DJJapan comments

The Swine flu virus has nothing to do with it. I don't know how they did their research on this one, but who has the true desire to go there? If they wanted to market the destination then they should have the state of Utah as a backup and try and do tourist campaigns in Japan for this. I know there are a few companies that link Utah and Japan but not enough to justify direct flights.

Without a doubt it is the Chinese who are the worst. They have no idea about personal space. They will stop at an exit when there is a crowd of people behind them. They are noisy and spit. I have never had a bad experience with a French person and I have come across a couple of people who were full of themselves, but they were O.K.

Wow! Lucky guy. Kono should be careful with what he says though because out of choice I know which one I would go for!;)

Stereofreak: I agree. Out of all the countries in Sth America, Chile is either the safest or at least the 2nd safest country there. I didn't know that many Japanese tourists go there though? Most of the Japanese people that I know that go to Sth America go to Peru, Brazil or Argentina. Either way it really seems that this guy got involved with the wrong people and the same can happen anywhere in the world.

How bizarre! How could he rape one women when another women was in the next room and the women in the next room heard nothing? Then she got raped? He was able to rape 2 women whilst in a drunken state then they call the cops at 9 a.m which was 4 hours later? Prior to publicizing the info from the police department they should at least find out what happened because I think everyone will come to the conclusion that all he did was a 3 some and then did a runner.

Wow! This news has made my week;) Another reason to go out tonight and have a few beers to celebrate. My Kanpai speech will be dedicated to her.

According to his confession (Through the police whilst getting almost tortured) he said that he had done this over a hundred times? Not defending the guy but why does it seem that these people spill their guts so easily? For doing what he did though he doesn't deserve the phone book he deserves the curb stomp!

Sydenham: Which means that if we as foreigners offered them that gateway of opportunity then they really do have a chance. The only problem that they have depending on the type of product that they have can sometimes be the reverse scenario of having to deal withthe legal process and hurdles of getting their product into a country. Being a Shochuu lover I had the idea of trying to get Shochuu into the U.S. The bigger manufacturers already do this but the smallers ones and usually better ones aren't willing to go the further step because of what is involved and therefore keep it domestic as it may in the long run limit their expansion, but in return keep it simple. Shouchuu comes under the distilled spirits law in the U.S so for each type of product that is introduced in has to go to a government approved laboratory, then a law firm and the bottle size is also decided. From my discussions with the manufacturers they could be flexible with the bottle size, but it was all the other details that boggled them and since it is in another language plus the fact that they already have a limited production they easily give up and can't create the real potential market that is there. In the case of Sake this isn't the case because it is considered a wine and therefore doesn't have the same amount of hurdles to go through. I have dealt with JETRO myself and from my perspective they are 1) Only there to maybe look at the big Japanese companies and 2) Are about as helpful as tits on a bull.

Lastly, what about the fact that Japanese start-ups don’t seem to be able to connect to buyers in the global markets?

If they were to show some sort of decent presenation and exitement about what they are doing or what they have done then perhaps they would. I called another company about another really potential opportunity for their product. They had just started out and I told them that I would like to have the chance to promote it overseas. It was probably a 2 person operation and I did speak in fluent Japanese as well as discussed with the secretary and she said that she would pass on the details to the company owner and get back to me. I called 3 or 4 times. Now you would think that perhaps at a thought of expansion he would have called me back straight away. This didn't occur and yet they now have their homepage written in English as well as Japanese. For what purpose? Because I called and thought that they may get more overseas inquiries? They plant their seeds for the products that they have but they don't plan their business which is based on mostly passion or handed down from their parents to go a further step than what they are doing for fixed customers, but can't easily make the transformation from local to worldwide because of the wall that is in front of them. This of course is not only limited to Japan, but so many bankruptcies could be avoided if they just gave themselves a further scope of opportunity. The company that I work for manufactures a product that when it started that product it was for internal use. One day an American came along and said he would like to be able to buy and sell that product in the U.S. They agreed. Now that product is the largest manufacturer in the world for it. They gradually expanded over time and it is in it's own right a success. This occured in the 1970's when there was no such thing as internet and the main international communication technology then was Telex machines. We have the internet and less barriers for communications, but the cultural, language and general mindset has maybe only given reason to put up more walls perhaps?

