Geeter Mckluskie comments

"I have never paid ¥10,000 for roses but I'll take the roses over the melon and my roses last 2-3 weeks."

It's not about you, Wallace.

Google the average cost of roses in the US. Never mind, I did...It's $80. What is the dollar/yen exchange rate?

It's currently 144.48 yen per 1 dollar.

"No it is not...buy them at Costco or a grocery store."

I think you misunderstand the concept of "average"

"Comparing melons with rare diamonds is taking the pip."

OK...Wallace. How about roses? That die and are thrown out in less than a week...roses that cost the same as the melons in the article.

"You wrote that Japanese buying square watermelons that are inedible is the same as Westerners buying diamonds and baseball cards.W

No, I did not write that. I used diamonds and baseball cards as examples of things which have an artificially inflated value. That's not quite the same as buying A for B. The buying of such fruit is for the purpose of "giving" the fruit as a symbol of care.

"they can't be looked as a pure investment"...Such gifts are still "an investment" in terms of maintaining a good business relationship.

"Their decision to continue doing business or not is based on a myriad of factors with just one of them being maintaining good relations."

Yes...indeed...one of them being "maintaining good relations"

@wallace

I suggest the following article: https://www.buzzfeed.com/kevintang/inside-japans-most-insanely-expensive-fruit-parlor

Regarding your "gift giving tale is BS" contention. I suggest this article in which a luxury fruit retailer in Tokyo (which has been in operation since 1834) claims that 80~90% of their products are...and I quote directly from the horse's mouth "are bought as gifts as it's customary in Japan to give high-end fruits as presents for formal occasions like weddings, business transactions, and hospital visits."

"That carbon stone and baseball card are investments. They can be resold and you regain your capital plus profit. You realize that you can't do that with a watermelon. LOL!"

Maintaining a good business relationship with a client or a partner is also an investment.

"As for it being a business gesture with 'love' involved.....companies need to cut such useless and expensive expressions of 'love'."

I was referring to roses...

"As a matter of interest, Geeter, would you feel love and care if you got an inedible, cube watermelon?"

No, but I'd be thrilled to receive a dozen roses

"Those things you mentioned are very rare, in some cases unique. Almost anybody can grow a watermelon in a box."

I suggest doing so... 300 cubic watermelons ￥10,000 a pop would bring in a tidy sum. That said, you side-stepped the salient point which was...there is a market for such things.

"Thanks for your explanation, Geeter. It's great that some foreigners get it, eh?"

Clearly, most don't.

These types of exclusive fruits are most commonly used as gifts between business associates as a show of appreciation for their cooperation and affiliation. It's a cultural thing that most foreigners don't get. They symbolize the care and attention to detail that is a reflection of their business relationship. The average cost of a dozen roses in the US is about $80~$100. The roses are dead and thrown out in less than a week. Their value is in the symbolic gesture they are imbued with that the receiver understands as a show of love and care.

"Explain to me how an otherwise normal melon is worth $66."

Sure...the same reason a colourless stone, carbon is worth upwards of hundreds of millions when cut and polished. Because there is a market for such things.

"Anyone trying to sell those in North America (or Europe) would be laughed right out of the room"

Likely by someone wearing a rock on their finger for which they paid thousands. Some American paid $12.6 million for a baseball card...lol

*it

"Tokyo is continuing on that bubble-era mindset, on a relentless path of creating an ugly dystopian concrete monstrosity. Authorities are absolutely determined to bulldoze and pave over the entire city and completely fill it with horrendous residential/office tower complexes. Not a single tree or blade of grass shall remain and the people shall be happy."

I could result as an impetus to populate the surrounding rural areas that are as verdant as anywhere on the planet.

Japan's landmass is 70% forest. Tokyo is its economic, urban center. The loss of an outdated concrete and iron baseball stadium with a concrete field covered by fake, plastic grass is hardly a "cultural" loss. I'm sure the players who play in that dump would agree, as would anyone who has experienced sitting on one of those plastic, backless "chairs" placed on concrete slabs. That stadium has the "park" atmosphere of a shopping mall parking lot.

"Because Tokyo is lacking in new high rise commercial complexes…

is there actual demand for all this office space?"

