Fred Lewis comments

@Hackman...

Shouldn't these spikes in COVID cases...

It is not hard to understand if you think about it...

The results are predominantly because of 2 factors:

Population Density - although not as high as Hong Kong, Japan has a great deal of both rural and mountainous land which artificially lower the total density compared to Huge Major cities with very large populations living on top of one another - Oklahoma ain't got no Yamanote line.... One of the highest proportions of aged population in the world - 38% over 65 years [ est. in 2020 ] and expected to climb to close to 50% in the next 20 years...

According to national news in the US = Louisville agrees to $12M settlement with Breonna Taylor's family, pledges police reform... You can find it with a simple search

It's terrible to lose a loved one like that but... DAMN - that's a lot of cash considering the boyfriend fired the first shot before the police even entered the building...

Ugly mess all around...

Quick Question...

If you have even a small quantity of an illegal substance in your home - WHY would you even open the door to the police asking for entry ? Did they break the door down ? Did they have a Master key ? Does he not know how to use the security chain / bar on his door while he is at home to protect himself from burglars who might have a Master key in their pocket ?

Seems to me that someone in such a situation would happily flush the toilet so there was a clean bowl for his visitors before unlocking / un-deadbolting his door and granting them access... But perhaps that's too polite ?

What the article forgets to mention is that he was emptying cans that had been charged to new renters for apartment deodorization but never used - a scam - and was emptying them on-mass because he was about to be discovered in an inventory check the following day...

That part was actually the big story - not the stupidity of blowing himself up... But it seems that the company may have just donated some money to some local officials because that part was never officially addressed...

This all went down about 300m from my house and the explosion rattled the windows big time - the following day when walking to Hiragishi Subway I found shards of glass imbedded in the exterior walls of a pachinko parlor like shuriken across the 4 lane + median street...

Knew it was an explosion right away because only a explosion or artillery has a percussion & reverberation like that...

Doxing...

"the action of finding or publishing private information about someone on the internet without their permission, especially in a way that reveals their name, address, etc."

While I find cyber-bullying wrong and socially reprehensible... we, as a people, should believe in 2 principals...

innocent until proven guilty

two wrongs don't make a right

I have no faith at all that there will be a group of people - likely gov't hires or associates - that will get this right in every instance and end up DOXING the wrong person or someone who's comments are taken out of context etc.., The results of which will likely equal or surpass the supposed original offense...

Gott'a be a better way than marching them through the streets screaming SHAME, SHAME, SHAME...

Slippery slope IMO...

Hokkaido:

- - 0.5 cases / 100,000 in HOK equals 27.5 new cases daily to satisfy these arbitrary draconian standards... - - Cases in Hokkaido haven't been that high since May 4th / more than 2 weeks ago... ***Source:*** https://stopcovid19.hokkaido.dev/en/

Truth be told - even though its a tremendous pain in the backside with the minor restrictions that come with a SOE, I am happy that those of us living in HOK are being forced to endure this for a few more days / weeks of this nonsense - the extra days may make our situation for the better in the long run but PULEASE don't throw out these "standards" and then ignore them of suggest that the environmental, cultural and social norms can be compared using the same numbers between HOK and Tokyo - the sheer size of HOK and it's population base means that we are already ahead of the curve in regard to social distancing...

Happy to take a couple of extra days in isolation if it helps in the long run though....

Perhaps Ghosn could also remedy his situation by simply "promising to repay the money he has been accused of falsely reported earning....."

Uhhhhh... chotto mate... Ghosn didn't actually receive the money he is being accused of being paid.... He is being accused of under-reporting income - in advance - he would have received at his retirement...

So the question becomes - When does he EARN the money - during the periods of prosperity during the SAR - or - when he is actually paid the money ??

Most countries cover this under deferred earnings - no different from a registered retirement fund for years of service or performance - - the money only becomes taxable when it's withdrawn / received... This is why people - even average Joes & Janes - wait until after retirement then pull out retirement deferred earnings in years where they have less taxable income because they are no longer working... COMPLETELY legal and even recommended by most countries and corporations as they can hold onto the money longer - investing it or using it as working capital - then pay it out after retirement - this being a known time schedule that they can keep that money working for...............

I MUST have something wrong - surely a RRSP can't be illegal in Japan ?? Can it ??

