Cos comments

movie theaters will go out of business?

They DID. You have what 5% left compared to the 60's. Those that exist now are a different concept, closer to an amusement park, in suburbs with sound too loud, junk food and movies mostly for teens. So it's possible other new concepts appear in the future. Maybe something like karaoke box but for movies, so if you don't have the giant screen at home, you can go with a few friends.

Did they sue Michael Jackson when he died?

Yes, they did.

Even if he was just "not in the mood", that was still better to cancel than to have do a terrible performance. I'm sure the promoters of the last concerts with Amy Whinehouse really lost money as the audience asked money back after, and they got cancellations for the next events... They had to cancel Japan + Korea to save the US tour.

Nikkan Gendai notes that promoters are able to reduce their risks to some degree by taking out insurance against cancellation of events; but even then it is rare for the insurers to cover all the losses.

It's even rarer than that don't cover the losses. they'd go out of business. There would no longer be one promoter in activity on the planet. That's not "losses" the article is presenting, that's costs. They do thousands of concerts a year, some nights they are "in red" and sometimes, they make indecently huge benefits, but they can't have the jackpots without the others. That's how business works. They calculate losses/gains on the average. My ex-boss was in that industry too, and the "average" benefit for bringing Western stars to tour in Japan made 80% of his fortune (for 20% of his effort), even if he got all the diva cancellations you can imagine.

good luck getting a refund.

Unless you have bought fake tickets on internet or in some dark back alley, there should be no problem. That said, they will refund only tickets, not the hotel/train for the fans that traveled for the event on their own. For those that had a travel agency package, that depends on the deal.

Butter has lots more uses than just spreading on bread.

Marlon Brando to Maria Schneider.

Azuki beans are tasty for sweet confection, No butter needed to cook.

You've not visited Japan since 1910 ? 1948 ?

Butters imported must be used for something else in food industry.

Probably 80% for sweets, cakes, danish, kashipan, shokupan... that so many get for any meal, for snacks, all day. It's like in other country, industry has won, the mass buy, eat, sh*t, repeat.

How can people like that exist in 21st century ?Then he'll suggest comfort women ? Slaves ?

3% of Hongkong population are foreign "DOMESTIC HELPERS" from SEA. Why can't Japan import some?

Bring us example of Middle-East too, while you're at it. You mean Japan could also get back some colonies maybe ?

more working women = less babies.

Japan has no risk. They already have less babies than anyone else. And already nearly all women are working (even if it's for peanuts at baitos). Women getting better jobs, better income cannot hurt.

Gee, I have an idea, why you does't Japan start paying kindy/daycare workers a decent wage so that Japanese women would actually want to do this job?

Most parents cannot afford it, particularly at the Japanese rate/conditions. But then, in many countries, the state gives some financial help (tax credit or whatever) to help families cover baby-sitting and to all families to hire help for home-keeping /gardening/elderly... That also creates jobs for the helpers, and for many are women that can support a family on that income. That creates a whole service industry now lacking in Japan. But Abe thinks new base-ball clubs would be better.

once the kids are in school there's no reason any woman shouldn't work if she chooses to.

There is a reason : other women's job are not a flexible freelance job at home with a hubby well-paid civil servant back at home at 5:30 every evening. It's great if your couple could do that. That's impossible for 99% of families. For jobs that are not mini-baitos, they all have some schedule that make it impossible for parents to start at 10 a.m. and finish at 2 pm and bring/pick kids at school everyday, plus go shopping/run errands at opening hours, etc. So parents need some kind of help. Help is not putting kids in foster families.

Or is this a cover story for something else going on?

Yes, that covers canceling flights they won't make enough money on as not enough tickets were sold. Offer much to big for the low demand. But the staff shortage issue does exist because airlines don't bother to hire and train new pilots (they want cheap part-times that arrive already trained and whose contracts can be canceled when plains are not full... to save $$).

I thought Kinki Bank would have started...

.it should be the critics and moviegoers who qualify the work...

They can and they will. But she is entitled to an opinion about her movie. I've often talked with artists that said "this one was a huge success but I am not happy about my work... and that other one is perfect for me but the audience doesn't like it". I understand the feeling as I have had the same many times even if I don't work in anything artistic.

Cannes, where all weird movies go to receive praise from the pretentious art crowd.

It's not perfect, It's surely not enough considering certain cultures but they are at least trying. You prefer Tokyo film festival where all Japanese big major company get together to dispatch rewards to only their own products, no matter the quality ? Or you mean Academy awards that do roughly the same ? No idea who will get the golden leaf, but at least they won't have it just because their agency is Johnny's or because their commercial partner is Weinstein's.

Might not be zero business sense in Japan, the land of shame.

