ChaosWyvern comments

I don't even think Japanese like Japanese TV. They realize how ridiculously puerile it is, but instead of demanding better quality, they have a "sho ga nai" attitude. I can't imagine anybody (Japanese included), looking through the TV guide and going, "Wow, there are two celebrities visiting a Raman restaurant in Ikebukuro...Let's watch it!" Or "Wow, two celebrities are visiting a hot spring in Hakone...Let's set our TiVo for that gem".

I think this is generally true. Most of us don't take it seriously. We see it as a long series of advertisements for songs and products and so on, with a lot of repeating meme-type humor. I can't stand variety shows. I like a few dramas or history documentaries but other than that I only watch TV for the news.

You might consider me an exception, especially since I hate mainstream music and idol culture. But among all my more "normal" family, friends, and coworkers I've never met anyone who would say they are "tv fan." I think my husband's dad had it right when he told me at new years "Noone takes tv seriously. They just want to see stupid people do stupid things so they can feel better about themselves."

"With my clever disguises, they'll never catch me!"

In March, Japanese officials including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe protested when a U.N. committee said it intended to criticise male-only inheritance as discriminatory. They said the U.N. move was “totally inappropriate” and disregarded Japanese history.

Except we had many empresses in Japanese history, and "male-only inheritance" of the throne was a 19th-century invention introduced as part of "modernizing" the monarchy, based mainly on Prussia. So just who is disregarding Japanese history, hmmm?

@browny1 Well said! I had been feeling that the media might have been making too big a deal out of this lobby group, but you make a good point about why we should consider their influence.

@bullfighter I will read that book; thank you for mentioning it. I did some checking around online and could not find any reference to this 日本会議 having a specific policy about abdication. Though they are certainly obsessed with the imperial legacy and some (mainly mythical) notions about the emperor system from the old days.

A disaster waiting to happen. Here people would be falling off station platforms!

Paying for the chance to eat with old, fat, naked men? Woohoo! ....unfortunately that's not my fetish, so this lady will be staying home.

I'll probably still be eating naked, but at least the experience won't cost anything.

Sidewinder ... let's keep the conversation wholesome with Abe calling for debate on his “duty” Everybody here is talking bollocks .. The leader of this country is asking his people ... Only one person here has a vote and it's not You or the sulfer sniffer .

I really don't get what you're trying to add with your comments. Most of these people live here and they have opinions about politics; why is that surprising or intolerable for you? Are we Japanese not allowed to have opinions about other countries and what they do, then? Such a silly perspective.

@dharmadan I'm not an "apologist"; that sounds like someone who constantly defends this country in any situation, and that isn't me. I may have mentioned before that I have received a lot of criticism from nationalists for my views. I take a lot of flak from both the right and left. Rather, I am someone who tries to analyze society from a variety of perspectives as best I can.

How do you explain 60 years of LDP rule, the rampant cronyism, resistance to change, corruption, low position of women and other minorities and staggering structural problems? One can only assume after DECADES of this that the mass of people here are shouganai when it comes to politics and are easily led by the mainstream media and government.

Political science is not my field, so please forgive my rather amateur approach. I was not criticizing the view that there are major structural problems in Japanese politics -- I agree there are -- but criticizing the idea that the problems in Japan are due to Japanese culture and us Japanese ourselves being fundamentally flawed or primitive, etc. As I see it, I think the answer is more straight-forward. I think the LDP has benefited historically from having a consistent economic position and excellent organizational skills. The opposition has also been divided and unable to offer a compelling counter-narrative, if you will, in response. This means that most voters will go with the "devil they know," especially when they are thinking about their local political representatives, rather than risk supporting a confused and weak opposition party. People are not voting for the LDP because they love the party or agree with all its policies, but because they feel it is simply the only viable option. Corruption is seen as the price we pay for making such a choice.

Again, to be clear, I am not an LDP supporter, and I am not happy with the system as it stands. But stacks of stereotypes about us does nothing to help understand or alleviate the problems.

I agree with goldorak on this point. If we think about voting as an expression of our voice, then people who care about politics enough to choose to go and vote deserve to have their voices heard. People who choose not to participate are making a conscious decision not to contribute to the debate, for whatever reason.

Also, forcing people to vote seems about as undemocratic as we can get. How can we force people to express their opinion if they have chosen to remain silent?

So why can't I comment on the negative aspects? I mean I can't vote anyways, but at least I want to tell and show others what's going wrong. Maybe there will be a change in the future and I can contribute to this change just a little bit. Am I worried about the country I was born? Yes, I sometimes am.

Of course you can comment, and people like me are interested in hearing your thoughts. That's why I come here instead of just sticking to Japanese groups and forums. Some of the posts on stories here have really given me food for thought.

That being said, the whole "Japanese are stupid/sheeple/living in the dark ages" sort of attitude by some posters puts me off. How can we take your views seriously when you start from such an insulting premise?

