Greg Demmons comments

JAL could not do anything. If they had the men would have whined and stamped their feet that they had to be near girls and never used the airline again. But we should respect Japanese women's right to be subservient.

If there was any doubt that the intelligent Japanese moved to Canada and the US in the early 20th century, this story should change your mind. How stupid were the people who booked that? World champs treated this way would obviously bring media attention. Women should leave that patriarchal hole in modern history. But then again, interviewing entering students to my high school in Kyoto over the past few years and finding that half the girls in class claim their dream is to marry a rich man, while half of the remainder want to be flight attendants to meet a rich man, it is not surprising that women's place in Japsn has not changed, maybe Japanese women want to be subservient.

timtak, it depends on where you live and whether you are female. Prostitution, pervs, pedophiles, and the general state of women's existence in Japan is pretty sad. As a guy who lived there for 4 years, I can agree with you. But I would not want a daughter of mine growing up there. If you point to statistics which say Canada or the US is more dangerous for women, we both know that in Japan and other Confucian-based societies, rape and molestation are extremely under-reported.

Gangs are a natural extension of any societal structure that allows and even promotes financial hierarchies.

I did not bother to read the other comments...but what this says about Japanese women is pretty sad. Are Japanese women such losers that they still only think about the money? I think it will be funny in the distant future when people look back wondering why the pace at which Japan's population disappears increased. Author (broad and generous use of the word), if you think that people around the world think that otaku are cool, then you should take your right hand (or your left, if the right is busy), reach behind your head, grab yourself by the hair and yank your head out of the toilet bowl. People in the west do not think Japanese otaku are cool. Some western losers use Japanese otaku as a model for their own sorry-ass, living-in-mom-and-dad's -basement-cuz-they-can'-get-a-job lifestyle. Most people laugh at these people.

I want to see the picture of her looking "good on jeans". In this picture she seems to be in them, rather than on them.

This will jumpstart the Japanese clothing designers as they struggle to create sweaters for the anorexic population here!!!

Japanese demand nothing, That is why a criminal like Ozawa is allowed to run everything here. And if you believe that any of the stories in this paper actually quote real people and are not just totally fabricated stories, I have some nice farmland in Tohoku that I would like to sell you!!!

"I am glad that Noda will become the next Prime Minister. He is the opponent to "the Rights of Foreigners to Vote (外国人参政権)" what the Democratic Party stated on their Manifesto. He is better than other Candidates who are traitors and want to make the Rights to Bill in future. No Gaijins are allowed to run this country's politics!" Mr. Moderator, this is a bit worse than the comments you have removed that I have posted!!! lol Let's see if I can get one removed again...maybe if gaijin ran your country, nippawn, you would not be the laughing stock of the world!

Cleo, i have not read all the comments here, but he left Japan because they were going to divorce. In his case, he most likely would never have been allowed to see his son again, due to the inane laws of Japan. The most frequent occurrence is that Japanese people living abroad take their kids back to Japan and the other parent is summarily dismissed from any parental contact. His move was a ploy to make sure he had some bargaining power. The world is big and there is no reason why anyone should feel obligated to stay in any one place anymore.

Open your beauty by covering your face with a bunch of crap. The world is collapsing in upon itself with all this superficial stuff. Do people even understand how stupid they are to spend all this time and money getting fake?

To be fair, all of my Japanese friends here think these guys are idiots. They hate the Imperial Japan motif!

Oh no! Now we can no longer call the citizens of Kyoto Japanese! They have rejected the hive! And for what? Do these people not understand that even in the face of possible radiation contamination, the most important thing is to recognize your assimilation into the hive? Resistance is futile. Your weapons of reason will be defeated and you will contribute to the overall destruction of this once great nation like the rest of us! Silly Kyoto-ites!!!

Of course, I mistyped "food"...lol!

Ummmmm...so everyday I am ready to slap almost everyone I meet here for obsessing about foot, my weight, their own weight...does that mean that everyone here is anorexic?

