Eddisofbextar comments

another big FAIL for good ol' Japan.

society fail. will someone do something about it? no, because its not their problem.

hard to speculate on the reasoning, but i'm going to take a WILD guess and say it was likely a 20'ish year old prostitute (part time of course) who didnt want to pay for an abortion and couldnt narrow down who the father might have been due to number of clients around conception time. Hopefully she made enough to buy another bag and new phone tho.

.....

sometimes I REALLY wonder why I am still living here.

this reminds me of that half boy on tv... he doesnt speak any English but everyone expects him to.

come to think of it, I find it amazingly amusing when Japanese go to countries like Italy or France and start speaking English to the natives, even though they clearly dont speak it.

The priority must always be on learning the accepted native language of the country of primary residence. In this case it would be Japanese. Sure, if your a mixed marriage/partner you can teach them a second language later on... but one sure way to have your kid segregated moreso than they already will be from physical appearance is by mixing them up with 2 languages at an early age.

This isnt about what the parents want. Its about whats best for the future of the child.

For me, it will be likely from the age of 10. This is actually one of the reasons I study Kanji every day. If my kid comes to me with homework and I cant help them with it, what kind of parent am I?

I don't see any problem with this, except in cases where guilt is not 100%. Eye for an Eye is acceptable in my books.

A T-Shirt I once saw with a picture of a foot kicking a soccer ball. The quotation said "Lets have fun kicking your balls". Classic.

Nah. If anything happened it is highly unlikely it was reported to police. Come on man, thats not how things work here. I mean, what other country can a dude drag a young girl into the train toilet in front of other passengers, rape her, then get out and get off the train at his stop and have no passenger try to do anything about it at any point... and apparently not only once, the guy I am referring to did it to 5 other girls before someone finally reported it. If he tried that in Canada (not that we use trains there mind you), he wouldnt walk away from the beating he would get by random passers by. 100% guaranteed.

MistWizard: No, no fear mongering please. The greatest danger was violent abuse, and I think we would know if that occured. It didn't.

So they can track down the guys who were sleeping with the underage girls and throw them in with the girls pimp too I hope.

How many times do I see this happening mid afternoon at stations all around tokyo area... 5, 6... and thats just in the time it takes for the next train to arrive. think about those numbers. and weekday no less. AND not even in a honcho type area either. all I can think when I see these salarymen and these young girls is - what a waste of a perfectly good cute girl, and - I feel sorry for the guy she eventually marries after she "retires" and doesnt tell the dude. If he finds out later... oh... nasty.

such a waste of youth... but this society has bred them to be like this so no one to blame but yourselves (loosely directed at Japanese society in general).

Toyama breeds people who wont lift a finger while dude drags girl into train bathroom to be raped. true story.

Wait a second... that isnt just Toyama, I've seen similar acts of ignoring crime around themselves in multiple prefectures.

Hm... and if fired dude ever finds out, he will cash in huge on entrapment civil suit.

Anyone with half a brain would see this as such anyways.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do... or somesuch. Don't like it? There is sure to be at least 1 country where your ideals are welcome, along with the clothing etc you choose to put on your spawn.

I have encountered several mixed japanese-xxxxx blood in my time here. All of them, especially the ones which are mixed of both asian blood (phillipino-japanese as an example) who have been raised primarily in Japan are quite sensitive about this topic.

I recall a recent conversation with a Phillipino-Japanese half woman in which she referred to herself as Japanese, but when questioned about her parental lineage she got upset that I thought she wasnt fully Japanese (I have developed an eye for spotting them apparently). I asked her why she is upset, so I can understand better - since I am not mixed blood. Her reply was that the stigma with being labeled half, and the amount of harassment during childhood led her to be so sensitive about it.

It doesnt matter what the speaker thinks, what matters here is how their words will affect the Wa around them - and yes, this includes every person around regardless of blood/race.

This woman I spoke to recently, as well as all past examples (must be about 20 now) are also likely related to Wa. They probably got so tired of being segregated and just wanted to live in harmony and enjoy the same social conditions as everyone else around them - and when they are reminded of their differences it can make them upset.

ensnaturae2 its just a boiling point for the social problems here... the fact that there are train rule manners at all indicates the problem is well known. Might see people start doing this to smokers who walk and smoke at some point too. Maybe Punch-boy had an exceptionally bad day and all it took was the dude talking in such a manner as to set him off.