With double standard. This guy would hurt only himself, he is not yet judged, and his work is not related to his legal problems.... But in the same country freaks convicted of terrorism. rape and murders can publish books on their exploits and do the TV show tours to promote if they get out of jail.

Those who benefited from the ethnic cleansing were seen enjoying coffee on street corners.

Plus a few military that on "business trip". Just like in Vienna in March 1938. Burning Bush, you say what ?

for her 15 minutes of fame

Charles has had 65 yrs of fame with no more added value. And the difference is this lady talks for herself, she is accountable for it and not pulling a whole nation into diplomatic troubles.

privately.

The bedroom videos of his son were private, OK. Here, that was Charles' official performance. The conversation was not filmed for TV broadcast, but that was still in public, in a public place... What do they find private ? Private lack of sense ?

And he said it as if he thought that was a bad thing ? That's not obvious in his family...

Hirose, who was apprehended on the school premises, was quoted by police as saying he wanted to wear a girl’s gym uniform.

Had they waited a few days, they'd have found a taller figure in the ranks at the gym class...

Tell me which Japanese companies have earned record profits?

The old big kaisha have ceased to be the main employers.... well, no they never were, and you're right, they are not doing great. But you can't say nobody builds fortunes on sweat shops : All the chains in service industries. Like fast-foods that employ mostly (if not exclusively) people paid at the hour at lower rate and conditions possible. The new form of exploitation is not a consequence of the low economy, it started when Japan was super-rich. In bubble area, they were justifying the underpayment as in most families there was a husband/dad/uncle that had a bread-winner income so all the wives and freeter relatives didn't need to be paid enough to pay rent-food-utilities. And nobody complained even they knew that was not normal. Now, look at this lady, the dad with his salary+ bonus has vanished, her other male relatives have forgotten her and she has to live on "pocket money" with a teen.

My point is I dont think its all doom and gloom for Japanese. I was told by a Japanese that the homeless here can get free shelter and job counseling; its just many dont want it

That's why it is gloom. They can't accept the help because they would end in an even deeper misery. In Osaka, they've put the shelters in the middle of nowhere out of the city very far away (like 1 hour of train, and no, you can't cycle) and they have rule like 19th century school dormitory. It's just to clean the streets of the view of homeless. Because all the homeless have their social networks and jobs in town, often at night picking garbage or being giving meal/stuff for helping friends, so when they stay in the shelter they can't work at all, then there are the problems that initially caused their social fall (weird behavior, booze..90% of them !) , that makes life in dorm complicated at best. So they are told to leave after the first incident... And politicians and top civil servants can say "look, we have been nice to them ! "

Child poverty ...trips to a nearby park to get water.

Japan has one child for each limousine onsen bus full of rich oldies... and they manage to have poor children that can't get tap water.

if she work for 10 hrs everyday, she'd be earning more... So, really it's only her to be blame

You think she chooses how many hours of work she is given ? Care for elderly, it's typically the kind of job where they tell you to pass at 7 a.m then again at noon then at 9 p.m. to help the person 1 hour each time, so you do that 7 days a week, you're paid 21 hours, but the next week, they call you for only 2 hours in total.Why some workers accept ? Because they have that or no job at all. And the employers want to have 5 or 6 persons like that, that can call any day/hour, instead of hiring two full-time employees : they'd have to give a regular schedule, days off, even pay the full salary on months with less business.

The problem is squarely with Japan's private-sector employers

Maybe she's working for a public hospital. They use the "part-time" workers the same way. As what they do is perfectly legal, employers won't change their ways as long as the law is not forcing them or Japanese economy and society get completely ruined (which is likely to happen before sounds reforms).

why don't you see more doctors recommending it for a daily diet.

Roughly 80% of doctors praise the Mediterranean diet, particularly to avoid "clogged arteries". You can get a 1 tbs or two of oil dressing every day, and a couple of egg yolks a week, so mayo at each meal can be totally reasonable (depending on what you have with it). Cold pressed olive or walnut oil and organic eggs we mean, it's year lights away from the horrible kewpie ingredients in a plastic container that is probably Seveso level for chemicals.

you may learn the secret of its deliciousness.

The open secret of that unpleasant after-taste is MSG.

ANA has always incredible pretexts to cancel flights when they see they are not full enough.

All Nippon Airways (ANA), will cut 154 flights....the cancellations would affect more than 2,500 passengers who have made reservations for the month. ...Passengers will be guaranteed a seat with another airline

That makes about 16 passengers per flight. That's the true reason for cancelation.

60 have left? It's not like it's a big airline, either.

So they were hired to do 2 domestic flights a month　at minimum rate ?

Something is missing in this story. What happen to the second officer and his gun?

3 birds on a tree branch, you shoot once and one falls, how many left up there ? Seriously, it's written he arrested the violent guy.

