Gaijin Dilemma comments

I'm all for vaccination and all, but exactly how is this going to be upheld and authenticated by various government? I have read somewhere that already there's a company which is making a ton of profit selling fake health certificates of all sorts.

I think it has to be 3 flanks coverage before it can work. Firstly, is to have a common method of recognition for those have been vaccinated. Secondly, a quick and reliable test for detecting the virus, and if need to, even the antigen in one's body. Third and finally, travelers will need to agree to some form of contact tracing.

Personally, I think it's gonna be a long while to get there. Let's keep our fingers crossed on this one.

Given his talent and gifted skills, it's all about having the right mental strength and motivation to ride to the top for him.

I'm sure they would target the same audience group who are in the 30s - 50s today who followed them faithfully for the whole 10 seasons.

I still remember a crude cast aside comment by an old timer, in the 90s, who said "What's so interesting about bunch of friends who sleeps with each other??". Couldn't quite rebut that, but I was more drawn into the chemistry and spontaneity among them as the show matured (starting around season 4 I would say?) from earlier days.

It would be a nice comeback if they can catch something relevance, for maybe a short limited edition series.

Not that I want to sound condoning to such violent crime, perhaps we should think about why a man in his 80s would be resolute enough to stab his son while living under the same roof?

He will definitely serve his time, whether or not repenting, in prison for a long time to come.

2 very important points to take note here, rather than the negatives.

Point No 1. Japanese public that favor the name Charlotte simply did not mean anything else but love and affection to the new born monkey. The thought of dis-respect or menace is not harbored as some perceived it. It was a beautiful name that 95% of Japanese people can't even pronounce properly if it's not because of the royal arrival of the British princess.

Point No 2. The British people are not easily offended and in fact generally possess strong sense of humor in even self mockeries that's almost non existence in Asia. This is one area that the East and the West are distinguished quite clearly. As some pointed out, many Japanese MAYBE offended if something similar was done in one of the UK zoos. Many British do see the baby monkey naming as an affection rather than any other insinuation.

The Mayor did the right thing to stick to what the true intent, as stated by my point no.1. And the British behaved admirably mature in the use of the obviously non exclusive lovely name as their little princess.

If you look at the number of cops go rogue which are DISCOVERED in this country, it's really nothing to be alarm about. Most other countries have similar problems, most not reported. The more dire issue is to find ways not to doubt the good and responsible majority, but to have some kind of cross checking system in place to protect the public, typically when it comes to sensitive personal information. This case is really one close shave, he should be punished to the full extent of the law and not to be allowed near any minors.

Why is it that when a Japanese driver had an unfortunate incident like this so many would jump for a slice of meat in mocking the sad event? Search around the world's news and you won't find it hard to locate some of the most silly and meaningless similar automobile related incidents/accidents. Although we all can learn something here, dead SLOW and verify again before backing, or moving out of parking with blind spots around. You can't be more careful. And you won't kill if you're a dead slow. I will never be able to live with myself if I ever harm anybody as a consequence of not looking around carefully enough. As for those impatient drivers, please bear in mind the driving system around the world doesn't cater for the best drivers. It's all about average people, so please have some patience and don't make a mountain out of mole hill. I have only had ONE case of an old grandpa who blocked the carpark exit and just couldn't back his small Kei. Eventually I stepped out and just offered to park his car as the line was just getting too long. ONE case, in 10 years of driving in Japan.

Let's try focusing on facts.

Fact No.1. Majority of Muslims are loving and caring people who do practice the righteous teaching and live a peaceful and meaningful Quran guided life.

Fact No. 2. The same majority CAN'T control nor influence the less than 1% troublemakers who will settle for nothing but violence and blood as the only counter solution known to them.

Fact No. 3. The Muslim populations is increasing at a rate that will eventually form 50% of the world population by the end of century.

Fact No. 4. When the Muslim population reach a noticeable mass in any country, trouble will start brewing when they start demanding their "rights", and religious practice to be integrated into the majority's life.

