Eve Aphayboun comments

This is the best they could do?

Construction projects will not last forever. Not all projects are fruitful for commercial returns. Especially Olympic infrastructures. When the building boom is over, who will employ them?

So long as land exists, so does the opportunity for development. Companies will never stop constructing buildings. Same goes for roads, bike lanes, road repairs, and really any infrastructure maintenance...

JandworldJUL. 21, 2015 - 06:38PM JST For a long time this country bought peace with currency. Pay yen and just be an island. Just keep the outsiders out and peace will be assured.

Housewifes even imaged to apply for a nobel peace prize for this island model.

But then times change and hopefully, eventually someone will see that naivity is dangerous. And change there must be.

Sad but very true how naive some people are. That type of thinking is exactly how you will get yourself into trouble. Better be safe than sorry. Would coulda shoulda won't save you when an attack or catastrophe happens.

Classic back peddling at it's finest here courtesy of the Abe administration.

Where are the supporters of this design now? "Japan is creative! Japan knows how to innovate! Show the world!"

Please, this is Japan were talking about. There's a reason why the country has stalled since the 90s and produced little to nothing. So long as the old guard remains at the helm, innovation will continued to be stifled.

NEXT GENERATION... Meet the OLD GENERATION.

Unfortunately, the only thing they are capable of "leading" is each other-- to the rest room!

@ Serrano

But they are in the World Cup right? To be in the the tournament, they had to qualify. Like the other 32 teams, that means they have a chance. Are they going to win it? Maybe, maybe not. But as long as they are in, they have a chance. 1% is better than 0%!

Lost in all this discussion is the perspective of outsiders like those in North America or Europe. There are HUNDREDS of sickos here in Canada that people would LOVE to get the death penalty because you see, prison here unlike Asia, is a joke. Prisoners get wifi, computers, tv time, nice cooked meals, reading time, etc.

Why should a man who killed or raped a child be allowed to live?

I wouldn't have expected anything less from China, really. I would like to know more about this though...

I'm not saying it's entirely healthy but having a McDonald's menu item once a week or month, cannot be bad. Of course, I say that since I do exercise daily, and am pretty careful about my daily intake. However, one day to pig out every couple of weeks is not bad.

Although if you're eating McDonalds daily, then there's an even bigger issue...

But this, is pretty interesting... Good luck, you poor souls.

My family bought into the Toyota brand many decades ago, and it is still our number one choice (trucks, vans, SUVs, and sedans). We have never once had a problem with Toyota. Not one! And most of our cars were driven until 400k+ from child birth all the way until high school, college, and so forth. It's a shame that a select few are making it so hard for the rest.

Toyota produces some of the safest, most reliable cars on this planet. And they do it at an incredibly fair price because they know how good their products are, and it's shown over the years due to them being consistently ranked number 1 (which in turn also drives their growth).

@ rickyveeDEC. 06, 2012 - 01:21PM JST

You've never been on the wall have you? I have, and it can be pretty bad.

First off, the company should have known how bad the wall is, and it's been like this for a long time now, even with redevelopment projects. Knowing that though, the business wanted to make some money, and low/behold, a "trek through the wondrous great wall of china".

It really depends on which sections you visit, but many of the sections are just traps waiting to happen.

On another note, after that first incident in 09, this business should have been shut down permanently...

I didn't think one could get stabbed so many times in one spot... Nose, eyes, mouth, cheeks, forehead...

The first officer to have seen this man better be getting counselling and or therapy for the year...

@ papigiulioNOV. 29, 2012 - 11:03AM JST

That's just your opinion. You can find good quality food anywhere, finding great, or exceptional quality can be very difficult. If every Japanese or Italian chef uses the same ingredients to make the same dishes, but why do they not come out the same? It's because of the skill level, and their understanding of food. While you may not be able to tell the difference between a 1 star restaurant and a 3 star restaurant, don't look down on people who can, and who want to increase their taste palette.

While there are obviously some restaurants that are questionable... I've been to a couple Michelin star restaurants myself before-- they were awarded stars and also a few that I didn't even know had stars. I'd say yes, you can just tell the quality from the moment you take that first bite.

I think the Japan of today needs not nukes. They got their second chance, after the war, to reestablish themselves with a new identity. And they've done just that without the help of nuclear armed weapons.

Let's face is, should Japan go to war any time soon, they'd be absolutely demolished. This isn't 1940 anymore. Thus, their best role is a supporting role, and working alongside US intelligence, rather than on the battlefield. They don't have the manpower, technology, or equipment as countries that have HEAVILY invested into those things like... The super powers. Should there be war in the coming future will make it a battle between U.S, China, NK, and Russia-- not Japan.

Not too surprised by this. Indonesia is a sprawling nation, with millions of people who are willing to work for much less than their counterpart in Malaysia or Singapore. Toyota is wise to slowly, but surely, back away from China.