Give the guy a break! It's his first time to have a sprained finger :( Last time it was a fractured eye brow and he needed 6 weeks for rehabilitation! ;) Kind of reminds me of the role that David Bowie played in "The man that fell to earth"

Doesn't anybody get it? Of course there will be 600,000 jobs created by the end of summer. It will be the high point of the fruit and vegetable picking season. Just won't be anyone that most of you know who will be the ones who will get the jobs. Oh the next plan would be to replace tractors with people in the cotton fields! ;) Best way to make this all happen. Make border control go on an 8 week vacation.

tkoind2: Excellent post! One thing though in regards to the government helping people start small businesses. I do believe that they do something on a prefectural level. It also depends on the prefecture. I have a friend in Miyazaki who is trying to get something up and running and he is getting a lot of help and free service from the local government there. It's to the extent that I haven't seen this happen anywhere else in the world and may not either. There also seems to be other programs available but I only have a vague outline of them. Badsey: One of your points to have rich people buy (made in Japan) products. I think they already do that. Those products for the most part are cars and electronics and in consideration of the size of most Japanese households how many TV sets can you possibly have? One of the engines for growth in the past few years here has been replacing tube TV's with flat panel ones. Japan does and will continue to innovate products, but when the occasional bright spark comes along that will go against the establishment and ruffle up the feathers then that nail will have to be hammered back down in its place and everyone knows it. That's why there is always going to be preaching from elsewhere. It can't answer the question of what it will do which is frustrating.

I don't know why she would want to come back to Japan. I'm not a big fan of China, but for the current and longer term she will have a lot more opportunity there and will be respected more there than back in Japan. Once she arrives back here, none of what she has done will have any meaning and unless she finds a small to medium sized company that will respect her work and language skills (Which most don't as they would probably hire Chinese people for a lower cost) then she will be left with a very narrow choice. This is the same for men also.

Cleo: I'm not an English teach or a Plumber. So no point trying to stereotype me. What is enough of a salary for several lifetimes also? And why should I be taxed 40%, 50 or 60% for working my arse off? Because I can afford to? Sounds like a bit of the tall poppy coming from you there. If I am successful in my business I pay tax and am not against it. Why should I be taxed more in percentage for making more though? If I get the opportunity to make more and am smart enough to do so then the tax department will overall probably mak more money from me than trying to tax the hell out of me as it is going to promote further stimulation of my business. I don't agree with the fact that some executives get paid a lot of money to run a company into the ground and make a fortune out of it, but I don't agree with government interference into private enterprise, unless the government gets placed in the position of being the majority shareholder in that business. In such a case they are in business, but when they are the receiver of that enterprise they should make the best attempts to put the books back in order and get that enterprise back up and running to be sold off again. When they are in receivership they can control the salaries as the workers are civil servants. When it becomes a private enterprise again they should have no say in it. It goes against what our economies were established for in the first place. What about the executives and CEO's who perform well? In the news we have seen a small percentage of the overall companies where the CEO's make crazy amounts of money. Should a government decide the other 99% of companies salaries also? Absolutely NO! VOR: You are absolutely right. First it is the CEO's then who? But the only thing is that you are specifically referring to the U.S. This discussion I believe covers all the world.

Cleo and One fo All. You seem to be favoring communism in your posts. How about we have motivated and an unmotivated workforce. The motived ones get paid the same as the unmotivated ones. What is too much salary? If I own the company I am the only shareholder and I have the right to decide what I give myself in returns. If I am not profitable I go out of business it is my risk. If I am profitable the government wants to tax me 40%. I think about the business 24/7 and then what ever I make extra and have sacrificed for 10 years over sweat and the sacrifice of not seeing friends because I have put everything I have and had back into the business you now say that a government should dictate to me what I am entitled to when they have done absolutely nothing to help my business and help it grow and have only taken from me so I can provide back to the society with their pork barrel spending? Additionally I have given people jobs and they don't have the passion that I do for the business. I pay them why is suited for their skill and if their skill is exceptional I shall pay them what I freely want to also. Therefore why should any government dictate to me as the owner of a company what they believe is a reasonable salary when that salary and the profits of the company contribute to society? Business makes money for governments that contribute to society. Not the opposite.

I wonder if he asked her to turn around? ;)

We can give the cops a hard time but if she stated that she didn't want to make him into a criminal then to a certain extent she puts a large part of that responsibility onto herself right? Saborichan: The problem with the thug like boys in this country is that they have a few tattoos then you are forever indebted to them with high interest charges.

Staying at the 8th or 9th station is really crowded and it is Head, Toe , Head, Toe. I'd recommend to go the whole way up and stay at the lodges on the top. When I asked them how busy they were the previous evening they said that there weren't many people staying. Also the walk up from the 9th station to the top at 1 a.m takes just as long as what it does from the 5th station because it is so crowded. Late afternoon or early evening to beat the rush.

Like anywhere else why doesn't 2 Chome just reinvent itself? In the current times 1,000 yen just to walk in the door is not going to get droves of people. They want value for their money and a reason to go somewhere that has a decent atmosphere. It doesn't matter whether it is gay or straight, at the end of the day the business owners need to figure out how to make their business improve or they will be another statistic.

I think that they should be putting them on the rush hour trains. Took them 2 weeks to get 1 arrest on the streets. It would take them 10 minutes to get one on a rush hour train.

I don't disagree there. But London within the top 5? Beyond peoples image of Fish and Chips London does have some good restaurants, but compared to Paris or Florence forget about it. I guess Jen Murphy hasn't been to many places.

