diegameL comments

"Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is likely the richest man in the world with an estimated fortune worth about 70 billion dollars. According to the Guardian, Mubarak has money stashed in several Swiss and other foreign bank accounts, and has shadowy real-estate holdings in Manhattan, London and Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills." -Yahoo News

I always wondered about all those YouTube videos from Japan, where they're having slow lorises in their houses (eg. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHqVatZP5mc). The article explains a lot... dang.

How come this isn't promoted more actively? It is a lot bigger than the famous ones in Japan. I had never heard of until now.

cersei:

I also went to one of his 2009 concerts, and its already been confirmed from far many others than myself that its a swastika flag on his belt.

I was the one who mentioned the amount of fans outside Japan though (and yes, I guess it should be repeated that I wasn't talking about sales figures, but the amount of fans. These two don't always go hand to hand, especially with import CDs) -- and at the same time I'm balancing the compliments with some facts about the concert content I find disturbing still.

Images: http://tinyurl.com/m6bd4q

In this, in the upmost picture you can clearly see the color scheme of the flag below his guitar. I believe that it's his guitar that is the one that has the pattern you described, cersei. And I wonder what they are doing in the lowest one :) (I know its a part of the dance, yes, its just a funny coincidence).

Also, the costume at its full glory: http://i40.tinypic.com/2rfzclc.jpg

They're marketing them for fans. It would be really interesting to see him try a breakthrough in Europe now -- Germany or France perhaps, maybe with a similar concert tour.

abromofo: Buahah, I guess you'll be delighted to learn then, that he is actually one of Japan's most successful artists, and has thousands of fans abroad as well -- the fan base doesn't even closely limit itself to Japan.

cadmium: That is exactly what he is wearing. In the concerts, they even have authentic swastika flags hanging from their belts and so on. Fictional addition to WWII is the theme of the tour, but its overdone, and big controversies should arise soon in Europe due to the grossness of it.

Sounds like a case for Great Teacher Onizuka to take care of.

gogogo:

I just got my letter today from my city office, so if you're not a tourist or an illegal immigrant (hehe) you should get yours to your registered address. I live in Oita just as a side note.

In it is specified the fact that distributing the money has started, and that the application papers will follow "soon, a later day". It also specified the fact that getting it as a transaction is impossible, so you have to pick it up yourself.

So does this actually mean that foreign students are eligible?

I vaguely remember being talked in Nep League that Suzanne is a Toudai student. It was one of those games where they have to be able to read rare kanji.

Would someone have a link to a video of this spesific one? Tried to YouTube it but no luck.

** niku at 04:16 PM JST - 10th July

10,000,000 yuan = 155,800.000 yen? On what planet? **

10 000 000 Chinese yuan = 156,524,906 Japanese yen

get your commas right

Police scandals back in 2000 caused police to take on every single frigging stupid thing some obaachan brings to the station, and RECORD it. This is why the crime rates are rising. They record all the innecessary stuff, and mass media puts it all on the paper without separating serious offenses from minor ones. Amount of police remains the same or even lessens with the years -> clearance rate goes down.

"Rise in crime?

According to Criminologists Koichi Hamai and Tom Ellis (2006), the number of crimes being committed in Japan has NOT significantly changed, but the way crimes are recorded by the police, and then reported by the mass media, has changed. Japanese police now record more “trivial” crimes which they tended to disregard and dismiss in the past: traffic violations, riding bicycle without a light, vice crimes, etc., crimes not generally considered threatening to the average citizen. This has caused a significant increase in the total # of crimes, but not in # of serious crimes. The mass media, however, conflates this TOTAL rise in crime with a rise in “serious” crime.

When reporting on a specific crime, i.e. a murder, the mass media report on the increase in TOTAL number of crimes (not only similar crimes) – because higher numbers sell more newspapers (and advertisements). To most people, it looks like there has been an increase in serious crimes.

In fact, although people think “increasing number of crimes” means Japan is becoming a more dangerous society, less than 1% of 2005 crimes were “Index Serious Offenses,” (murder, robbery, arson, rape, abduction, indecent assault, etc...)"

Japanese authorities also solve a relatively high percentage of crimes. For example, 75.9% of robberies are solved in Japan, compared to 26.5% in Britain, 26.0% in the United States. And the clearance rate for homicides is 96% in Japan, compared to 75% in France and 67% in the United States. Therefore, the chance of literally “getting away with murder” are about one in three in America, one in four in France, and one in 26 in Japan.