of tax hikes to cover Japan's rising defense budget: poll See in context

Choices pretty clear:

Cut other spending and allocate to increased defense spending

Raise taxes

Learn Mandarin

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Posted in: Japan's wine tipplers see glass half empty as weak yen pushes prices higher See in context

There are decent wines produced in Yamanashi, Yamagata and Tochigi. Most are reasonably priced.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Posted in: Japan reports 15,372 new coronavirus cases See in context

For those of you who still want borders closed, people 100% masked up, people to stay locked down at home,  multiple vaccinations,  and who worry about hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations because of Covid, ambulances being turned away from hospitals and dangerous foreigners coming here (all comments in the past week), please take your meds so you can feel safe and secure. Such meds really do work!

0 ( +9 / -9 )

Posted in: Japan defense minister had help from Unification Church in elections See in context

So what... Soka Gakkai is the Komeito Party and vice versa (the Soka Gakkai lay organization was excommunicated by Nichiren Shosu in the early 90s). Unless someone can demonstrate some conflict of interest or fraudulent behavior it's a nothing burger. Proposed guilt by association is the worst kind of bigotry. Kind of the bigoted nonsense in the US when Kennedy ran for President and his enemies claimed he would be taking orders from the Pope as the first Catholic president.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Posted in: Shooter says he believed Abe promoted religious group that bankrupted his mother See in context

If it is SG, it will surely not be identified until well after the elections on Sunday given SG's relationship to Komeito.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Posted in: Japan's top court orders Twitter to delete posts on man's past arrest See in context

The article is silent as to whether this person was convicted of the crime (more examples of sloppy reporting by Kyodo and brainless reprinting by JT). If he was convicted, it's tantamount to being a sex offender depending on his motive for entering the changing room (again sloppily not reported) and in many countries sex offenders must register with the local authorities and there is no time limitation on registering. As someone else, noted, he must have connections. Can a Twitter user post about Tanaka's arrest in the Lockheed scandal?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Posted in: For Asian American women, Olympics reveal a harsh duality See in context

The term "Asian Americans" is inherently racist and Japan Today should take down this article. The term and the article makes broad and inaccurate statements about "Asian American" women and attempts to categorize all such women in a box to fit the reporter's narrative. American women with ancestry or who immigrated from Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Korea and Japan (and all those Pacific Islanders- does that include New Zealanders-- not to mentioned Russians who have lived East of the Urals for generations) are ALL Asian American women. Yet these are completely different cultures and their experience in the US is completely different- particularly depending on when they or their ancestors arrived here. With a wink and a nod, the report, Sally Ho, really means is in a very racist way are Chinese, Koreans and Japanese- if that is the case, then she should say so. And Japan Today needs to be a lot more professions as should its Japanese corporate owner!

6 ( +10 / -4 )

Posted in: Japanese reporter describes agonizing long-term effects of COVID-19 See in context

There is some research that found that antihistamines, particularly diphenhydramine, is very effective in addressing long term effects of COVID:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S155541552100547X

11 ( +16 / -5 )

Posted in: Tokyo reports 1,128 coronavirus cases; nationwide tally 3,574 See in context

954 out of 1,128 are young people (maybe not the 167 in their 40s). Apparently, no reported deaths. Young people are flipping the bird to a feckless autocratic government of politicians and bureaucrats. Visit Shinjuku and Shibuya at night-- the konbinis are doing a great business selling beer and chuhai and people are drinking in the streets. Number of serious cases is up but, as usual, this clickbait operation does not report if those persons with serious cases have other ailments or co-morbidities or how old they are.

-4 ( +4 / -8 )

Posted in: Half-Japanese woman hands card to people who ask tiresome questions about her race See in context

Definitely a finalist in the “Date From Hell” Competition

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Posted in: NHK to retrain staff after criticism of cartoon about black Americans See in context

How ridiculous. Obviously, the commenters and the idiot DCM at the US Embassy have not watched South Park in the US. As a native New Yorker, the two characters on the right are typical of what you would see as wall or building art in a black neighborhood in NYC. Indeed, the two images have that quasi-1930s Socialist Realism art look still painted by the usual left wing progressives (whether black, white or Latino) in the US.

-7 ( +4 / -11 )

Posted in: Ex-justice minister, wife arrested over alleged vote buying See in context

So if you are Japanese politician, prosecutors make an appointment to arrest you (and then probably let you out pretty quickly)...but if you are French/Brazilian/Lebanese businessman or an American businessman in the automobile industry, you are subject to a conspiratorial deception by the prosecutors and Japan Inc. and thrown into jail...