Japan is confused about what is and isn't sexual harassment. This would be probably because in part that it is a culture that lacks human touch. If a female really dislikes a male collegue and he just touches her on the arm in a non suggestive manner then because she hates him would call it sexual harassment. If it is a collegue that she is O.K with then it is just person A. One of the trains I used to get to work there was 1 particular female that used to get into a great panic at the slightest touch from anyone. They weren't gropping her, the train was packed and she always stood agitated in the same carriage day in and day out being agitated. In the same light though at my own company I have seperated one of the directors of my company from the girls I work with because he decided that each time he gets drunk he likes grabbing their arse. The only thing to do is to seperate the individual. You can't go to the police or do a citizens arrest or anything and the only thing you can do is take them aside and ask them to calm down. Even if you could potentially ruin them, the walls that have to be broken through to get to the other side only encourages the victims just to quit rather than going through the ordeal over and over again. The laws are in place but it doesn't mean that they are adhered to or understood or nothing is known as to what to do about it, but one thing is for sure, In Japan the nail that sticks out will be hammered down and if the aggressor is of a higher position at a company why would they care what an OL's complaint is when the Prez pinches her arse when his come back would be that he was just joking and she should lighten up?

A few phone books on his stomach would do the trick! Rather than fining him or prosecuting him maybe they should get some of the new policewomen recruits to line up and let him have it with their kahunsho build up!

Maheshvitekar: You explained it in one. I never said that it shouldn't be solved or stopped but as a result of trying to fix it or solve it Islamic radical thinking is increasing. What do you propose? It is continuous and that's my point. It has gone on for centuries and will continue on for centuries because it is in the funny name of religion that is the cause all of this and if that continues which it will then it doesn't finish. I don't have to be a super wise person to clearly know that as a fact. Also it's O.K to disagree with me.

tkoind2: I agree with you in what the solution should be but thus far, even after 7 years of being there I haven't seen one majority Muslim country or group raise their hand and want to co-ordinate together to achieve any such goal and it seems that for the most part it will be a very long way off. It is far more complex. On a seperate note yet on the same subject, Us white people report such stories in the world news and it makes people vigilant to such groups as well as stereotyping them. I have an Indian female friend who isn't even Muslim and was born in the U.S and for several years from 9/11 onwards she has had people spit on her, tell her to go home and so on. I don't think that it was such an isolated incident with only her being purely singled out. Why do we use words that explain these actions as "trying to protect our freedom from terrorists" when it is also a form of radical fundmentalism? If our leaders say to us that they will go to Pakistan (Not their homeland) and erradicate the Taliban. Why are we so shocked to hear the same words coming out of his mouth? If it is good enough for us to throw a fastball we should expect that they are going to hit it rather than being scared about it.

As much as there is an effort to combat the Taliban and their numbers. By having the Non-Muslim fighters in their countries and areas going into their houses and threatening innocent families only helps their cause get larger. When the group of Nations initially went to Afghanistan it was for the cause to get 1 person in his group and because he was the mastermind of 9/11. The Taliban who happened to govern the country (who may I add prior to then were never declared as a terrorist organization) were accepted at the U.N as the leaders and controllers of the country. Our Western governments overthrew the government in power in order to get 1 man. He is still out there. But in the process the people of Afghanistan may have been suppressed by 1 group in the past, now they are suppressed by another group and those people aren't even from their country. The Taliban are gaining popularity again because although they may not represent the ture interests of the country, they are the only ones around that can and it shouldn't be up to Westerners to have a puppet (This is how they see Karzai) of theirs in power of the country. Even if he may be the right leader his support for the forces that are there are starting to drag. Let's face it that 7 or so years in the country so far just to look for 1 man with the changeover included equalling 100's of thousands of troops knocking down families doors accidently killing innocent people in fear that they may be a suicide bomber or a car bomber, driving high speeds through villages in order to avoid bombing will bring nothing more than growth to the Taliban and such radical groups. These are just facts.

Why not. The one lost will never come back again;)

I guess she won't be doing any complaining to cell phone users in the future?

Timeon- My wife has quite a lot of friends and 3 very close friends and they are also there for here if she or they need each other. But when I think about other females that I know or work with here you are definately right.

NK is the thorn in the side for all of Asia and when the rest of Asia starts to take less notice of it, it then decides to chuck its little tantrums. All regional neighbours of the country should band together as one voice, Ask them WTF? As neighbours we can respect our differences, make ammends, co-operate and become a mature looking region that would make the rest of the world start to appreciate further and respect Asia in a light that can truly be a regional cornerstone of the world not to mention the world economy, for the future generations as well. Because under the current way things are NK makes itself and the rest of the region look childish which especially includes Japan.

If it has the potential to keep the suicide rate down and they can have support of other people that understand them and can relate to them then it's a good idea. Maybe if they do attend the event they will see their carbon copy of themself in other people and maybe wake up to themselves and then realize that they don't need to be such a loser anymore. Then again, that may be wishful thinking???