ChaosWyvern comments

We Japanese are very fascinated by Trump. He very successful business man and hopefully he and Mr Abe will become good friends.

This Japanese woman disagrees with you. I'm not fascinated at all by him. He seems ignorant and loud-mouthed, like a parody of the worst stereotypes of Americans.

I don't think Trump's election means the world will end, but I think our relationship with the US might be in for a rough time.

Because this is Japan and there is no such thing as taking real responsibility.

Oh please. Have some perspective. Noone gave a damn when I was nearly beaten to death by bullies in the UK. Never got in the media either.

Bullying is brutal but noone cares or does anything unless someone dies. Then they talk big about changing things and do nothing. And I mean everywhere, not just in Japan.

I'm confused. What is this "day off" people keep talking about? Must be for people with better job security than me!

Police said Ito and his wife have denied the charges.

I'm looking forward to seeing how they explain their actions. That should be eye-opening.....

@Moonraker

I'm clueless about this too. It's just supposed to be an audio clue to tell passengers what station they are at. Maybe tourists find it interesting or something? But "enjoyable"? For the train fanboys, maybe....

The sex trade is so prevalent in Japan.....Case in point; Yoshiwara, Kawasaki, Kogane Cho, Tobita Yukaku, Nakasu, etc.....There are usually always some sort of adult entertainment shops at any major train station such as "Pink Salon, Fashion Health or Mattress Play".

Exactly, sakana, we ban prostitution and then create all sorts of "work-arounds" to enable it anyway. It's silly and self-defeating.

I agree with Strangerland on this issue. This activity will happen anyway, so as long as it is between consenting adults we should legalize and regulate it. Women (and men for that matter) could enter and leave the trade as they want without worrying about violence or pimps. I think this would eventually decrease the social stigma as well.

On the other hand, many Japanese wives take all salary of the husband, provide little pleasure of living together including sex matters, and torture their husband into total obedience and slavery.

Oh please. Exaggerate much?

I feel pity when I see Japanese fathers struggling to calm one or two crying kids in the Onsen because the wife forced him to act on his duty of taking the kids to the bath. (I have seen countless times how a poor father takes a 6-7 year old daughter to Onsen and cannot relax a bit.)

Right, how dare we ask a man to be a father to his kids and do anything with them. Obviously we should be 100% responsible for raising the kids and not letting them get in the way of father's precious relaxation. How silly of me.

Its actually not same example, she was the object of his desire and his muse , he took her from average unknown actress and made her great using his talent . All he wanted in return is her affection. That is quite fair trade off.

So if a man helps a woman in some way it's fine for him to demand sex? Absolutely disgusting.

Airhead idol gives airhead advice. Anyone surprised? Don't forget being an idiot who acts like a spoiled child is part of an idol's job description!

I can give some much better advice. Lesson 1: don't ask idols for advice on anything!

Very much agree with German Salazar and Lost-in-Nagoya here. You guys really get it.

@clamenza

Sepultura? Nope. But we're not talking about whoever they are (Big in Brazil. very small everywhere else apparently)

This was the point when I decided you have nothing to say about metal bands. EVERYONE in metal knows Sepultera, they've been enormously influential (including here in our own J metal scene).

Why they need to celebrate Halloween?? Waste of public money and personal savings.

Wow, what a grouch! I don't really "get" Halloween myself, but these people aren't hurting anyone. Let them have their fun.

when it doesn't do what it's supposed to do, at a level of quality slightly beyond that of Payless shoes

Wouldn't that make it a crappy apple product rather than a fake one?

They're a bit gimmicky but not bad at all.

So another flavour of the month pseudo manufactured "rock" band.

They're a real band that got signed to a label, not a studio-manufactured act like "Babymetal".

I'd like to point out that while the media loves Yamada's ideas, especially his "parasite single" nonsense, most of us in the field consider him a nutcase. He has very strong assumptions, in a lot of his work, about how families "should" be, and those assumptions do not match reality. Just my opinion.

Things like this are supposed to be fun, but they always make me feel sad for some reason.

Great news!! Looking forward to this~

I'm curious about how they did the study. There might be a generation gap. My parents and their generation seem to come home, turn on the tv, and just leave it on passively for hours. I asked my father and my father-in-law about this and they said the same thing: for people their age, raised on tv, the house feels too quiet without the tv on.

My husband and I would never do that, though. We're always on our computers, and most of my colleagues in their 20s-30s spend more time with their phones than tv. I would guess kids are glued to their phones constantly rather than tv too.

@Wc626 I'm SO envious! I'd totally go if I could. 3/4 of the Big Four are gonna be there, and a lot of my faves too.