It's pretty much the same as how genji17 reacts to it, he will ignore social norms when it doesnt suit him, and resort to assault if someone turns around and does the same thing he is doing (going against the norm by playing music loud enough to disrupt his phone conversation). You are surrounded by psychopaths on a short fuse here, or anywhere pretty much. Since there will never be an end to fresh off the boat people, or those who just dont respect others around then the only thing you can do is watch out for yourself and get clear when genji17 decides your a non-girl-getting-otaku and starts swinging =)

strictly enforce worker rights.

end of story, solves a host of serious issues here.

odd tho, as technically I would fall under this same category - yet I am not Japanese by birth and it's the opposite for me... my wife cant handle 3-5 times per day 7 days a week anymore.

others can tho -_O

stay, leave... doesnt matter. ppl will still whale hunt regardless. market = buyers = money for sellers.

Gotta love the Deri-heru here...

is there even a department in stations for prostitution?

guess not, as they would be pulling what, 30% of the girls found in shinjuku, shibuya etc off the streets, not to mention the part time enjyo kosai school girls.

the dirty secret that everyone turns a blind eye to.

if proven true, i wonder if the spirits of the whales will find some sort of peace of mind....

Mikanojo, if you read the Japanese versions of this same story you'll see that the phone talker was speaking fairly loudly... not that that condones such a reaction.

Supernatural, I have given this quite a bit of thought. Basically it boils down to WA. If everyone else is being silent, or talking quietly - then everyone else should too. So basically, dont expect quiet trains friday evenings, but most weekday mornings its like a tomb.

Yamada denki... etc etc... too many to list.

genji17, if you start your conversation with something similar to "i am on the train" and its clear that the conversation is not an emergency I doubt you need to fear anyone's "assault". Speaking of which, playing music to drown out other sound isnt assault. If anything inappropriate physical-wise happens I wont be the instigator. Not sure where all this Touch me, push me came from. Otaku? Because I have Koda Kumi music on my phone makes me an Otaku? I could switch to Mozart, (i'm particularily fond of piano sonata 11, or perhaps some beasty boys) if you'd like. Sorry, is that what you mean? If so...

As for get girls, when i come home each night I have the pleasure of playing with my baby boy and wife.

It's honestly been a while since i've had to swing the ol' puncher, in fact, the last time was before i moved to japan almost 10 years ago. Good times. But your basing off of actions that I never mentioned doing/planning to do in previous posts, so the relevance of fighting skill is pointless. Came close a few years back tho, dude was clearly psychotic. Had to pick him up by the neck as he just suddenly grabbed me by my jacket and wouldnt let go. Threw him down and held him there till the jsatsu arrived (at my home station). Useless station people just stood there in a semicircle doing nothing to help. Made me late for work too. I was tempted, but decided not to beat him senseless as it was already all on video with over 100 witnesses.

The physical contact of pushing someones elbow away from your head with only sufficient force to move that persons arm mass would not constitute assault. If I shoved him on his backside, that would be a different matter.

Anyways, do unto others and such. You talk on the phone in the train in blatant disregard for cultural accepted norms? dont be surprised if someone does something about it. Dont like it? Go home.

I've never been one to just sit by while my personal space is being abused. If that means I am labeled a DB by some uptight ppl so be it, their opinion matters not.

The reaction of the croud around me at the time shows that others were thinking the same thing as I was but were culture bound not to react.

Who knows, perhaps I saved lives by acting in a non-violent manner when if I had done nothing and taken it like a good ant perhaps it would have turned out like the original post by one of the people around me.

Being polite to rude people will get us where? Waste of air, my time is far too valuable. 2 wrongs and such, but in this case its a simple matter of communicating on a level that the person in question will understand.

Couple days ago I was minding my own business studying kanji on the way home as i always do. I happened to get the corner seat next to the middle doors where the rail is about my shoulder height sitting. A teenish or early 20's male yout was standing on the other side of the rail. Didnt notice what he was doing till i decided to stretch my neck a bit and noticed his elbow was 3 cm from the side of my head. Not on par with people who dont respect train riding rules such as this story, but I did give his elbow a good full palm shove and gave him a "dont f with me" look (which is actually pretty much my normal train-riding face as trains here are oh so much fun). Problem solved, no broken bones or fatalities.