@ slumdog "Also not sure what is up with all the negative comments about education in Japan. The Japanese are a highly educated people that produce some of the best, if not the best, products in the world."

Hmmm... Can you name some recent ones? In my opinion, it seems like they've stood still for far too long (past decade). What have they contributed to the world recently that has had massive effects aside from Toyota's/Honda's global dominance? I'm really curious to know, because I cant think of anything off the top of my head. If you think about the technological advancements and new products that have been introduced in the past decade, most have come from South Korea, North America, and Europe. IE: Facebook, Twitter, Samsung, Apple, Android, Angry Birds, etc. I could go on, but the point is, I can't seem to recall anything big coming out of Japan.

It seems to me that Japan still seems to believe in hashing out drones of salarymen to work their lives out at a big corporation. What they've failed to notice is that while major corporations still are important, it's the innovative start-ups are the ones leading the way in countries like America (which has one of the best education systems in the world, on only 5 days a week).

Someone made a comment earlier about how education system's globally are still the same... That's not entirely true though. Many First World countries are constantly trying to improve their systems, without even a thought of adding an extra day. Sure, there will be delinquents, but there will also be successes. Education systems now is very much different than when I went to school. If you go into some schools in Canada for example, the students in primary school all use tablets like the iPad, to do their work (allowed to take home instead of heavy textbooks). Even in Finland, there are NO tests assigned for primary school students, and one free meal is given out a day. And this is public school, as there are only a handful of private schools. Not to mention that different schools have deployed private social networks for the students to submit their homework online (and where parents can ask questions and monitor).

It's unfortunate that while the rest of the world is producing students to go live in a global and connected society, Hashimoto has chosen to do the opposite, ensuring that these students remain in Japan, and think only of Japan.

Suzuki lacked in the ultra-competitive North American market due to their blatant disregard for marketing, and just how important marketing is to the success of products overseas. I was recently car searching, and actually ended up deciding between a Suzuki and a Mitsubishi, which I ended up buying due to being impressed by the quality of the car and the brand image. Although, the Suzuki I was interested in wasn't bad, it just didn't "fit" me personally... I probably would have picked it over say a Subaru or Kia though!

Also, if I recall correctly, American Suzuki Motor Corp. is not owned by Suzuki right? They are just distributers of Suzuki products... So the Japanese side is not very involved in the American operations if I am correct.

First of all, yes it is a massive recall, but it's for an incredibly minor thing. It just goes to show how much they care. NO one has died from having non-automatic windows. And this first was reported in 2008? Four years now...

Secondly, people need to do some research before bashing Toyota/Japan. Where do you think some of these models were manufactured? America. Canada.

Still one of the most reliable cars, folks.

I really like what Zaccheroni has done with this team, and the direction they are going. I have confidence that they will come out strong against both France, and Brazil, to send a message to the rest of the world.

And when the Chinese wake up a week from now, they will realize not only have they damaged their own property, many will have lost a week of work $$$. Oh, and they will probably return to buying Japanese products, considering a large majority of domestic goods produced by local Chinese companies are TERRIBLE.

Meanwhile, Japan continues to function as if there's nothing going on...

This is Japan's team.

I'm expecting them to go through qualifiers with flying colours.

@ avenger "It took apple 4 years to come up with the iphone and Samsung 6 months. On the other hand, was Samsung supposed to close their eyes to everything on the iphone. Its like Play Station suing Xbox because they are similar."

That PS to XBOX comparison is stupid. One is black and rectangular, the other is grey and square (hence BOX) with a giant X as part of its design. Now even if you are talking about the 360 x PS3, one curves IN the other curves OUT, not to mention the materials are clearly different. The only thing that makes them similar is the color black.

It's clear that Samsung not only idolized the iPhone, but after seeing Apples success, decided to blatantly copy it because then they TOO would make money. Just look at their own designs before, and now. You know there are other ways to design a phone right? Flip phone, sliders, keyboards, etc. Look at how Windows innovated, and what Blackberry is doing.

This was a fair decision, even Google told them not to copy.

I'm not sure why people are making a big deal out of this. This was the U23 team. These were not the best Korean or Japanese players in the world. In fact, you could easily tell by the way they played. Many players don't hit their prime till 25+.

This is what makes Olympic Football rules a joke really. You are playing against the best players within your age, in the world. Whereas the World Cup, and many of the other sports in the Olympics, you are competing against the best in the world. Ever.

Just look at basketball, where the US is dominating, along with Spain because those are the teams that produce the best athletes.

What this win says is that Japan's Jr.team is good, but not good enough to beat the SK squad. This was a team without Keisuke Honda, Shinji Okazaki, Shinji Kagawa, or even Ryo Miyaichi.