Chris Whitmore comments

Because a swift and proper lockdown and then a strict border control policy making sure that incoming travellers (especially those of Japanese nationality who have, until now, been allowed in willy nilly with zero true controls/tracking on their movement) should have been enacted from the very beginning. Short pain for long term gain.

Instead we have these hand wringing ineffective measures that hold businesses back over a long period of time.

 I will be proud to support a business that does not fall for the fearmongering and cares about their employees livelihoods.

Its not the employees livelihoods this guy cares about, it’s his own bank balance.

I highly doubt they pay their workers any higher than the absolute bare minimum wage they’re legally required to pay them.

So they plan on releasing it a month after Star Wars Episode 8..... Good luck with that.

shonanbbDEC. 16, 2015 - 01:51PM JST

I guess the teacher was having a bad day.

Good day or not, physical violence is not the answer. You don't beat another person because you're having a bad day, you especially don't beat a child.

Most comments here are typical Wrstern Liberal Feminists Did it acure to you that Men and women make different choses in life . Yes it is true that Japan is very Male dominated but also feminism in the west is mostly men - hating >garbage too . Do you want you Govertmenet to become a Politicaly correct sh. hole .?? Do you ? Jobs applications >should be based on Mariet . No gender politics . Are they ambitious effort women out there ? Of course . Do they want to >work 7 days a week . Most women don't !! It's a fact . Most women are happy being a mom and wife and a lady . Just go >to any western country and see all the divorced miserable single mothers and their kids mostly in juvenile jail . Millions >in USA , millions ... Do you really want that in Japan ? Don't !!

What on earth are you even trying to say?

I am a male, and I am a feminist, nobody is saying that all jobs should be 50:50 perfect ratio of men and women, it just isn't possible, but it should be the ideal.

Two people, doing the same job, should be paid the same regardless of their gender.

You ask "do women want to work 7 days a week?", hell, I am a man and I don't want to work 7 days a week, why the hell should anyone have to work 7 days a week? That is ridiculous.

wrong about fertility effect. Promoting gayness will at leadt marginally impact fertility rate. I am straight but if I decide to be gay because it is cool, guess my chance to make kids is reduced no? Rational thinking. It is a society choice. Not bad or good thing.

People don't just ~choose~ to be gay....

Toshiko: My comment is my observation when I was students in Japanese schools l. added Japanese words what Japanese calls gay for generations to explain Japan had gay culture.

Your "theory" about all boy/girl schools "creating" homosexuals is amusing, because it makes the assumption that no students ever come out of co-ed schools being gay..... When I know at least three of my ex-students who have graduated in the past few years from co-ed schools who are openly gay, and who knows how many who aren't open about it.

Yes, I am upset when libs try to preach the acceptance of same-sex to the world. And when you do not agree, suddenly "you" aren't normal anymore.

Again with gusto, you are allowed to have your own freaking opinion, but you don't get to shape the world based on your opinion if that opinion negatively affects others.

People being gay doesn't have any impact on your life, nobody is forcing you to be gay, nobody is forcing you to accept less than other peoples rights, nobody is forcing you to hide who you are from the world.

The conservatives like yourself who don't want homosexuality out in the world, are saying all of that to those who are gay. That they should hide their life away, that they shouldnt be allowed to express themselves exactly like you are allowed to with the person you love.

I'm a straight guy. Is that so "disturbing" nowadays??

You are allowed to feel strange about homosexual art, thats fine, in fact, if you are on the 100% heterosexual side of the Kinsey Scale of human sexuality, then arguably, its not strange for you to feel that way.

Again, your feelings arent under attack, the point is that people who don't sit on the same point as you on the scale, still have a right to live their life the way they wish, as long as that does not hurt anyone else.

People being gay doesn't hurt your ability to be straight. So, why stand in their way just because you think its "gross"?

Turbostat: I'm not in favor of the incremental approach. People should follow the golden rule and stop discriminating. Particularly the apparatchiks.

I mean, neither am I, but really its all that is going to happen. Japan isn't about to change itself overnight completely, sadly we have to just deal with slow and hopeful continual change for the better.

AkulaNOV. 05, 2015 - 03:16PM JST Given Japan's dire demographic situation anything that encourages homosexual relationships is against the national interest. It is disappointing that Shibuya ward has followed through with this.

You act as if gay and lesbian couples would just simply go and marry the opposite sex just to have babies, if they aren't allowed to marry....

There is a logical disconnect there that you aren't seeing...

Wc626NOV. 05, 2015 - 02:50PM JST Heh, why the Life Insurance and Mobile Carrier getting in on the action? Just goes to show that even- they too- will throw their own morals under the bus just to make ends meet and exploit themselves along w gay couples while they're @it.

Allowing same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples is "throwing their morals under the bus"?

You do realise that same-sex relationships weren't uncommon and were open, before the Black Ships came and forced Christian "Morals" on Japan, right?

turbotsatNOV. 05, 2015 - 02:39PM JST That's nice, but why not marriage licenses?

Because it isn't constitutional to issue marriage licenses, so they aren't legally able to.

It would require constitutional amendment to allow same-sex marriage, and while I think they should allow it, I don't see that happening in Japan.... at least not for a very long time.

See the case in the Supreme Court right now about allowing women to remarry immediately after a divorce, or allowing married couples to use different surnames...

YuriOtaniNOV. 04, 2015 - 11:23PM JST

Sorry, not all people like star trek

If you don't like Star Trek.... Why did you feel the need to come and comment on an article about Star Trek.

@YuriOtani,

Really? As opposed to Japanese televisions shows that are all either same-old talking heads variety shows with "celebrities" eating and exclaiming "UMAI" about every bite, or boring J-Romance dramas or samey anime for the last 3 decades?

Come on, Japan does TV badly.... There hasn't been a Star Trek series on Television for a decade, and you claim that they "can't come up with something original"? Kay.

Then I kindly suggest you never bring up the Holocaust when discussing the issue of military brothels.

nigelboy, I think the person who brought up the Holocaust was you, he was comparing the military brothels run by the Nazi's and then ones run by the Imperial Armed Forces, saying that the Japanese claiming it was normal/okay because other people were doing it too. It is the logic of a toddler, "It's okay that I stole this cookie Mummy! Because Timmy did it too!", is the logic employed by prominent nationalists and revisionists.