Another instance was a teen schoolgirl and boy (16ish?) came onto the train. The girl apparently saw one of her friends going the opposite direction just as the train door closed. she got all excited and started bouncing and yelling. Told her "urusai" in a loud enough voice for all to hear on the train car i was in. She apparently didnt hear me, so I commented perhaps she would understand japanese more her level. I slowly pronounced the derogatory version syllable by syllable U-ZA-II. She brushed it off of course with an "aa sou". I stood up and went over to the guy with her and informed him that it's fine to play with such a rude and un-cultured girl but when you get older the odds of being happy with this type of girl are very small, and that he should try again to find a more gentle girl. The guy was ashen-faced, the girl didnt make a peep after that, and the people around me were either staring with a smile at me, or so shocked at the confrontation that they made a point to not look in my direction. One salary man who was sitting beside me laughed and said good job. heh.

long story short, the train rules are there for a reason. This article is a good example of why.

If it was me in the situation, I would have just turned on my pocketpc phone and cranked up the volume to max playing koda kumi while standing right beside the dude. Guaranteed he wouldnt be able to hear a thing on his phone. Then, when he gives up I would ask him how did he like it.

Keep putting the sons of sons of former leaders and you'll keep that revolving door spinning every 6 months or so.

As i said before, it is employers like ppayne claims to be that give further support that effective employee work protection laws do not exist in Japan.

There are a few laws, but none of them are enforced, and are virtually meaningless.

Japan is screwing its self because employers can do pretty much anything they want and get away with it.

minimum wadge doesnt effect as many end products produced in Japan, companies have been leaning to china production for years, and its only getting more dependent as time ticks by.

It is far more complex than to simply say Salary increase by 100yen will make everything more expensive. What about supply and demand? If there is no disposable income, supply is not bought. Nisegaijin your logic is not only flawed, but lacking in common sense. Try widening your view next time.

....benefits you better protect the employEES! typo.

Without laws-with-teeth that financially penalize companies for taking advantage of their employees, this country will continue to see a decline in full time employment, number of babies per person, and disposable income for singles and families. This is really a no-brainer, I am curious why the new (and old) governments have yet to understand this? If you want babies to help pay your upcoming retirement benefits you better protect the employers! Baito single men and enjyo kosai/prostituting girls are not going to do it. Who would want to get married in this kind of situation?

Foreign residents in Japan are often very transient and are generally not here for more than a couple years.

If voting rights are granted, it should be to the section of foreign population that has made a longer term commitment to staying in Japan.

However, the issue is rather pointless as even the typical Japanese citizen does not follow or even understand the political system here. Even with level 1 certification in Japanese it would be extremely difficult to understand most of the political debates and issues with enough understanding to make an educated decision as to how to vote. This could be solved by publishing pertinent information in multiple languages, having news and government tv programs with multiple language subtitles, and giving application forms and various papers in the requested language. I do not see this happening, as the costs involved would be staggering.

The traffic speeds will be the fastest in eastern Japan, up drastically from the current 100 megabits per second.

Actually Jcom has 140mbit internet service.

lameduck is correct however, in that the actual speeds you will see sustained with most internet apps is far less than the maximum. Speedtesting to various locations around the world the highest I managed was 43 MB download and 11 MB upload, but this was far from average for most locations.

the big difference here is that they claim they are making fiber optic internet access when 99% of their target (single family/small mansion) are not wired with fiber optic at all. can you say bottleneck? most residences have the same options many other countries have - cable or telephone line.

What the heck were these females doing during High School and University? facepalm. Too late now, arafo!

OP and husband ran a red light, thats enough reason to stop them right there.

Jsatsu will show ID when requested, by law. This will be done before showing any tourokusho cards to prevent impersonators of Jsatsu from getting any personal information.

As for asking the salary, this is a privacy issue - which OP and husband decided to divulge. Everyone has the right to refuse to answer such a question.

Looking inside your shopping bag. If you were on foot and were not breaking any laws the police have no reason to stop you at all, let alone stop you just to check your bag(s) - tho I do see this constantly in Shinjuku near the Yodobashi Camera shopping area (young, old, man, woman, Japanese, non-Japanese... i've seen them stop all of them). As for being on a bicycle, I am not sure if the police have more discretion to search bags or not.

advice:

learn the language of the country you are living in! don't run red lights. don't answer private/personal questions if you are uncomfortable doing so.

Wow... peds actually doing something for a change. I wouldnt be surprised if they were all charged with assault tho.

The woman that reported the case did not recognize the guy? Or perhaps only just saw "black man" and then immediately closed the curtains and made the call?

elbudamexicano: keys do wonders for opening locks.

Keep pushing the people and theyll eventually bite back.

When it happens in china... wow... the death toll will be uncountable. Iran will also be quite high im sure. Japan will also see it happen, tho I am guessing it will be far less violent. The will of the people is too easily organized, unlike the old days - before the int0rn37. best of luck to them I say.