Fact No. 5. Response to any threat to Islam or God by violence is acceptable, enough evidence has shown that brain washing has indoctrinated that in the name of God, death by collateral damage is glorious.

Fact No. 6. Someone mentioned Singapore as a good example of how successful is the government in integrating Muslims into their society. This is too simplistic, one should really find out how the government of Singapore in the 60s and 70s, under the charge of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, took a ZERO tolerance attitude toward ANY possibility of mass gathering of Muslims, to the extent that any apartment block in Singapore has a quota to which Muslims inhabitants are not allowed to exceed certain percentage.

I think most of you can figure the rest out, with the generally kind and respectful (and ignorant) nature of most Japanese, any significant immigration of Muslims population into this country will just accelerate the country into guaranteed conflicts in the near future.

Fortunately for me, I'm blessed with the chance of having to live in this country and integrate happily AND in my 50s, I won't be alive anymore to witness any change that I mentioned above in Japan, or in the world.

All the best to the next generation.

He called 110, then gave chase and subdued Furuya who had fallen over.

This is the part that I'm more concerned about. A police officer subdued? So evident that the quality of Japanese police officers are further down the drain.

First of all, condolences to the parents of this totally avoidable tragedy. Although I'm absolutely not surprised nor shocked at this unnecessary loss of lives, due to most foolish driving habits of the younger generation, especially among those who could barely afford a Kei (light vehicle). It's almost criminal how some of these drivers zig-zagging in and out on highway, disregarding their own safety, and also the unfortunate travel companions. I used to live and work in an Asean country where they have rather good infrastructure, but the drivers' mentality and behavior are absolutely abhorring. That country has such high road accident death rates that it's not uncommon that the whole family of 5 or 6 could be wiped out in a single accident. I'm hoping that Japan won't go down this road, and the new drivers can preserve the general excellent mannerism and safety record, probably the best in Asia. (Well, I'm ready for some bashing from the usual group of Japanese haters, go ahead.)

The title for this news should be "Rapid growth leaves Asian airlines searching for CHEAP pilots".

Just like other industries, in the name of cost savings and shareholders' return, the accountants (or bean counters) are forced to come up with ways to squeeze every single layer of employees in various methods but same outcome--> Reduced benefits and wages.

There's a famous saying that goes, "If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys." Again, this applies universally to all professions. I think one needs to think a little more if you can travel more cheaply between Osaka and Tokyo on a low cost flight, then your cab ride from Namba downtown hotel to airport.

The balance or equilibrium would be drawn when they can statistically use body bags to justify the need for higher cost in training, or simply better pay to attract more qualified pilots. I do not see this coming since the rate of deaths or accidents for aviation sector is so impressively low, when you look at the number of flights conducted worldwide. No air carrier CEO would want to open this can of worms to voluntarily increase the non tangible "safety aspect", since the board of directors or shareholders again, are more interested in their return of equity (ROI).

Sadly, this is the real world driven by true capitalism, and there's nothing you and I the average Joes on the street could do anything about. Just suck it in and enjoy the ride.

Well done, a big step toward REAL considerations for others. I especially can't stand the sight of ignorant (or selfish) parents smoking while having their kids next to them.

Cigarette is the most dangerous commercially produced legally allowed product known to mankind. It doesn't just kill its users but those around them. Smokers do not want to admit it, but it's so additive that your chances of quitting smoking is next to single digit percentage, due to the fact that it doesn't kill you INSTANTLY.

Would love to see public smoking stamped out, with only dedicated areas for those who choose to do so since we're a free country after all. The right to choose, for better or worse.

If there's any country which has taught tolerance and patience, Japan won't be far off from the top of the list. I will not bother to even remotely attempt to educate nor change certain group of people who will never respect nor understand the need to follow rules or orders.