LOL...I prefer Canadian and American lean beef. I have had kobe beef, and last December my wife and I stayed in Hida-Furukawa. The ryokan we stayed in served Hida beef everyday. It was fine, but I really do not like the fat taste in a steak. A good cut of Angus kicks Kobe any day for me.

I hope that Japan stays the way it is. In the future, western companies are going to need somewhere that we can have slave-like labour. Capitalism needs people who do not think at work to do lower-end, menial jobs. Right now we are relying on 3rd World countries for this. The problem is that those countries will go through the usual cycle of understanding how the world and the economy works and they will become less satisfied with their conditions and demand more. Fortunately, Japanese workers have always been this way, and Japanese companies demand blind obedience. We will need this in the future! Keep it up, not your head, your tolerance for abuse at work!

Is there anything to do but laugh? This is just a reflection of the saving face is more important than protecting people attitude that plagues Japan and the society here. Just imagine what will happen when the big Tokai earthquake hits? Japan and its citizens must remove their heads from the sand, or wherever they have it currently buried, and understand that this culture has to get flushed if they are to survive into the future. Or it may just be that my Japanese friend Tai is right when he says that Japan is overpopulated and the sooner that the population is reduced to no more than 75 million, the better. If that is the case, then I guess we just have to sit back and watch the carnage!

Just one more reason Japan will always be in trouble! Fortunately, the Japanese are eating noodles and have no idea that this is not just a Downtown Batsu game!

@hisashiburi: I was relating an incident from my school. I was not referring to the incident in the article. What I meant to convey is that it is not uncommon for this stuff to happen. it is uncommon for anyone to be punished publicly for it. We suspect that the school was hoping not to incur any publicity, and it is also mendoi to have to get a new teacher, right? Anyway, until the policy of saving face at all costs is changed here, nothing else will change. Most serious infractions are taken care of internally. At our school you are punished by being put in a bad office area, or even put in the disciplinary department...ironically!

Yeah, but he has to come back to help his country save face, which is more important than anything else. He was probably told that if he doesn't come back he would not be able to play in real games in the future!

My wife called me at school one day, upset because she saw a young child get left behind at the Horikawa here in Kyoto. I asked a Japanese teacher nearby what the best thing to do would be. He replied "If she calls the police, they will collect the child and bring him back to his parent and tell her not to do that again." My wife stayed nearby, waiting, 30 -40 minutes later, the mother reappeared. I remember I used to hear at home in canada how much more family-oriented Asia people were...hmmmm...

And the winner for the most insanely, childish population of people on the earth goes to...... Ladies and Gentlemen...we have a tie! South Korea and Japan tie for fighting over the most useless piece of rock in the ocean!

What would you say if a part time teacher punched a boy in the face and then, 2 weeks later, was caught showing a female student how to breath properly by placing his hand on her tummy and rubbing it for her? The other teachers, who were appalled at this (and they are all foreigners) were told there is nothing we can do about it. We all make mistakes. We were told that we don't understand Japanese culture!

Sorry Tarukawa-san, but you should have thought of this many years ago. It is too late. Your farmland will not be arable for some time. It sounds harsh, but Japanese citizens let politicians and companies get away with so much because they are too brain-washed to say anything. Companies that make you feel guilty for not staying at work, despite having no work to accomplish, and politicians that gain most of their income from bribes and deals like the original TEPCO setup, will continue to rule, because you allow it. It is a terrible thing which has happened, but hopefully you will wake up and teach your kids that it is not ok to sit around with your thumb up your butt waiting to be ordered around.

This is a land where apologizing, as long as the bow is at the appropriate level, is ok. The government and TEPCO have apologized. You cannot say it is ok to apologize for everything by bowing one day, and then change the next to other forms of apology the next. This is outrageous! You are placing Japanese culture in a precarious position. You people do not understand Japanese culture. Shameful!