David Brent comments

Numbers this large are meaningless. ¥1.2 quadrillion. That can never be paid back. It’s literally impossible.

Travel agency? Do they still exist?

They certainly still exist in the land of the fax machine, and they make good business ripping off older Japanese people who cannot use the Internet to find much cheaper deals.

I booked my recent return flights to the UK from Japan using an online agency and it was only 152,000 yen.

Of course, I avoided using rip-off JAL or ANA, and instead opted for a major Asian airline instead.

For how many decades now have rich countries been providing African countries with billions of dollars and all sorts of support for infrastructure and medicines etc.? And they still cannot create functioning countries. You have to start looking at the root cause, as unpleasant as it may be.

Because in Japan, fire in Japan so unique can only be extinguish by Japanese person who were raised and born in Japan. 

A non-Japanese friend of mine once went to rent a little allotment where he could grow a few vegetables as a hobby garden. The local JA were reluctant to rent to him because he “might not know how to dig holes the Japanese way”. I’m not making this up.

Just my kokumin kenko hoken is 9man a month.

This is why so many people choose to work for a company they hate over being self-employed. The fact that my company covers half my health insurance and pension costs is one of the main reasons I don't go self-employed.

 snow accumulation of at least 1 centimeter

Talk about armageddon.

For me, like many people I know, it comes down to a simple choice:

1) Have a somewhat comfortable life childless, with the ability to save some money, take a vacation etc..

2) Have kids, but always be struggling financially.

She's not really in charge though. Guaranteed there's an old Japanese man higher up than her making the final decision on everything.

God damn alligator bit off his hand!

Not surprised with the ridiculous prices they charge.

"I myself had no legal authority, so I had to let him have his way," Noda said.

Jesus wept. This is so Japanese.

Are people lining this streets with $1 bills?

I miss roundabouts like back in the UK. They keep traffic moving.

I realize that they wouldn't work in Japan though. Almost every Japanese person I speak to about the merits of roundabouts replies that they are "scary".

Given how widespread and accepted prostitution is in Japan, I'm amazed any action was even taken.

I hope their situation improves soon. I saw on the news the 3 or more types of temporary housing that will be built for them, I assume for free. They small apartments are actually really nice and better than what most people live in in Tokyo.

I remember here after the Kumamoto earthquakes back in 2016, many people who lost their homes, and who had no earthquake insurance, ended up with very nice little houses far superior to their previous hovels, all at taxpayers' expense.

The imbalance is unacceptable and will at some point lead to an explosive readjustment.

Won't happen. We're living inside Brave New World. As long have people have alcohol, social media etc., they'll just continue walking blinkered through life.

Nice payday! Can't imagine Musk is worrying about his shakihoken or pension payments!

TSMC's first plant, a wafer factory

Who researches these articles?

The company is called JASM, not TSMC.

And a "wafer" factory? That would be a company like SUMCO, not JASM!

Man, they really need to address the traffic issue in this area.

We now have three massive fabs in the pipeline (one already built by JASM, a second one coming from JASM as per this article, plus SONY are building another one just up the road!).

I've worked at/with several Japanese manufacturing companies over many years. They all cheat on data.

During his speech, Aso, 83,

Why is he still "working" at 83?

There were some weird decisions made by the Lions head coach during their game.

Trainees from Vietnam. Indonesia, Myanmar etc would presumably love the opportunity to drive the Shinkansen for 5 years

This will never happen. It's hard enough for a regular Japanese train driver to become a shinkansen driver. There's no way a foreigner will be allowed to do this.

How could this guy could live with his conscience all these years with knowing he killed 8 people and hurt so many more.

Japan is not a "guilt" culture; it is a "shame" culture. As long as you don't get caught, there's no guilt to trouble his conscience.

I think he needs gout treatment for his sausage fingers.

There isn't a labour shortage in Japan. If there were, wages would be increasing; it's simple economics.

Can you imagine the horror?

And the vast majority of them are earning less than ¥200,000 per month, before taxes and other deductions.

The abject state of it.

Michael Leitch was accepted as the captain of Japanese National Rugby team. Why the uproar in this case?

And he's not Japanese either. He's a Japanese passport holder though. What's your point?