As far as Ghosn's alleged crime - surely somewhere within the depths of Nissan's balance sheet there had to be an audited line that accounted for "long term debt" in the form of performance bonusses due to the CEO upon retirement ? and if not, HOW can that be the CEO's fault ?

Just asking...

PS - I recognise that prosecutors have since piled on additional charges to help justify their case or solicit a confession but the initial charges seem all that more ludicrous based on this news story....

In reality - there are few people who arrive on Japan's shores that are truly "refugees" in the sense of the word that most of us envision...

We tend to see these "refugees" as the stereotypical people from 3rd world countries without a pot to p**s in and little other than the clothes on their back who are fleeing war, disease and impoverishment...

The UNHCR has done it's best to reclassify many who used to be considered "refugees" and instead gives them the classification of "IDP's" or "Internally Displaced Persons" - - these people are those that are displaced ( sometimes within their own countries or countries that border their own ) by conflict, natural disasters and other reasons... These peoples are NOT refugees and indeed they arrive on Japan's shores to claim "status" because they can afford the plane ticket to get here... IDP's are expected to have a reasonable chance of being able to "go home" one day and this is why they receive a 2nd class status - so to speak - and do not need to ask for protection - protection being the 1st mandate of the UNHCR...

It's a befuddled mess to tell the truth - who is really a refugee ? who is simply an IDP ? who is an economic immigrant ?

This is the 2 edged sword that Japan wields - for the most part it is tough to claim refugee status if you arrive by plane from Frankfurt............................... Refugee "status" - as recognised by all member states of the UN - can only be given by the UNHCR and the people being turned away likely do not posses "status" and as such - a difficult time proving that they need to relocate to Japan...

The comments of the High Commissioner are being taken out of context IMO - I am sure that he would like to see Japan accept more refugees - but the ones that he's talking about don't arrive here by there own means - they are waiting in line in a UNHCR camp or housing facility somewhere - waiting.....

Dozens of South Korean small-business owners rallied...

Aw shucks.... "DOZENS"........

Thousands of South Koreans have signed petitions posted by citizens on the presidential office's websites that called for boycotts of Japanese products and travel to Japan and for South Korea to skip next year's Tokyo Summer Olympics

I can't walk anywhere in downtown Sapporo or in any of the rural tourist spots - like the Blue Lake close to Biei - without tripping over HUNDREDS of Korean tourists...

Thanks for the ￥ supporting our tourist industries - we appreciate your patronage - but if you do decide to stay home don't fret, there are THOUSANDS of Chinese tourists waiting to take your Hotel and Kanko bus reservations...

@**smithinjapan.... **btw, Japan won't go to the ICJ over the Senkakus, will they?

Just to clear up a minor issue...

CHINA, although members of the ICJ, are not signatories of the "Declarations Recognising the Jurisdiction of the Court"...

JAPAN on the other hand IS a signatory as of 6 October 2015...

Effectively, this means that although Japan could go to the ICJ over the Senkakus - China does not recognise the Courts decisions as binding and, even though a member of the ICJ, has not bound itself to abide by the court's decision....

From the ICJ website... "Each State which has recognized the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court has in principle the right to bring any one or more other States, which have accepted the same obligation, before the Court, by filing an application instituting proceedings with the Court. Conversely, it undertakes to appear before the Court should proceedings be instituted against it by one or more other such States."

https://www.icj-cij.org/en

Regarding the specific issue of the Senkakus...

Japan has no need to call China to the ICJ over the Senkakus as they are not the "supposed" aggrieved party... If China were to decide to sign the declaration and then apply to the court for clarification on the Senkakus then Japan would be obligated to appear and abide by any decision as "binding"...

For some reason, China has done neither - perhaps because signing the declaration binds them to the authority of the ICJ for a minimum period of 5 years which might embolden other aggrieved parties ( like Tibet ? ) to call them to court

I believe most countries in the developed world - covering a diversity of cultures and ehtnicities - have banned the trading of wild animals. WAZA ( world assoc. of zoos & aquariums) also bans the taking and trading of wild animals in almost all instances. Most zoos & aquaria in Japan follow this code of ethics.

Captive bred animals don't fall under this ban... so, I can only assume that because these animals are being sold / traded (?) to a foreign country that they must be captive bred and NOT wild or captured in the wild...