The teenybopper music here gets to me sometimes.

Only sometimes? It's terrible, which is why people who really care about music (like me!) just try to ignore it. I'm really, really thankful for our passionate local club scene and the many foreign acts that come to perform here too.

I never found one less functional or enjoyable than the other, to be honest. It's not like you can't peel back the skin anyway....

Cute it most definitely is not, with or without.

I have to agree with MsDelicious on this one, Cleo. I think they can be really cute!

Rip-off circumcision

I might be a sadistic lady, but I confess that I grinned reading the title.

Bring on the downvotes :)

Being a movie collector, I still have my trusty VCR because there are some films that have not yet been released on DVD.

My dad, who was kind of an "otaku," used to have a big collection and had to get rid of most of it when he got married to my mother. It just took up too much space. He still talks about that collection fondly.

He also loves computer games (it's his fault I like them too). So, he used to have boxes and boxes of floppy disks. Probably still does :)

@itsonlyrocknroll

Great comment!

@Wc626

Totally agree with you.

On the other hand Babymetal's drummer & guitarist aren't too shabby. Ditch the make-up, masks and 3 lolitas. . . . then they'll be a metal band.

Yep, the guitarist is from goth alt rock act Yousei Teikoku. He's pretty talented, and is totally doing this just for the money.

I guess us older metalheads are more open minded. :)

If by "open-minded" you mean you love idol pop, well great, more power to you. I'm not a fan of studio-produced, sugary pop music, is all. I see that as the opposite of what metal is about. If that makes me close-minded, I'm guilty as charged, I guess. For me, baby"metal" is just the same as AKB, the only difference being AKB doesn't claim to be metal.

This guy says it better than I could: "Babymetal is the ultimate corporate music act" - and he sees metal as silly in general so he's less biased than me :)

http://modernmarketingjapan.blogspot.jp/2016/04/baby-metal-is-ultimate-corporate.html

What a lot of people don't understand is that most metallers, contrary to the stereotypes, are actually pretty nice guys. All the real bands supporting baby"metal" think they're being friendly and funny. They don't realize that the studio is cynically taking advantage of them to try and legitimate its ridiculous idol project.

I think the only way someone could enjoy baby"metal" is if they have no idea what metal is about, thematically or artistically. So mainstream music fans, basically.

And for everyone who thinks this is good because it will bring more mainstream people into metal: nah, we're fine, thanks. Idol fanboys we can do without!

@shallots Well said! That's a great description of the Jpop industry. I always enjoy your comments on music topics; you clearly know what you're talking about!

Personally, I think a much more pressing matter is the squat toilets. Those need to be changed sooner than a simple onsen mark.

Yep, I've never had a foreign visitor (although I deal mainly with researchers not tourists) complain about map symbols, but plenty have said the old-fashioned toilets were difficult to use.

I like the old onsen symbol, myself. I guess it might be confusing at first glance, though.

Over-produced, saccharine & samey? It's exactly what the pop world needs!

Yep, precisely what's wrong with pop music. Jpop is everything that's awful about pop music dialed up to 10.

Jesus, I'd be embarrassed if this is all my country can offer.

And this is the problem I've complained about elsewhere when people tell me to lighten up about baby"metal" and other garbage. Japan has a great alt music scene but there's never any hint of that in the media. So every time I go overseas I get told what a joke my country is musically because this pop idol nonsense is all anyone knows about. Great.

It's like the contempt I have for a lot of the saccharine j-pop, while at the same time loving much of the alternative Japanese rock / music scene that doesn't get a look in on local tv.

Someone who shares my perspective for once!

Japanese TV is what it is for one simple reason: this is the way the Japanese like it. Period. So please stop b*itching and telling 120 million Japanese what they SHOULD like, according to YOUR personal tastes.

Although like I said, a lot of us think our tv is crap too.

Japanese TV, like TV anywhere, is a cultural institution, and one with roots hundreds of years old. Rakugo, kabuki, Noh, Bunraku puppetry, enka and other performing arts have strongly influenced an industry that is only 60-some years old, so criticizing it for being childish or crappy is the same as disrespecting all of Japanese culture. I mean, how can making a stupid cup of tea be considered an art form, right? Is there any difference between disrespecting Chanoyu tea and Japanese TV? I think not.

If people dismiss something just because it's Japanese then that would make me upset. But dismissing something because you dislike its thematic or aesthetic characteristics seems fine. It's entirely possible to respect one cultural product without respecting another one. Why can't you respect rakugo, for example, and not respect tv? I'm proud of traditional Japanese culture but that doesn't mean I have to respect idols or tv "talent," just like how I love old school American thrash metal music but I hate US pop music.