The Apple new product launch is a very carefully crafted and planned event, to achieve full effect in advertising and profitability, let alone the share holders' returns. Apple fans however, made it festival in their mood and spirits, which is totally acceptable in all levels.

And in the free market, I don't think anyone of us wants more rules and constraints to our right to purchase or resell. The problem is really not the re-sellers, these group of people comes in all color, shapes and sizes and they are too motivated to adapt to any new curbs or restrictions.

However, Apple stores could still easily come out with couple of methods to at least keep the REAL customers happy, typically avoiding the Osaka Apple store incident. One way is to take note of all names of people in line and update them daily and no substitution is allowed for an individual queue position. This way, no shameless group could barge in by joining their "friends" on the very last day and causing all the unnecessary commotion. This will not deter re-selling, but it will sure make the playing ground a lot more level. If anyone were to start lining up a week before, I have no qualms in him/her buying the entitled sets.

This is an absolutely resounding achievement. With the lack of sports culture, generally smaller Asian built size players, Kei-kun has to really excel way and beyond to get to where he is now. His coach Michael Chang would echo the same feeling. Michael was lucky that his relentless effort paid off during the French Open, and it was also expected that he was not dominating in his time despite having stretched tennis racket to have more powerful serve and longer reach.

Kei-kun seemed to have overcome all the short comings in an amazing all round play. Hopefully his physical endurance will stand the test and clinching his first Grand Slam title. Go Kei-kun.. Go!!

Let's just put it to rest as far as the debate on best of deals on food are really factually available in Japan. I will give the benefit of doubt when it comes to food safety and value for money here in Japan, especially when you only need to look around regionally for some of the unscrupulous behavior by merchants who have no regards in raking in profit by substituting harmful by products.

Back to the topic, the restaurant should be punished more severely. Simply due to the nature of how this fraud was discovered. They did not reveal an oversight nor coming clean to the public. They were caught!!

Japanese consumers are generally not cohesive enough to punish by boycotting, so the authority should at least fine the full amount of sales (7000 amounting to 10mil Yen as claimed) and direct it straight to a charitable organization, offer full refund to affected diners and shut the restaurants down for a month for first offense, or permanently for any repeat.

Someone did speak a foreigners' mind, at least it's still beef..

It's really disgusting how some readers here (no prize for guessing the nationality) could even attempt to defend this sort of crime. They have no morals, and will KILL if need to. This is one city in South East Asia that is perhaps most lawless and scary to even set foot on your own if you're not well acquainted. Don't even get me started on the number of kidnappings going on daily with unsuspecting tourists.

And seriously, a thumb down negative votes in trying to cover the truth of voice by many others? Why are we even talking about Japanese men taking advantage of Filipino ladies? Shall we also start the topic how it is that so many Filipino women are lining up to catch a ride to come to Japan in leaving the terrible crime infested city and enjoy the peaceful and welfare system here in Japan?

What a horrible and ruthless crime, no remorse nor repent.

Halal tourism must be treated carefully by Japanese. The progressive attitude of Japanese will be taken advantage and before you know it, more demand for the name of Halal tourism will surface. They can get as strict as having only Muslims preparing food since most Japanese would have been "contaminated" by pork or pork related product. And THEN what are you gonna do about it? Hire only Muslim staff? Not enough in the country, bring them as skilled workers?

Japanese should simply just adopt a respectful attitude towards our muslim guests with clear signage of presence of Pork or Pork product and don't bend over backwards to cater for the full spectrum of Japanese food.

Speed is the main culprit and not many car makers cater for strong side impact bars.

Signal lights or not, sign boards or otherwise, ANY intersection, SLOW DOWN to walking speed (<10km/h), LOOK before you drive past. The worst case you would get is just a small scare or angry stare, whether or not you have the right of way.

Hopefully the 2 little poor girls recover quickly.

Why isn't Greenpeace lashing out at Iceland then? They're the ones who killed the whales. Oh...that's right. They're white, and in line with European cultural values. (Well, except for killing whales maybe.) Much easier to demonize Asians.