I'd rather play a game where I can murder the studio people who produce all this idol garbage. Someone please make that game. PLEASE

All this disagreement with the Japanese way of life. Many of us believe we live in an "Enlightened Age" where all the value systems of past generations are misguided. I personally applaud the Japanese for still having a set of values and trying to live by them.

I think, speaking as a Japanese social scientist, that you are celebrating a "Japan" that never existed. The view of the country as a super traditional and respectful society with a strong set of old moral codes and so on is just as stereotypical as the idea that we're all pop idol idiots or perverts. People seem to want to always contrast Japan with other countries to an extreme degree, saying we are either the best or the absolute worst. I think both views are equally silly (which is why even in my professional life I get hated on by both nationalists and so-called internationalists....)

If people want to create fantasy images of Japan in their heads, which both the local and foreign media do, then that's their choice, but enforcing those views on children and demanding they conform to those ideas, especially in their private lives, is misguided.

This sounds Victorian, but Queen Victoria died 115 years ago. Really clashes with the general image of Japan as a relaxed, free-wheeling place where people (including children past puberty) can have sex in a largely non-moralizing environment that prioritizes hedonism over everything else.

Because both images are ridiculous stereotypes and it saddens me when anyone, Japanese or non-Japanese, confuses them with reality.

Sometimes Japan really disgusts me with their stupid nonsense rules.

Wow, generalize much? You know most schools don't do this, right? And that's why the media is running with the story, because people will shake their heads and go WTF?

This school seems to be following the oppressive systems of a long-gone era when students were an elite representing their family honor. We all thought such things were silly and laughed about those stories when our parents told us (I graduated from high school about ten years ago).

I'm shocked and outraged that any contemporary school would still make and enforce such ridiculous rules today. Unbelievable. Unfortunately as some of you noted, if the rule is written down then a judge will probably find in favor of the school.

HS Seniors should be getting a taste of politics, gov, economics and current events affecting the global community.

I completely agree. The general knowledge of politics or social studies among young people is terrible. In my work I often give presentations to communities and people say things like "wow, I had no idea the government worked that way" or "Oh, so that's how taxes work." They never seem to be embarrassed about it!

Music certainly can be political, and indeed some genres are heavily based on political ideas. Music is ultimately a form of expression and the content of that expression could be anything. It should be entirely up to the musicians themselves what they want to deal with in their music.

Internet trolls say mean-spirited things. In other news, rain is wet.

It is very unusual for a drama to run more than one season on Japanese TV.

I don't watch a lot of tv, but this is clearly incorrect.

They restrict leg movement, forcing women to walk pigeon-toe style. They force women to push their leg and knee joints at extreme angles. The "kimono causes bad posture" is a myth, widely spread in modern times by people encouraging western dress. You can't run a marathon in a kimono, sure, but if it is putting great pressure on you or making you walk funny then you aren't wearing it right or don't know what you're doing.

This "JHA" are just trading one silly stereotype for another. Real empowerment is wearing whatever the hell I want to because I want to, not because of social pressure or because someone told me to.

And the silly pigeon-toe thing isn't from kimono, it's a 20th century thing due to girls being told it's "cute" and "feminine" for several generations. Traditional kimono posture emphasizes a gentle, elegant walk, not the silly pigeon walk.

This is just one group claiming to represent survivors. In fact other groups, and individual survivors, said they were pleased with Obama's speech. So be careful not to mistake this group with the "voice of all survivors."

timtak: I think collecting crap is a pretty universal thing and today is encouraged more by consumerism than tradition.

This story made me laugh, though. I wonder how this otaku wannabe master thief got caught :p

It's such a tiny sample size to make such big conclusions. And like some other posters said, I think this is pretty common in Japanese companies in general, not just among women. I think my male coworkers believe we are worse than them at spreading rumors or being petty but I don't think that's true. Is it really better in other countries, though? I've lived and studied overseas but not really worked there so I don't know.

I've been metal my whole life - I even was in a band when I was in my 20's. And I've never felt threatened by anyone claiming to be metal or not. If people want to listen to some music I don't like, it affects my life absolutely none at all.

Well, you're right that I shouldn't care what other people do, but it does affect my life a bit. It's not about being threatened, it's about everyone, including fellow metalheads, thinking that this idol nonsense is "Japanese metal." I have friends in real bands here. My sister plays in a band in the US. But they keep having the same problem. All the time now people are like "wow you're japanese though, shouldn't you be more like Babymetal." Threatening? No. Annoying and embarrassing, as Japanese metal fans? Yes.

I don't listen to music I don't like either, Strangerland. But I'm also a proud metal chick, and seeing these idols claiming to be "metal" is frustrating and embarrassing for me.

They're a Metal band.... they can take it.

They're not a metal band, they're three pop idols backed by a band. Even if it sounds "metally" to you guys, thematically it is just the same silly idol pop. It doesn't justify that idiot being rude, though.

Agree with Wc626. Actually none of the bands listed at the start of the video ("best live band") are metal, although they are at least real bands....