Not stating any fact or substantiation for this story - just stating the obvious ( I thought ) while everybody goes on about dolphin "hunters"... If they were caught "wild" then the people in violation of this ban should be held accountable....

@SaikoPhysco An "out of competition" test is one where the anti-doping boys show up outsid@SaikoPhysco an "out of competition" test is where a tester for the Doping agency - usually a nurse or lab tech - shows up on your doorstep / place of work / friends wedding ( virtually anywhere anytime ) and makes a demand for a blood &/or urine sample... There are famous stories of this from many elite level athletes around the world who wake up to a knock at their door at 3:00 am or on arriving home from a training run etc...

This is designed to catch "cheaters" who train under the influence of banned substances and are then clean during competition - hence - "out of competition" test - it is not from a test taken during another event...

All this said - we are not yet aware of the substance that was found in his samples - it could be something REALLY serious like anabolic steroids / HGH etc.., or it could be something innocuous like a cough medicine that contains a banned substance like codeine etc.,

Let's wait and see, shall we, before we condemn the Japanese Sporting establishment as a bunch of cheaters & dopers...

Although ANY doping is wrong, let's not forget that this is a "reserve" athlete - in no way a mitigating factor - with a somewhat famous sister to live up to... As a reserve, he may have more of a reason to seek an advantage or he may have been caught with some "party favors" in his system - anything is possible...

Frankly - it might backfire on these self appointed Chinese Tourism Overlords and be a boon for APA hotels.. I personally know 100's of Japanese businessmen who would flock to a chain of hotels that was devoid of Chinese tourists ( for their own undeniable reasons ).

This whole "race to the bottom" in the hotel industry for companies feeling they need to compete with others by just lowering and lowering prices ( and subsequently having to cut staff and services ) in order to compete for the Chinese tourist dollar is a path to bancruptcy for some of these chains who are now simply surviving on "cash flow" because there is NO profits at the current rates - - the tourists WILL eventually dry up and after 1 month of negative cash flow with no income the players will start to drop.

Watch for he Chinese investment dollars snapping up hotel chains that are faltering under this phenomena...

I think that Streeps diatribe is indicative of the butthurt that Hollywood is feeling over the election - Let's face it, they pulled out all the stops to use their popularity and inferred influence to push the election towards Hillary and the Democrats....

Regardless of feelings about Trump or Hillary I continue to be disgusted at the feeling of power and self entitlement that these Hollywood talentos feel in "telling" their fans how to vote in the election and then crying on Facebook because in the end when they came to the abrupt realization their power over the "average" American citizen was less than they felt...

Is this any different from anyone else - Russia or other foreign powers ( hacking aside ) - from trying to have an influence on the election ?

Trump is as Trump does... lets get over that and settle into learning to deal with what comes next - - TIME TO MOVE ON HOLLYWOOD - YOU LOST....

It doesn't surprise me that Apple is infinitely more profitable, but what does that say about the average Apple user?

Actually - It's what it says about the average Android handset manufacturer - -

They are giving their phones away in order to saturate the market & while in many industries this would be considered illegal in almost every company it is considered a poor choice and an unsustainable business model by investors

Who made the batteries, or where were they made?

According to US news reports I watched the defective batteries were sourced in Korea and the batteries that were reported as OK ( in the vast majority of phones sold - btw ) came from Chinese manufacturers...

A bit of a reversal from normal stereotypical "Chinese products = cheap / unsafe"...

Yeah - I can't help but think that regardless of whether the group embellished the account or not it appears that Brazil is trying VERY hard to make it appear that it NEVER happened - - - Rio has had such poor publicity over the Olympics that I can not help but think that it's reputation will be left much worse off than before the Olympics...

The story about the Olympic village rooms being robbed while everyone evacuated the building due to a fire alarm being tripped was particularly enlightening about the level of professionalism, organisation and audacity that the thieves in Rio have...

If there is one thing that the Japanese Grand Prix is famous for amongst the F1 fraternity and press core - it's the enthusiasm and dedication of the fans...

Not only the over the top fans - such as pictured here - but also the families that attend, bringing their children and even elderly parents with them = = it is universally commented on by the travelling F1 crowd that they see many more kids and teenage fans here in Japan than in any other venue...

Japan represents - now if only Kamui could have kept his seat....

To some extent I believe that the Japanese public - at least partially - is being manipulated...

