fogetti comments

@strangerland

Japanese cities are pretty consistent about providing free or very affordable Japanese lessons through city hall

Well I checked it in Musashino and it's not free, it's once a week and it's in the middle of the day. (And I had the same experience when I lived in Saitama, Setagaya and Tsukiji too). So as others have pointed out, most of the time local governments and the central government merely pay lip-service.

What working person has the time to go to a Japanese class in the middle of the day anyway??? Maybe some stay-home mothers can benefit from this. Or the pensioners. But for the rest of 99% that is not helpful in any way.

@Vince Black

Glad no kids were hurt

Not that I don't agree with what you said about elderly drivers but kids were apparently hurt.

Those trucks with the loudspeakers are obnoxious. I wish there was a law that candidates can only blast the speakers in front of THEIR house.

Rock is dead

Yeah sure. You forgot to tell it to Adam Levine.

It's rare to see someone who put his mind and effort into something to fail, cases such as yours are rather common

It seems you are in conflict with yourself. At least what you say doesn't really make sense. You let your emotions control you.

And just because you were indoctrinated in neoliberal ideology, some people might think differently and might argue that all you say is wishful thinking mostly.

It's especially true here in Japan that no matter how many hours of dedicated work and commitment will you put in, it will still not please some managers eventually. After all we talk about the land of the karoshi.

All EU countries still use checks. Brother in Italy with a checking account. Brother in London with checking account.

I think you are confused about what checking account means. Usually you don't need checks to use a checking account at all. In fact most EU countries where you can have a checking account will only allow accessing your funds via ATMs or electronic debits.

It's absolutely ridiculous how Japanese executive "management" in the industrial sector has been doing business in the last decade or so.

Sorry, but a little swat on the behind or a swat of a hand of a youngster...

Stop beating children and then you won't have to worry about the law. How about that?

And this story obviously broke my heart too :(

I have no insight into the details and proceedings what happens after the authorities contact the family and there is a justified suspicion of child abuse, but do these kids have direct contact to the social workers/authorities? I mean can't technology help in this case and hand out something like an easily concealed beacon of some sort to the kids which would act as an emergency hotline when they are in truly life threatening situations? Something has to be done! We can't just shake our heads!

go to work with flu?

I am not sure on which planet is there a country called Japan where people can take sick leave when they are sick? I have worked in a few Japanese companies and in all of them you had to take your normal days off even if you had a flu or any other contagious disease. Now if you catch the flu twice a year and you want to stay home for let's say 3 days (which is a very conservative number) there you go, you already used half of your vacation days (I never had granted more than 11 vacation days in Japan).

So this kind of attitude is victim blaming at it's finest.

Why don't you blame the companies or the government who don't care about sick leave? You don't usually hear about 2 million sick people in other countries which have proper sick leave.

(And yes I am aware that you can get sick leave if you get to prove with a doctor's recommendation that you are better to stay at home for 3 days or more, but again this is a complete nonsense and it puts the burden on the already sick person to put up with administrative obstacles and there is no guarantee your doctor will grant you this favor)

This story is just simply tragic.

I don't get it. She stole a bag of candy worth 382 yen among other items. I might be completely wrong but I assume this happened in a supermarket where even the most expensive things might cost 10000 yen or so at most. Do the prosecutors really think that 1 year in prison is proportional to the crime? What term would they seek for her had she stolen a car? Capital punishment?

As the articles suggests Japan completely missed the IT revolution both in the dotcom bubble era and now during the IOT and AI takeover. Combined this with the rigid career options/labor customs in the workforce and the glorification of giant corporations' brand recognition the candidates have neither the will nor the incentive to join or start SMEs. To paraphrase: neither skills nor opportunities can be found on either side (i.e. candidates vs SME owners).

"Why does a 17 year old take their life?" - Are you joking? You never heard of depression and bullying?

DNALeri. I had the same thoughts. I just read that a grassroots movement holds events around the country to support those kids who feel scared and suicidal as the school start approaches. I wish all kids would find help in time when they need it.

30m is about the altitude where if your glider is fully collapsing then you have no chance to make a comeback. And the consequences are severe and/or fatal. RIP

It's beside the point but you can easily find the word 'skeletonize' and it's meaning in many online dictionaries. By the Merriam-Webster dictionary it means: 'to produce in or reduce to skeleton form'.

What a tragic story. I hope the police will catch the perpetrator soon.