10 ( +11 / -1 )

Posted in: Japan to scrap costly land-based U.S. missile defense system See in context

Brilliant! The cheaper alternative is simply to distribute "Learning Russian 101" textbook to everyone in Hokkaido and "Learning Mandarin 101" textbook to everyone else in Japan. And you also give the option of receiving "Learning Korean with a Northern Accent 101" textbook. Will save lots of money for Japan and allow the US military to leave Japan and save taxpayers the billions of dollars spent defending Japan. Problems solved!

-7 ( +3 / -10 )

Posted in: 'Terrace House' star's death sparks calls for cyberbullying rules See in context

Just what Japan needs- more rules and regulations written and unwritten. Better if parents take responsibility and teach their children true manners, respect, kindness and compassion. We don’t need some bureaucrats spouting out more useless rules and regulations

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Posted in: Nissan to close Spain, Indonesia plants after losses See in context

Au Revoir, Renault. Sayonara, Nissan and Mitsubishi....and Good Riddance! This will be a three year long wreck and pileup with government bureaucrats (and clueless executives) making the wreck even worse.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: Abe ends state of emergency in Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo; Tokyo's may be lifted Monday See in context

What a ridiculous, stupid, moronic metric of basing the emergency order on new infections falling below 0.5 per 100,000 people in a week. There is absolutely no common sense or rationality to this heavy handed metric. So if 70 people over the age of 75 in nursing homes or other facilities are infected a prefecture of 14 million people are still under the emergency order jackboot. I know Planet J can be weird but this is bizarre!

4 ( +13 / -9 )

Posted in: As Japanese gov't slow-walks stimulus, small businesses fear collapse See in context

Tokyo's Chuo Ward says they won't be able to print applications for the 100,000 yen payments until late May....new meaning to the word slow walking...yet my 45,000 car tax bill arrived two weeks ago-- well there goes nearly half of the 100,000 yen!!

11 ( +11 / -0 )

Posted in: Japan looks to lift emergency in some areas ahead of May 31 See in context

Decisions need to be fact based and not to be left to the Chicken Littles of the World. These two sites provide up to date data with easy to read graphs:

https://toyokeizai.net/sp/visual/tko/covid19/en.html

https://newsdigest.jp/pages/coronavirus/

The vast majority of serious cases and deaths are found in the age ranges of 60s to 80s+. In the Tokyo Keizai information (granted relying on MHW information), the fatality rates are .32% for those in their 40s and .6% for those in their 50s--and these age groups have substantially more overall cases than the older age groups. The other site's numbers are somewhat similar.

"Objective" makes an excellent point that the number of infected is much higher than reported- because many Japanese do not want to report they have the virus (I actually know two Japanese- one in 20s and other in 30s- who are certain they had it and self quarantined) or because there are fewer tests. Accordingly, the actual mortality rates are likely much lower.

As US doctors like Dr. Atlas of Stanford University- have said, the key is to quarantine the sick and protect (and therefore quarantine those who are elderly and have pre-existing conditions that are likely to worsen a coronavirus infection.

This is a link to Atlas' opinion article on the subject:

https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/494034-the-data-are-in-stop-the-panic-and-end-the-total-isolation

Lockdowns don't work- they only exacerbate the issue. I

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Posted in: Retailers, manufacturers cautious on outlook under extended emergency See in context

This is what happens when the government turns all decision making over to so called medical experts who are like "hammers" where everything is a "nail". Zero common sense. Zero awareness of the impact of lockdowns on the economy, people's mental health, people's personal lives. This will end in a huge disruption to the economy and people's wellbeing. The large corporations will survive but the family owned businesses will be crushed.

NHK (and other media) drone on every night about the Government saving the nation. However, there is virtually no effort to disclose material facts to the public. A true propaganda machine.

There don't seem to be any answers on NHK or any other major Japanese media. Not sure if that is because of malfeasance, misfeasance, nonfeasance or just bad reporting. However, I have found this site (I am not sure how up to date or accurate it is).

https://newsdigest.jp/pages/coronavirus/

This site shows the age demographics in Japan for (1) those with COVID19, and (2) deaths from COVID19? See the table "Cumulative Number of Infected People And Deaths by Age Group."