Well, as rural areas depopulate, Tokyo will become increasingly more populated. Clearly, there is a need for the space.

"As if Tokyo needs any more concrete, glass and steel monstrosities."

Apparently it does

Dear Lord! Don't tear down a concrete baseball "field" with artificial turf laid over even more concrete!

"I think that a large percentage of men would concur with that."

It really should be up to women what they want to do with their lives. Future G7 summits might consider that.

"Digital Services Act, which will force companies to crack down on hate speech, disinformation and other harmful material on their sites."

Does that include banning governments from spreading misinformation such as the CDC's head in America who claimed "You won't get the virus if you get vaccinated."?

Digital Services Act, is nothing but "Government Control of Information Act"

G7 should vow to take women's decisions into account. In a recent poll in the Japan Times, 1/3 of working women indicated that they would rather not work at all. This mirrors a poll taken in 2015 in which 5000 high school girls in Japan were asked what they want to be in the future. 1/3 of the girls responded "homemaker". This reflects the reality that 63% of women in Japan have entered the workforce while 27% have not. So, do the ministers from the G7 summit want to "take measures" to force women who value being a homemaker to get a job? At the same time they are warning Japan about their falling birthrate? Maybe there should be a G7 summit about putting more value on what is really important in society...they can ask 1/3 of working women and high school girls in Japan about what that is.

"Women's full, equal, and meaningful participation in decision-making at all levels is a matter of human rights and it also benefits everyone."

I think Japan ranks #1 in the world for this regarding the household where Mother is the Empress and has the final say on decision making at all levels.

"Rules is rules" I guess."

Yeah...that IS a guess

Next to meth and heroin, alcohol is the worst drug on the planet.

Make a reservoir and provide that water supply to politicians and TEPCO managers who make such decisions as "dump it in the sea"

Problem solved

"I worked in a pub as a student and the manager sometimes had to ask undesirables to leave, or “throw the sh#te out” as he put it in that beautiful Dublin accent."

Good for the manager. Now, if the government started sending in armed police to "throw sh#tes out" for saying things THEY deem as unsavory...We'd have the beginning of the end of democracy

"Musk has been complicit with authoritarian governments (Turkey, India) in shutting up their political opponents and does so citing that it’s the law in those countries, so I don’t want to hear any more about him being a free speech warrior

He shouldn’t have a problem following Australia’s laws unless - as many of us suspect - it’s only certain types of speech he seeks to protect."

Then you're all for free speech! Awesome! I'm with you...not Elon

"You know the story of the frog in the frying pan?"

I know the story of St.Marianna University, a Catholic institution in Tokyo being caught favoring male candidates. I know the story of how other universities were rooted out for doing something similar. Good thing Japan is a nation in which such things don't go unchecked, rather it's one in which there is recourse for such abuses. On a personal note, I came to Japan after being told flat out in my interview for the education programme at York University in Toronto that "We're currently not accepting applicants from white males". Not only does such a racist policy not get rooted out and corrected, but it is lauded and supported by the government. I wonder where Canada stands on the "racial justice" scale. Speaking of Catholic institutions, look up "Residential Schools Canada" to see how well Catholic institutions to care of the children they took from their crying mothers' arms because the native culture was deemed "too savage" to bring up their own children. While you're looking that up, look into how many First Nation's young girls are trafficked into prostitution. Where is Canada on that "gender-gap" scale? How many First Nation's women are in medical school?

"You know that several Japanese universities have accepted charges of refusing to take on women students? How many other universities and organisations are doing the same thing?"

If this had gone on you'd have an argument. The fact is this malpractice was rooted out and exposed. Good for that. My daughter is in micro-biology, in a STEM field.

"Broad generalizations never add value to an argument."

True...Which is why surveys about such things are helpful. They provide us with pervading views about certain demographic groups. I'd say a survey of 5000 is a large enough sample size to make such a generalization.

"He's the perfect voice for young women in Japan (lol)."

You just mocked a survey conducted of Japanese high school girls about what they'd like to be in the future. It was 5000 girls to be exact. You assumed that YOU know better than THEY about what they SHOULD want to do. Perhaps you should listen to more closely to what young women in Japan actually want. 2/3 of those young women said they want to become homemakers.