Chibakun comments

News flash, Japan's birthrate hits a new record low.

Japanese seem obsessed with the glory of past. How rich they used to be before their bubble burst. It's like all those people need to die before the narrative can change.

Japan has an aging infrastructure and it needs major repair.

45,000 bridges and tunnels are waiting for repairs. The figure represents 60% of the structures cited nationwide for restoration.

As soon as you get out of Tokyo into the suburbs there's lots of "rotting" infrastructure

Avoiding middle-aged white guys.

That's brilliant

These days it's hard to think of Japanese products that are reasonably priced compared to other brands. Japanese electronics appear more expensive than the competition. Their cars are as much as German ones. They seem to have lost their angle.

I listened to him speak English and it's not too bad.

Raising interest rates is going to expose all the zombie companies limping along.

Tourists say yay, English teachers cry.

They don’t sweat it. They’re “too big to fail.”

I think you're right, you can never imagine the headline that Toyota went bankrupt.

As of February 2023, the Japanese car manufacturer Toyota was the company with the highest debt worldwide, amounting to 217 billion U.S. dollars. 

Their products are as expensive German ones are in the UK and only make sense if you keep the vehicle for 10 years or something. You can lease an Audi for the same price, which one would you have given that it'll be under warranty the entire time you own it...

If I'm penny pinching I'll have a used Toyota though.

An extra 14,000 yen for JA to Europe. Is that per leg, so 28,000 on a return ticket?

Japan knows a bit about collective punishment

This truly is as infinite feud.

They are throwing good money after good money away. Raise the interest rates and that will resolve part of the problem with the weakness of the yen but until they do that nothing will change.

Won't raising rates highlight all the zombie company's though?

How are you supposed to collect tax revenue for cash in hand business?

I fee for the lower wage earners. Can you imagine being an ALT now for one of the 2 outsource companies who haven’t changed their salaries in years.

Not really. They come to Japan for an experience for a year, it's not a career job. Anyone that goes to university and then goes on to accept a job for $USD 20k needs their head looking at.

That's an easy to answer question. It just needs more younger people preferably by more childbirths and the government can do nothing about that, the population has to do that.

Not really, a child conceived today wouldn't be an adult until say 2045, which is kind of too late.

Find a partner or spouse and cut your housing expenses in half.

Except if it results in children

He's slept with 1000+ women, what percentage are unhappy?

Presumably all claiming pensions, must be a massive cost. How Japan doesn't collapse I don't know...

I think he wants a younger model

Not good for countries finances.

I think there are many Chinese doing this already, you just might not realise.

What's the average age?

Why not just make him wear ankle bracelet so his movements can be tracked?

30 years in prison should be for murderers only, like Lucy Letby for example.

It probably costs as much as Rolls Royce so may as well just get a roller. I mean rich people don't need to worry about reliability so much.

Sure, if you get paid a UK salary in Japan. Everything is cheap then.

Agreed, I barely work 35 hours a week for 8M gross salary. That's part time Japanese hours.

Impossible to believe that anyone would work for such an appallingly low wage. I don't believe it.

The salary hasn't even changed and people are queuing up to go to Japan.

I actually know some guy who's been there since 2008 earning 3M per annum, working the same job for literally 12+ years.

Contrast this to the UK where inflation is sky high and the economy is barely growing. Even the population of the UK increased and the GDP didn't increase.

I've not seen the yen at 185 to the pound for a long time. 12 years ago I worked as an English teacher for 3M per year which now seems an incredibly low wage. I understand those salaries haven't changed much since.

Seems like the whole idea of writing essays and handing them in to be read and marked is dead for ever.

How long before authors are feeding all their works into LLMs and producing new works, slapping their name on it and selling it.

University's are like the music industry when Napster came along.

I've always suspected Japanese cars look like the centre of gravity is a bit higher and that they might topple easily.