It indicates that nearly all deaths from COVID19 have occurred in the over 70 demographic with much fewer numbers in the 50 to 70 age range. While the number infected are occurring mainly in the 20 to 60 age range the highest mortality rate in that range is the 60 to 70 age range at 2.8% and those in the 50 to 60 age range at .7% The interesting unknown fact is the impact of testing or the lack of testing. If there were more testing at younger age levels, it's likely that the mortality rate would drop (since if you were dead, someone would likely be determining post mortem whether you had COVID19). to find a clear timeline for such infections and deaths?

But even this chart is insufficient.

It would also be important to know that with respect to active cases how many people (1) are hospitalized in ICU, (2) are on ventilators or similar machines, (3) simply hospitalized, (4) staying at designated hotels or quarantine, or (5) in quarantine at home. These are important statistics in making a determination as to extending the state of emergency and what parameters, if any, should apply to such extension.

I am certain this information is known at certain levels but I am appalled that it is not being disclosed to the public.

Historically, the purpose of quarantines is to separate the sick and infected from healthy people. Secondarily, quarantines are used to separate high risk people (whether by age or pre-existing conditions) from the healthy population. Complete lockdowns of an entire population have been extremely rare.

In any case, I hope that so called experts can make fact based decisions rather than CYA decisions necessarily taking into account the views of all "experts": medical, economic, workers, parents, etc.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Posted in: Abe seeks to extend state of emergency by about a month See in context

We need to step back and look at facts- and ask fact focused questions:

Has anyone been able to find data showing the age demographics in Japan for (1) those with COVID19, and (2) deaths from COVID19? And has anyone been able to find a clear timeline for such infections and deaths?

It would also be important to know that with respect to active cases how many people (1) are hospitalized in ICU, (2) are on ventilators or similar machines, (3) simply hospitalized, (4) staying at designated hotels or quarantine, or (5) in quarantine at home. These are important statistics in making a determination as to extending the state of emergency and what parameters, if any, should apply to such extension.

There don't seem to be any answers on NHK or any other major Japanese media. Not sure if that is because of malfeasance, misfeasance, nonfeasance or just bad reporting. However, I have found this site (I am not sure how up to date or accurate it is)

https://newsdigest.jp/pages/coronavirus/

It indicates in the chart titled (in English) "Cumulative Number of Infected People and Deaths by Age Group" (Google Translate) that the nearly all deaths from COVID19 have occurred in the over 70 demographic with much fewer numbers in the 50 to 70 age range. While the number infected are occurring mainly in the 20 to 60 age range the highest mortality rate in that range is the 60 to 70 age range at 2.5%. The interesting unknown fact is the impact of testing or the lack of testing. If there were more testing at younger age levels, it's likely that the mortality rate would drop (since if you were dead, someone would likely be determining post mortem whether you had COVID19).

Historically, the purpose of quarantines is to separate the sick and infected from healthy people. Secondarily, quarantines are used to separate high risk people (whether by age or pre-existing conditions) from the healthy population. Complete lockdowns of an entire population have been extremely rare.

In any case, I hope that so called experts can make fact based decisions rather than CYA decisions necessarily taking into account the views of all "experts": medical, economic, workers, parents, etc.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: Confirmed new coronavirus infections in Japan now 1,528, including cruise ship cases See in context

I strongly recommend that readers take a look at this site which is one of the few making a serious effort to compile and drill down on global data for cases, deaths, mortality rates (by age and gender):

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: Tokyo gov't urges people to refrain from cherry blossom parties in parks See in context

Maybe the Government should order the cherry trees not to blossom until September after the Olympics are over.

22 ( +24 / -2 )

Posted in: Parents, teachers scramble to cope after Abe urges school shutdown See in context

As to closing the schools for a month on almost zero notice:

The Japanese government is oblivious to or never heard of the Law of Unintended Consequences (such as where do the children go, who takes care of them, what about parents that work, etc.; and/or

None of the decisionmakers have children in school and both parents work OR they own a lot of stock in babysitting companies.

A test one week closure would make sense and a frequent daily practice in the schools of everyone cleaning their hands and wearing masks would be much more effective.

This is what happens when government bureaucrats take over to show they are "saving" the people... See also, China, Iran....

10 ( +13 / -3 )

Posted in: Ministry of Justice's human rights bureau offers free counseling services to foreign residents See in context

It's the Spider and the Fly once again:

"Will you walk into my parlour?" said a spider to a fly;

" 'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy.

The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,

And I have many pretty things to shew when you are there."

"Oh no, no!" said the little fly, "to ask me is in vain,

For who goes up your winding stair can ne'er come down again."

0 ( +3 / -3 )

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