So we are reopening the can of worms.

40,000 men were taken to Japan against their will to work

And at least 40 millions others (or the same) taken by their Chinese buddies a few years later.

about 700 plaintiffs lodged a case against

So Chinese government should face what ? 700 000 complaints ?

the Chinese were made to work more than 12 hours a day without breaks and that they were tortured if they resisted.

Please, check the labels of the clothes you are wearing and objects around you and tell me who made them ? Are you sure these workers are not forced to work more than 12 hrs a day, not using coal from mines where young people get killed or mess their lungs routinely ? I would really wish the energy was used to help these people out of the hell they are living now... instead of trying to create a new conflict and get cash, using the past.

Usually that's a package, you get all that together, they work as a team. Other : Paranoiac, intrusive, time consuming and probably useless security procedures and rules. Over-booking. Canceled flights (particularly when you get stranded in some place not even on your planned route, not given information and you can't even contact people that are worrying for you). Lack of transparency and communication about problems (when they reschedule, change route, delay, lose your stuff... or lose a whole plane like the Malaysian one). The infamously cramped conditions in planes and unequipped airport halls where they make you wait long hours in transit or during bad weather.

Air travel in Asia is set to take off as growing middle classes take to the skies, prompting increasing competition for well-heeled passengers, and industry expert

The expert is not able to figure out that the Chinese students and families doing their first overseas trip on a budget . the people that are traveling in the economy class, they are the soon-to-be wealthy middle class... They will be able to choose to avoid Air France for themselves. And the most successful will also avoid it for business trips of the tens of thousands employees of the company they'll manage.

What silence ? She's told her non-story in media for decades, but her show interests nobody. It seems not everybody can be a Kardashian.

I just decide not to include Asia and Africa in the calculations, as per your implication that these regions represent statistical outliers.

Classy discussions you're having guys... Lots of of difference is genetic and people don't chose. A 198 cm Russia man can be sickly underweight, just skin and bones, and a 130 cm Vietnamese lady can be very obese... and he won't fit in the "average seat" and won't be in the "normal weight range" , while she will probably. What do you call it when prices are calculated depending on people's ethnicity and DNA ?

if your hips are wider than 92 cm, you feel "squeezed". Is that the definition of "overweight" ? Yes, you probably are a little.

I was not asking about your preference (as interesting it can be it's OT here). 92 cm is size M for women, in clothing industry, a standard established in pre-obesity era. The 16 inch seats are designed for women size S. We are not talking "super-obese" extreme cases, I'm pointing that's everybody or his auntie that doesn't fit in "standard seats" of 21st century.

if we were to we look at the actually methodology used to decide seat sizing and spacing.

The methodology is double. PRIMO : FILL MORE. Tthey had 30 rows of 8 seats and reasonable space to walk in the alley. Then a genius said "Mmmm, we can reduce the padding of the wall of 1/2 inch each side, reduce the alley of 5 inches, each seat of 3 inches, space the arm rest bar between seats, reduce space leg, get rid of useless space for hand luggage... and I put you 35 rows of 10 seats. 240 seats >> 350 seats ! INCREASED PROFITS. $$$ These 350 bring more luggage weight and we have less cargo space for profit ? No wait, let's tell the passengers they have to get smaller hand luggage, smaller checked luggage allowance (so we charge excess luggage to more people). $$$ SEGUNDO : BULLY PASSENGERS INTO PAYING MORE. Make a mega fuss in media about the case of super-obeses, so everybody says you are so right. Then tell average people they have become FAT, that they should feel ashamed to bother other people, so they should pay 2 seats if they don't want to live a torture. Or pay even more if they want to be able walk in the alley (instead of crawling through it with their bag on the head in cattle class). $$$ Of course, they now that even the skinny small framed backpackers have never traveled in so bad conditions. That's the plan : they want a maximum of people to find the cattle class so hard on the body, so they will beg to upgrade (for a fee !) even if they need to sell a kidney for that. $$$

The difference between a passenger weighing 70 kg and a passenger weighing 100kg is the difference of roughly 0.01% of the MAXIMUM flight capacity for an aircraft. The additional fuel costs may add up to...a few cents? Maybe a dollar?

EXACTLY. It's to get more profits. People wouldn't accept that from any other businesses.

There's nothing ridiculous at all about airlines perhaps basing their fares on an average size

Then make people test their lung capacity, so they should be surcharged if they breath too much... . What is scary is the same management is trusted to make planes fly safely ! Like that Malaysian Airlines Jet where it seems they had switched of the GPS to save on the batteries...as they cut absolutely every corner.

I am lucky that I am little: 5' 2 " (157 cm). I have lots of leg-room and feel quite comfortable in economy seats.

