Goat comments

What is the point of the picture of the young women at the bottom? Further sexualizing an already difficult social issue belittles the point attempting to be made.

The picture is not irrelevant or meant to sexualize the issue. If you read the caption on it, you'll know they're the K-pop group NewJeans that were victims of deepfake porn and took legal action against it.

I feel Japan has made sufficient agreements together with South Korea to put many of these issues in the past. I don't like Japan's attitude towards remembering some of the atrocities. It comes across as insincere. These are events that need to be remembered and learned from, but the government seems to just want everyone to forget about it now.

It's not about Japanese citizenship but about whether foreign residents will be considered municipal citizens (市民). Everyone living there is already considered a resident and being a "citizen" doesn't actually seem to mean anything. Like the article says, it's just to give a sense of being part of the community and promote involvement. Then include foreign residents in the text.

But people looking for meaning where there is none feared it would lead to voting rights as well. In any case, the pointlessness of it all seems to have caused more confusion.

Here's the Japanese: https://www.saga-s.co.jp/articles/-/1001302

Michael MachidaToday  08:26 am JST

"...Sometimes, less secrecy brings more safety."

Not sure how he thinks this is a truism.

It's not being presented as a truism but an opinion, argued in the article and mainly in this paragraph:

Overclassification impedes information-sharing by agencies and makes people trust the system less. Some government employees may even come to believe the system is too secretive. That “may encourage dangerous information leaks from within the government,” stated the board’s 2020 report urging modernization of the system.

It really is time for a reform. Just like moving house, sometimes getting rid of an old agency and replacing it with another is a great chance to reevaluate what to toss and what to keep, and to bring in a new system.

More cities should ban the sale of retail pets. There are all of these pet shops in Tokyo showcasing their cute little puppies and kittens, but once these animals grow up, many of them get abandoned. Pet adoptions are the way to go; I don't want to see these animals being a product in a business (and similarly discarded).

I understand it'd be difficult for the government to continue to support them indefinitely, but the refugees should at least be offered language classes and help with the transition rather than just be told it would be difficult to continue living in Japan. I'm inclined to believe what the evacuees have to say over some ministry spokesperson.

Not to mention the children being left in the street at night.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220913/p2a/00m/0na/005000c

The children should've been protected better. This was preventable and why is it news 9 months later?

Feasible as long as it replaces the means-based social security in place that often gives money to those who scam the system and which also doesn't benefit those who should qualify.

It's desirable too since the money given to the poor has a much bigger economic impact than being saved.

UBI cuts the needless bureaucracy and is the most effective, efficient way to distribute wealth. It just shouldn't change so easily or drastically with the change of each administration.

Other changes to the law proposed by the government had included measures for a complementary protection system, which would allow people who do not fulfill the criteria of a refugee but are judged to still need asylum from their home country to stay in Japan.

If someone is judged to need asylum but doesn't meet the criteria of a refugee, it's time you change the criteria! Am I missing something?

Japan has apologized and paid recompensation, but it's become such a political issue. It's in the interest of politicians in Japan and Korea to keep it alive in the name of patriotism. Ridiculous. Japan trying hard to put the past in the past and forget didn't help. This exhibit is very welcome, and it's high time that the issue of comfort women be left to a 3rd party like the ICJ.

There are some highly qualified candidates on that list whom I would be happy to see as a Justice of the Supreme Court. Many presidents in the past, Republican and Democrat, limit their candidates by race or gender beforehand to add more diversity/perspective to the court. Especially since we can't exactly have blind recruitment for the SCOTUS. Race and gender will always be a factor here and if Biden doesn't choose a Black, female candidate, he'll probably be looking at white males; not because they're better qualified either.

NHK decided not the air the matches either for fear that it would somehow violate its commitment to "good taste and moderation".

It is considered one of four major pollution diseases in the country and taught in schools as an example of the negative impact of postwar Japan's rapid economic growth.

Education on the issue doesn't seem to go far beyond the textbook. The least teachers could do is connect it to the injustices done to the victims by the government as well and to other examples of pollution for economic gain. It's far from being just an issue of the past.

It was pretty shocking when the US suddenly dropped out of the partnership in the name of unilateral deals over multilateral ones. They really shot themselves in the foot.

The article forgets to mention that "the defendant's pre-sentencing detention period would be factored in the payment of fines. Therefore, even if the punishment of 300,000 yen is finalized, the defendant, who was detained for some two months, would not have to pay the fines."

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210422/p2a/00m/0na/026000c