Just like in PRC where the CCP "seeds" rallies with there own protagonists - I believe that the main opposition parties are VERY purposefully stirring the pot in order to gain political favour and try to influence the publics opinion of the duly elected government...

This is not to say that there aren't a multitude of citizens and voters that right or wrong have concerns and disagreement with this legislation but - between the opposition political parties trying to claw back some power "at ANY cost" and the press core throwing gas on the fire at every turn to generate more clicks and page turns - the citizenry is not being well served...

This is not social discourse - the fires are slowly being fanned into anarchy...

The site of lawmakers pushing, shoving & punching - the site of students & normally peaceful protesters pushing down police barricades and ignoring police authority are scenes "more akin to China and Korea"... Shame on you - I thought the Japanese were better than this...

Ironic that those protesting agains their "disillusions" of war are fixed on using violence and anarchy to get their voices heard - someone somewhere is profiting from all of this activity but that is just the way the world works these days...

I find it somewhat farcical that many commenters here who are condemning this legislation are the same ones who are rabidly demanding that the US pull it's forces out of Japan entirely ( not just Okinawa )... I don't believe you can have one without the other - make up your mind - either the US says here to defend us in a meaningful way when the s**t hits the fan - or - we take steps to do it ourselves with or without the US... "Cake and eat it too" comes to mind...

Yes Luce-A... discrimination is easy to accept - UNTIL it happens to you....

Just try to fathom the frustration involved when I was refused a membership in my local ( 50m from my front door ) sports club / gym because I TRUTHFULLY answered the questionnaire which asked "do you have any tattoos" = the tattoo in question is about the size of a 10 yen coin....

Imagine the further frustration when I said to them - "But I had a membership here for 3 years up until 5 years ago and the manager at the time told me that "it's no problem"" - only for it to be suggested that I must be lying because the policy has always been in place and would never be ignored... So how did I get a membership before I ask - and the frustration goes from there to warp speed as the ignorance ramps up...

Fact is - the Japanese running these facilities know damn well what is a yakuza tattoo and what is ( for lack of a better term ) "body art" on a foreigner... Banning ANYONE with a tattoo ( even a 1 cm one ) is just plain easier than having to make a decision as to who gets in and who doesn't - let's not risk pissing off a yakuza by letting anyone in with a small tattoo...

Afraid that all they will accomplish today is to get a sniff of the watch or perhaps be able try one on...

It has been reporting for the last couple of weeks that....

"Apple will not be accepting walk-in orders for the Apple Watch during the first weeks following launch. All orders must be placed online"...

http://www.macrumors.com/2015/04/10/apple-watch-now-available-for-preorder/

inshikokuMAR. Honda developed their VTEC engines in F1 in the 80s and 90s with McLaren and then unceremoniously got out. Now to catch up with Toyota they are doing it again.

Toyota has not been in F1 for a very long time - no catching up to do there

There is the new Formula E in the US, with electric powered vehicles. Some results even got into the papers.

Formula E is not a US based series - - there are 10 races in the season - only 2 of which are in the US

Weirdly and sadly F1 becomes interesting with a few deaths, like in the bad old days. With Schumacher it was more boring when he was winning with Ferrari, but it became interesting when he had his accident, skiing, hitting that tree that jumped into the middle of the road.

Schumacher had already retired from F1 ( for the 2nd time ) when this unfortunate accident happened and did not hit a tree - he hit a ROCK - and a small one at that...

To call that accident - were a sports legend is left an invalid - "interesting" is a sad commentary - I hope that no friend or family member of yours ever suffers such a fate - karma can be fickle....

Police chases in Japan - for the most part - do not usually end quickly or safely. The mandate in a chase is to bring it to a conclusion as quickly as possible without endangering the public... One of the biggest problems here is that 80% of the police force is cruising aroun in little <100 hp k-cars and about all they can actually accomplish is to parade around following the perpetrator HOPING they will either grow a conscience and stop or crash before / without injuring a member of the public... If the "average" police car was built for something other than going to Seiyu for groceries then perhaps these chases could be halted much sooner and therefore endanger less citizens... It's not a matter of chases being needed or not ( I believe that they are necessary somethimes ) it's a matter of giving the pursuers a fighting chance of concluding a stop in the shortest possible distance - AND you can't do that chasing a V6 anything with a K or Klown car...