Japan is not the only consumer of whale meat. Whale meat is used as food by Norway, Iceland, te Faroe Islands, by the Basques, the Inuit (and other indigenous peoples of the United States - including the Makah people of the Pacific Northwest), Canada, Greenland; the Chukchi people of Siberia, and Bequia in the Caribbean Sea. Over-exploitation of any species of whales or animal group , of course ,must be avoided, but, to date, because of proper management whale populations are not threatened with extinction . . For instance, Canada has even taken the Humpback Whale off its "endangered” list

I fully agree with above 2 posts.

The appalling, aggressive and confrontational methods Greenpeace adopted when dealing with Japanese whaling activities through some of the video footages indicate pure criminal behaviour on Greenpeace part during their attempts to halt whaling activities.

Greenpeace activists knew it too well that they won't face any reciprocating life endangering response from Japanese whaling crew, and the same can't be said if the activists show some guts to take on the European countries conducting the same activities.

Last but not least, do Japanese really consume THAT much whale meat that Japan alone may endanger the whale species??

Firstly the ship was modified, loaded and operated illegally, something that all hard evidence had pointed to, and most would agree gross negligence resulting in needless loss of so many precious lives.

Next, fingers pointing. First culprit, the ship's owner, for clearly placing profit above safety.

Secondly, the Captain, and possibly his crew, for not doing the checking on the proper operations of the ship, both in normal and emergency operations.

Thirdly, the rescue operations by the governmental bodies. Delays upon delays and no swift action and allowing precious hours to be lost in saving as many lives as possible.

In addition, understand the Koreans' present mindset and culture will call for anyone not to bother trying to even suggest that they have to reflect on anything. Criticism should only come within their own kind, and not from any outsiders and especially NOT from Japanese. No one even want to hear anything in comparison as that's too hurtful to accept, that Koreans are more inferior to Japanese, or anyone else in this world.

It's really a circus watching how pride, profits and politics should have any place when it comes to safety affecting lives. This unfortunate event blows out of proportion the full ugly human behaviours of all sorts, from the fake love messages from victims, the fake diver who aimed for quick fame, the fake politician who thought he could pretend to be family member of victims to garner some votes for future election, even the ship's company weight and balance department of altering the loading documents in attempt to cheat the authority.

The ultimate losers? The normal folks on the street, my heart goes to the victims and family, whether or not they care or appreciate.

I think it's enough speculation of what "could have happened". None of us was there to face the threat, we hardly qualify to comment on the "what ifs".

Bottom line was the affected police officers faced an immediate threat with a weapon bearing low life, and the outcome was a text book result.

In many countries as highlighted by many readers, you won't even set another foot toward the officers having anything in your possession PERCEIVED dangerous. They will shoot you and talk later, and benefit of doubt still mostly credited to the law enforcers. The fact that these Japanese officers did their best to intervene without trigger happy of the firearms earned my respect. I also have no doubt that the officer aimed on lower body of the robber, any aim near the center of the target would have yielded very different news headlines.

Well done officer, please do not go soft on violent crime like this, otherwise Japan will not be able to preserve the way of life that many of us (foreigners especially) love so much and had chosen to stay on consequently.

Hate speech must not go unchallenged. There is a difference between free speech and the verbal assaults that harm people as much as cruel sexual harassment does

CrazyJoe- Well said, well said indeed.

Wolfpack- You nailed it there, intolerance from the majority who rather apply blanket rulings.

I had lived in Australia for a mere 4 years, in my opinion, the Aussies are great bunch to deal with when foreigners (Poms being the easiest) attempt to blend in. Tension starts to brew when unfamiliar faces or race doesn't respond to friendly gesture due to whatever cultural or upbringing issues, which gave rise to the thoughts among locals that "if you're not happy to mingle, don't come to our country".