I'm like you and I had that leg-room on all airlines 20 yrs ago. Now on some of them I have just enough when the person before reclines the seat. So anybody taller than us would have to pay 2 seats to obtain more leg space ? And if they are wide, they will need to pay 4 seats ?

if you can't FIT in a normal size seat

It was measured that for a seat of 17.5 inches, if your hips are wider than 92 cm, you feel "squeezed". Is that the definition of "overweight" ?

Which is a "normal size seat" :

AA - 18.2 CO - 17.9 SQ - 777-200 17.5; 777-300 18 KLM - 17.5 BA - 17.5 DL - 17 KAL - 17 EK - 17 ANA -- 16.5

The average in 1950 was 17 inches, for new planes delivered in 2013, that was 16 inches. While in 1950, the average passenger was 14 inches and now it's over 15 inches. The expert recommendation is to set 18 inches as a norm.

unless they are communist,

France is communist precisely. Not as much as North Korea, but way more than China. Nothing is made without the government. 20% of workers, civil servants. 20% unemployed (like inactive civil servants). Countless elected people paid, and not required to work either (most European MPs just take the money and never go to any meeting). The% of pensioners is huge too. We've passed 50%, haven't we ? Add all the companies subcontracting public services (private schools and hospitals get the bulk of their income from the state) and building stuff for the public. Maybe you think that stops here, but no, there are multiple public financial incentives to favor this or that, to make companies settle here or there, too many to list. And the crazy regulations that makes you can't move a foot without 5 official stamps.

Governments cannot

That's Hollande's excuse for doing nothing. If the successive governments never reform the system that blocks it all, how could " the economy do its thing" ? But look at it : the problem is similar in Japan, the country is locked in its archaisms, even if it's in a different pattern, and Abe carefully avoids any structural reform (nothing that would effect the energetic situation/nuke dependency, the demographic issue...). Both Abe and Hollande will leave office with absolutely nothing done.

Abe must have had his tongue firmly in his cheek when he said this.

Yes, but not more than when he boasted about his abenomics and effort in relations with China.

Separated at birth ? It seems both guys have only one other person praising their politics !

No. I don't see why they should charge in addition, that would like the companies that charge if you use the toilets on board. The fares are high enough.

I would say airlines should start providing a row of "super fatty" seats

They should provide a variety of seats. For instance, have a few ranks that can modulated in length/width/height. You don't have to be "super fatty" to get too tight in standard size, just moderate overweight (that many get as they age) makes it uncomfortable. Tall people also get problems to fit whatever their BMI. So do people with different types of disability, and that can be you if during your next trip, you break your arm and try to come back with your return flight. And children would be better in children seats... I mean maybe 60% of passengers are OK with the standard offer, so they could start thinking about the other 40%.

I'm not talking about earthquake preparedness at all

OK, but priority is to give warning in time to persons in danger. And TV/radio is no longer the most efficient (before Kobe, they thought it was enough, then they've changed the alert process). Maybe in the future, they'll suggest everybody get some kind of smart phone with GPS signal, for better change of instant warning and rescue.

would be unable to get her earthquake info from JMA,

It's not the sole source, but the only complete and real time one. Your MIL doesn't need so much information. She can surely find articles with summaries over a period of times. And when she is particularly interested in a quake she has felt, even if she has not internet, she can ask people that do.

which someone suggested above should be the only source of info about an earthquake the size of the one we had yesterday.

It was suggested that didn't need to be in national news. It's true that if there was a quake that collapsed 3 barns in Hokkaido that can be in the local paper and local TV only. And that's the case, no ? But well, if the barns happen to be in Tokyo or Fukushima, no matter what the OP thinks, there will be buzz about it, so that has to be reported by NHK, just after Mr Abe's visit to the Louvre museum (and we're glad to hear that neither of these events caused big damages).

if they don't report on it on TV or in the newspaper?

When it's on TV and newspapers, it's too late.

How are people like my mother-in-law to find out if

She is new to Japan ? Otherwise last month or last January (they publish the booklet yearly), she'd have received the updated information from her City Hall, with explanations about their disaster prep'', telling her to get her medicines and stuff in a bag and obey when given evacuation order to designed area (they usually provide a map). It's the mawarisan, helped with a number of volunteer residents that dispatches the information locally to each house. In addition, most towns now have loudspeakers.

He seems like he would be lost without his job.

Without his job ? Women I know say wouldn't consider a jobless man as a marriage prospect.... except rich ladies of a certain age that are on the market for a toyboy.

We had absolutely no intention of forcing people to disclose

What was the intention ? Workers are asked to pass medical check ups for that reason, they give the information to doctors only. Doctors that are bound by medical secret. But that's surely not the business of "local job-placement offices" .