Derek Grebe comments

Posted in: Ex-LDP lawmaker gets suspended sentence for vote buying in mayoral election See in context

I wish I had LDP privileges.

Do whatever you like, get caught, found guilty and get straight back out there for a taxpayer-funded booze-up.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Posted in: Hiroshima grapples with 'Oppenheimer' Oscars success See in context

Why are the powers that be so obsessed with deciding they know best what Japanese moviegoers should and shouldn’t be allowed to watch?

The multiple Oscar winning film is available to buy overseas, for those who still enjoy physical media.

Here, we’re still wringing our hands about whether or not it’s suitable.

Release the film. If Japanese moviegoers want to see it, they will buy their tickets and make up their own minds about the merits of the picture.

Or might it offer unwelcome competition against a Crayon Shin-Chan film which has been churned out?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: Trump calls Oscars ceremony 'disjointed, boring and very unfair' See in context

Trump is such a whining little crybaby.

How anyone could look at this fragile-feeling, thin-skinned rapist with half a billion in felony charges, with 91 further felonies to come, and mistake him for the potential Leader of the Free World bewilders me.

-5 ( +17 / -22 )

Posted in: Elderly driver hits 2 pedestrians, killing one, near Nara temple See in context

he inadvertently stepped on the accelerator, mistaking it for the brake pedal

Well, isn't that a total surprise?

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Posted in: Japan's industry minister reprimands TEPCO president over radioactive water leak at Fukushima plant See in context

Crikey, Mr. Saito, tread softly and choose your words carefully.

Remember, you've got that Amakudari position to think about. Don't want to get the big boys displeased with you.

-6 ( +9 / -15 )

Posted in: 'Oppenheimer' wins 7 awards, including best picture, at British Academy Film Awards See in context

And we still can’t see it in Japan.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Posted in: 70% of tsunami-risk areas in Japan have never conducted winter shelter drills See in context

Now why am I not surprised?

As with so many other LDP schemes, I would not be remotely surprised if it turned out that there has been a budget to prepare for basics such as beds and heating, and it’s been misappropriated by the good old boys for unspecified (ie corrupt) purposes.

The electorate is an open wallet for these thieves.

And you can bet, when the tsunami does hit, they’ll be straight out pleading for us to dig deep to help them in their hour of unforseeable need.

Steal, do nothing, then play the victim. It’s the LDP modus operandi.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Posted in: Japan, now world's No. 4 economy, on steep road to reverse low growth See in context

Japan, now world's No. 4 economy, on steep road to reverse low growth

Correction: Japan, now world’s No. 4 economy, accelerating on slippery slope to total collapse due to decades of mismanagement by complacent, corrupt and incompetent LPD monolith which can’t understand that it’s no longer 1986.

-7 ( +5 / -12 )

Posted in: 88-year-old woman arrested for dangerous driving after hitting 3 children See in context

Don’t tell me - she mistook the gas pedal for the brake?

Lucky nobody was killed, but it’s no thanks to this careless obatarian.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

Posted in: Japan slips into recession, becoming 4th-largest economy, behind U.S., China and Germany See in context

A great triumph for Kishidanomics indeed.

LDP takes Japan back down the hole of decline and what will change?

Not a damn thing.

5 ( +17 / -12 )

Posted in: Scientists breed 1st pigs for human organ transplants in Japan See in context

You can put me down for a few of these. I'll have my Sunday fry-up, then send me in for a new heart and liver.

Waste not want not.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Posted in: If you live in Japan, what are some items you always make a point to bring back to Japan after you return from a trip abroad? See in context

Oxo cubes.

Piccalilli.

Various seeds for my roof garden, for a good fragrance in the pleasant weather.

Antiperspirant, which does a substantially better job at keeping my shirts in one piece than Japanese deodorant does during the hellish summer months.

Anti-inflammatory cream for my incipient arthritis.

A separate suitcase full of salt and vinegar crisps for my daughter, for whom it serves as a Proustian memory of long summers spent in Wales with her grandparents, now both gone, who delighted in every moment they were able to spend together when she was a child and the world was a happier place.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Posted in: What to stream this week: 'Young Sheldon,' Amy Schumer, 'Oppenheimer' and lots and lots of JLo See in context

headed to a device near you.

Not if you live in Japan they’re not. No Oppenheimer here.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Posted in: 87% of Japan firms say paternity leave averages less than 3 months See in context

When my daughter was born I was allowed to leave early, but expected to be back at work the following day.

I also had to make up the hours I’d missed.

There was not one millisecond of service sangyo done from that day onwards.

5 ( +10 / -5 )

Posted in: 2025 Osaka Expo operating expenses up 1.4-fold on rising labor costs See in context

What an unpredictable surprise.

I didn’t know labour costs had increased by 40%.

I don’t know anyone who has received a 40% pay increase in the last six months.

Why, it’s almost as if they got away with bilking us for the olympics and are running exactly the same playbook again.