However, if you look at the intellectual and maturity level of the younger group, evidently from lots of petty crimes around, such as public vandalism, household break-ins, weekend drunken violence and hoon (reckless driver in Aus/NZ), in addition to my personal experience of witnessing some of the most uncalled for racial slurs on a weekend night out in the city. The targeted group is usually unsuspecting Asian or South Asian looking tourists. Those were the moments you wish there's a stronger law enforcement to serve justice on this misconstrued freedom of speech or expressions.

Incheon, Seoul.

You obviously have never arrived into Incheon around 10pm plus, the airport is partially closed and airport amenities are not easy to locate for transit passengers unless you have a local airport worker acquaintance. Immigration for foreigners line up till few hundred meters with only 2 counters open and follow by more long lines to exit custom. It's really a disgrace as an international airport.

On the other hand, fully agree that Singapore, got it covered in all areas, 24/7 and for short or longer term transit pax, in and out of the airport. Even Hong Kong would have come in 2nd easily in amenities compared to Incheon.

frontandcentre- The irresponsible crew would love to have your type of jury in their soon to come judicial trial on their irresponsible actions AFTER the signs of trouble. The blame game will start, without a doubt. But the main point stands, what did the crew do right AFTER the ship started sinking? I would not expect any Hollywood movie type of "Captain to go down with the ship" scenario, but I think there's enough recording of conversation and clear actions that does warrant the term manslaughter or murder.

It seems that ferry company, captain and crews did not follow the marine rules and maritime law at all. The ferry was overloaded and heavy containers are not fixed well on decks. Captain did not order crews right and did not instruct evacuation and rescue right. In the poor management the captain escaped first and abandoned all passengers while all screwed up in the big riots. Therefore tragddy just happened.

As someone that regularly travels in Asia, more frequently to South Korea, I'm not surprised with the lack of ability of them handling an out of norm situation. Just look at how the general workers are, at operating machineries, be it of any sort. There's almost no tact, nor care involved. Best evidence, take a random bus/cab trip in Seoul, and feel it for yourself how much you treasure life the moment you step out of the dare devilish driving. Only incompetent crew, like in this case the ship's thrid mate kind of numbers crunching robotic mind could instruct such sharp turn on such big ship. In addition to the fact that the ship had been evidently inappropriately modified to accommodate almost double the passengers numbers, the chances of such accident was just in the waiting. This is so big a can of worms that many shoddy details will eventually shed light, to even more amazement to the great majority of unprepared outside world.

I'm not saying that the Master and crew are not at fault, as obviously something has gone very very wrong here, but for the President to pre-judge the proper investigation that needs to take place is plainly unfair and wrong, and un befitting for a President. Her job at this stage is to support the victims' families and promise that a proper investigation is carried out, not to effectively accuse the Master and crew of "murder". I was shocked by Park's statement, which is clearly intended to curry favour with the popular mood.

I think there's enough evidence for such call to be made by her. The Captain and his crew had shown enough incompetence, negligence and cowardice that death penalty is probably awaiting, if you refer to the Maritime Laws of South Korea. Now the Captain is clamouring that his buttocks were in great pain that he had to get out, what does that tell you of his personality or integrity? Almost synonymously we heard how the Asiana airplane that crashed into San Francisco airport, that the Captain in charge never accepted responsibility of his incompetence, (perhaps due to advice by his legal counsel) and claiming a certain "flash of light" that blinded him just before the crash.

This is pretty much Korea, a country that holds too much artificially inflated pride that prevents them to learn humbly or admitting inadequacies in anything. Sandwiched between China and Japan, complicated further by historical baggages only make things worse for the average folks in Korea.

I just feel tremendously sorrowful and sympathetic that so many lives, especially the young ones were lost so needlessly. No amount of words can alleviate the grief and agony of any parent. May all the affected souls rest in peace.

@B.B.Q.Demon 100% in agreement. This is when we should not adopt the kind humanity nature, when it comes to a innocent human life, it has to be an eye for an eye.