David Brent comments

Man, I would have buried it in my garden for a year, then used it to pay off some debts.

Never ceases to amaze me how juvenile Japanese high school students are compared to their age group back home.

One sad thing about this is all the woods and farmland they are currently flattening in preparation of the new fab. It used to be a lovely part of my drive each day.

Japan simply cannot compete with the likes of Samsung or Hynix, or TSMC. All semiconductor engineers I speak to know this....except the Japanese ones.

The prices are absolutely ridiculous.

Currently 140 yen per liter where I fill up my car.

independent external directors

LOL! These do not exist in Japan.

99% of people who "don't want the vaccine" are thick and/or conspiracy theorists. I don't want such people teaching or caring for my loved ones anyways. Enjoy unemployment!

I must have about eight Japanese credit cards. I apply for them to get the points at all the different places I regularly shop. I have never encountered any problems in getting a card, even when I didn't have PR.

They are already clearing the land for the new fab. I work next door and drive by every day.

I would much rather live and work in Texas as opposed to California. Way nicer people for one.

At least the black bears end up on the table (delicious, had it a few times now in Hokkaido)!

Black bears don't live in Hokkaido.

It's sad. The police will contact local "hunters", who will then shoot them due to "public safety". They do it all the time with black bears here.

You did not because they would never get planning for it. What you might've seen them build is a metal frame steel reinforced breeze block building but no way a brick house, that'd be suicide. If it looks like a brick house it will be brick effect siding panels.

Here, you don't need to apologize:

http://www.kenbrick.co.jp/column/%E3%83%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AC%E3%81%AE%E5%AE%B6%E3%82%92%E5%BB%BA%E3%81%A6%E3%81%9F%E3%81%84%EF%BC%81

There are no brick houses in Japan.

Oh, really? So I didn't just see my neighbors building a brick house next to mine then? Zichi, do you even live in Japan?! Clueless.

After all the Kumamoto earthquakes, I got so sick of the alarms that I edited the app settings so that I would only be disturbed in the case of a "weak-6" or more on the Japanese scale. Anything less is more an annoyance than a danger, especially inside a modern Japanese structure. Yesterday's quake was M5.9 at 80km depth?! Pfft! Try M7.2 at 10km depth!

Unions in Japan are meaningless though. Still, hope she enjoys her new job.

Anyone familiar with the whole Olympus scandal knows that Japanese companies operate with some of the shadiest accounting and financing schemes in the developed world.

I enjoyed it mostly, but you can tell the wokes and luvvies had a heavy hand in the script and direction. James Bond shaking hands with the sexiest actress in the movie? Huh? Craig is an awesome Bond, but bring back Bond as written my Fleming, for goodness sake!

The company I work at just hired a new guy in his thirties for an engineering role. His salary is ¥165,000 per month. Even doubling that is still crap wages. Nothing will ever change in this country in any meaningful way.

Imagine not being able to have fun unless you can drink alcohol. Pretty sad state of affairs.

How is this even news? “Rich, powerful people in dodgy property deals! Read all about it!”.

@commanteer : I should have written “meaningful” state of emergency. Life in Fukuoka has been the same the past two years; people going to work, public transport still being used, all shops open etc..

Here in Fukuoka, we never had a state of emergency, so nothing has really changed in the last two years.

In the UK, we have a satirical magazine called Private Eye, the likes of which would never ever be allowed to be published in Japan.

His longevity has nothing to do with the upcoming election; that's already in the bag anyways. The election just serves as a pretense to the Japanese people that they live in a functioning democracy. Rather, his longevity rests on how long the people who put him in power decide to keep him in power.

With the election of this unique, inspiring, not-at-all-like-every-other-male-politician candidate, Japan can look forward to all its problems being solved! :/

They won’t win.

Here in Fukuoka we never had anything remotely approaching a "lock down", so life will continue as normal. What about other parts of Japan?

Well, Kishida and Edano are still in the run, are they?

Err, they are not even in the same party! lol