Frank Thornton comments

Uh oh...

ONLY 11% of Japanese are willing to fight for Japan

Do you really think that the Chinese have enough honor, pride and discipline to follow orders and die for THEIR country? Especially now that much their force is in the newer, spoiled "one-child" era. Even the Chinese leaders are worried about this.

Japan to patrol disputed islands if Chinese vessels sail too close I surely hope so.

"China's military is more than double Japan's population. " But they're on the mainland and most equipment is outdated. Japan is believed to the the strongest Navy and Air Force in Asia (next to America). Plus China knows that, as you said "Big Brother" is right there. But, I believe that you got it backwards... Sadly, I believe that China is stupid enough to actually attack a Japanese ship.

I don't know if it's only me but, I wasn't interested in using the app but it got to the point where my iphone wouldn't let me send or read a Facebook message unless I downloaded the app. It was sort of forced upon me.

I call it the "mendokusai" generation. Some may prefer the "simple" generation. My son is one of them. Don't want a car. Not interested in promotion, higher income, marriage, nice house, relation, good food... Maybe I shouldn't say "not interested". Interested but it stops there. Don't want to have to work hard for something. If something seems "mendokusai" then it's "jya, iiya" or "korede iiya".

Just another disgruntled coward that has to take out his/her frustrations on someone they know will not/can not fight back. Unfortunately, there is a lot of that going on recently. The only cure is for someone to give them a good slap upside the head when they start acting up...

Noda says defense shift could be excuse for militants to attack Japan

That's EXACTLY what the terrorists want you to think.

he had vomited and collapsed many times in the year prior to his death...

And he didn't seek professional help...?

There should be a way to automatically trace the beam back and explode the devise emitting the beam... 007 stuff?

It's unfortunate but a stronger military is necessary. Everyone cries for peace but they all lock their doors at night. That's the reality. You have to be prepared for the crazies...

The bully get's his way until someone finally gathers up enough courage and slaps him upside the head. Unfortunately that's the way it may have to happen...

Yes. Gambling is "generally illegal" in Japan. Boat racing, Horse racing and Keirin are controlled by the government. Pachinko is a form of disguised gambling in which the police don't bother. The logic is that if they bust the pachinko parlors, illegal gambling will go further underground. Many people are missing the point here. The problem is not only the fact that the ball players were involved in illegal gambling. The bigger problem is that baseball players gambling on baseball has a potential of leading to "yaocho" or fixed matches. This has been a problem in the past with baseball and sumo.

Why in the world are the kids allowed to hang out with the Yakuza in the first place?!

Mugon denwa = silent call... That's new to me. I learned something today.

I don't think that there's much of a choice here. The money has to be spent. The Philippines is asking for help from the US Navy (kicking them out of Subic Bay may have been a bad move...) to patrol the area. Unfortunately, many things don't become newsworthy until it comes up and hits someone on the head. The countries in that area are now getting hit on the head and feeling it. It will only be a matter of time before we start feeling it here in Japan. As a matter of fact, many of the Japanese fishermen in the southern islands are already feeling it. Many of them are saying that they are too scared to go out to the southern fishing grounds.

Sounds strange... Why only a "5-mm gash" and why is it below the knee? I remember a case some years ago when a child claimed to have been attacked and police eventually found out that it was a self-inflicted wound and that the child wanted the parents to pay more attention to him/her. Just a thought...

Someone said it well, "I'm offended that so many people are so easily offended." The museum should have had the balls to say "We're very sorry that you don't like the exhibit. However, it is quite popular and we have no plans to make any changese in the near future. Have you tried Cowboy Tuesdays? Visiters can dress like cowboys, shoot guns and pose next to our John Wayne wax doll.

I myself drive a Jeep and love it. Utill recent I was a Toyota fan. American cars are slowly but surely improving. Especially in style. We Americans have to admit, American cars were pretty much sh#t for about 20 years or so from about the late 70's. I guess we figured that if we just continued pumping them out, people would buy them. That's where the Japanese started to fill the market with well-built, not necessarily cool but "reliable" cars. I remember when the American auto makers were complaining about car sales in Japan when the steering wheel wasn't even of the "right" side. Give me a break!!

"Open the market! Open the market!" If the cars were truly "miryokuteki" or attractive, the consumers would be making this demand. Not the auto makers.

Some people don't seem to understand the dangers of using earphones. It's sort of hard do believe... No. The earphone/headphones may not be the direct cause of the accident at the intersection. However, one could speculate that the cyclist may have been fiddling with his music player or smart phone.

To the rider that says that the headphones keep him "focused". Apparently you are not very concerned with being able detect approaching danger. When riding a bike, you basically have only two senses that help you survive you trip. Sight and hearing. With earphones in your ears and music playing, you just lost one of your two senses.

Please ride safely.

The HULK!!!

in a statement faxed to Reuters

I remember a persistent sales company in Tokyo used to keep sending me their ads by fax. I told them to stop advertising at my expense. They wouldn't so I taped some paper together to make a loop and faxed it to them...

I know that I'm going to get hung for saying this but, if I were the rep for the abductees' families (which I'm not so maybe I should just keep my mouth shut...) I would tell the JP Gov "Don't worry about us. We'll be fine. So please, just ignore those B#ST&RDS!" Sorry...

in the case of flooding or landslides, they’re much easier to get to for repairs than subterranean cables.

This is a common excuse that has been used over the years. "They’re far less expensive to install..." Is the main reason. There is a much higher risk of power outages caused by typhoons, falling trees and so on and most of these would not happen if the power line were underground in the first place. Not too often will you have to worry about floodings and landslides in most cities in Japan.

Reminds me of when Obama bowed to the Japanese Emperor. People were saying "America doesn't bow to anyone!"... Grow up.

That sort of sounds like "Let's start teaching them English from an earlier grade. That should make the fluent..." Throw more of it at them.

Is there a "planned parenthood" sort of place in Japan like there is in the States for young people to go and try to figure things out? Never heard of one and I've been living here for a looong time...

I'd give the Hawaiian BBQ Pork a try...

Why not just an old school method that seemed to work in my day? It was called a "time limit". If you can enforce a "no game day" then a time limit should be possible. Actually it would be much better than a "no game day". "No game day" sounds so much like you're preventing addiction. A time limit of games, net and TV would be more of a "better lifestyle" sort of thing... What do you think?

They should start by teaching the police how to ride a bicycle. They are always going the wrong way on the one-way streets. I also see them on narrow sidewalks where bicycles should be on the street.

discrepancies in the shadows cast by the hostages, which he said could indicate images of the two men had been inserted into the desert footage.

...or it could mean that the terrain is not flat. In which case the shadows would not be consistent with those casted on a flat surface.