Say it isn’t so?

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Posted in: Snowfall leaves more than 130 injured in Tokyo See in context

Last night it snowed.

Today we had slush.

A lot of people chose the talisman of the umbrella long after precipitation ceased over suitable footwear.

They fell down and got in the news.

Boo hoo.

For a place which makes such a huge deal about living in harmony with their unique Four Seasons, it baffles me that wintry weather in winter can be such an unimaginable crisis.

-10 ( +5 / -15 )

Posted in: Classified Japanese diplomatic info leaked after Chinese cyberattacks in 2020 See in context

Does anybody else remember Sakurada, the Minster for Cybersecurity who admitted he'd never once even used a computer?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/15/japan-cyber-security-ministernever-used-computer-yoshitaka-sakurada

If these are the kind of apparatchik dopes the LDP is putting in charge of protecting our data, we shouldn't be surprised if the Chinese couldn't tell us what colour underpants we're wearing.

A pound to a penny says every scrap of info on the My Number boondoggle is already in CCP hands.

-3 ( +6 / -9 )

Posted in: Kishida cabinet support rate falls to 2nd-lowest 24.5% See in context

So lo? After everything he’s done for us? Such as…er…said things and stuff?

But it makes not a jot of difference. Whether Kishida stays in the job with an approval rate which, were it an annual performance assessment on any actual worker would get him/her fired, or if he gets replaced by another empty LDP vessel with no intention to change anything, the LDP will win by a landslide in the next election.

Democracy just didn’t happen here.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Posted in: Biden to host Kishida for state visit in April See in context

Will Kishida still be in office in April?

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Posted in: Gov't estimates Japan quake damage will reach ¥2.6 tril See in context

I wonder how much of this calculation was based on no-bid, LDP/Yak cabal contracts?

How much of this is going to be spent on genuine reconstruction, and how much goes in kickbacks?

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Posted in: Kishida vows to reshape LDP by moving away from faction system See in context

And exactly how is Kishida, with months left in his role before he is inevitably deposed, going to impose his diktat on the eminence grise Aso (who has already made it quite clear that his faction is staying put)?

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Posted in: Aso to keep faction within Japan ruling party despite funds scandal See in context

And in other “what did you expect?” news, bear uses sylvan area for lavatorial purposes.

In a way I suppose it’s good to see that the malignant heart of the LDP is unwilling to even pretend that there’s any genuine intention to reform the profound corruption.

Not that it makes the slightest jot of difference. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see, once Kishida is deposed, Aso gets another crack of the whip, calls a snap election and gets a landslide victory.

Some electorates never learn.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Posted in: ‘I never lost a fight against a man’: The story of the only woman to join Japan’s notorious yakuza See in context

It’s odd, don’t you think, that this article specifies meth quite clearly as the drug being dealt and taken, whereas most other articles in the Japanese media remain coy about “stimulants”?

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Posted in: Kishida put into corner as secret slush funds scandal falls on him See in context

Party in power since 1955 is corrupt.

shock, horror, stop the press.

It makes no difference whatsoever. If Kishida takes the fall for this, whichever LDP apparatchik succeeds him will be given a mandate whenever the next election comes.

This country is in effect a one-party state, run by a corrupt gerontocracy.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Posted in: Nihon University football player convicted of possessing drugs See in context

Thanks Garypen. I’m aware that Japanese news sources refer to drugs in an ambiguous manner. I used to know a highly educated lawyer who didn’t know that heroin and cocaine were different things.

I’m just curious about WHY the Japanese media is so coy about giving proper information about crimes committed. If half a pill of something is serious enough to make national news, why not just tell us what the half a pill was made of!

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Posted in: Nihon University football player convicted of possessing drugs See in context

What stimulant comes in pill form?

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Posted in: Japan to expand FY2024/25 budget reserves for earthquake aid See in context

I’m hoping there is a great deal more accountability regarding how this public money gets spent than there was after 3/11.

I’m still waiting for an explanation as to how paying for whaling subsidies and roads in Okinawa helped the people of Tohoku, and I am not holding my breath for any of the LDP/Yak cabal to be held responsible for the misappropriation.

I hope against hope that this time around the Japanese taxpayers will expect their monies to be used for the reasons they have been allocated.

I expect Aso is already making his calculations.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Misinformation proving challenge to relief efforts after Japan quake See in context

Right, I see. It’s misinformation which we should blame for thousands of people going without food, water, shelter and sanitation for a week of freezing conditions.

And here was I, foolishly suspecting the total inaction of the weak Kishida government, which assumes soundbites are the same as rescue.

-3 ( +7 / -10 )

Posted in: Comedian Matsumoto to go on hiatus amid sex scandal report See in context

I was wondering why there was no Downtown New Year’s Eve special last week.

I was hardly able to cope without the sophisticated humour of men getting their bums smacked with wooden sticks for hour after hour after hour.

I managed to find a way, but it was tough.

6 ( +13 / -7 )

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