gyouza comments

People becoming all like "nisei" people speaking English. Isn't that nice?

Not especially. How about their own ethnic language? Wouldn't that be nice?

There is now a huge undercurrent in Singapore that I hope doesn't get ugly. Firms are flocking there because of the highly trained workforce, and relatively low labour costs. But there is also an influx of both "professionals" and "guest" workers that are having deep effects on the locals. It is incredibly difficult to buy a home now as the prices have risen so much and supply is outstripped by demand and now employment is beginnnig to get harder as some of the foreigners take up permanent residence and begin to take the jobs that locals would have been fighting for. It may not be a crisis yet, but if not handled carefully, it will be. Fingers crossed it works out OK.

People survived last year, they'll adapt to it this year too. It was uncomfortable last year, and looks like being the same now too.

What a way to end a season? Who wins and who gets relegated decided by the last games - truly amazing. Perennial clown Barton being sent off giving City a 1 man advantage, then QPR scoring two - 90 mins pass, then City get two themselves in injury time?? Was glad to see Sir Alex wish City well, he's not always so sporting.

Well done City, now prove it isn't a one-off!

Will Tevez want to stay now?

Is there an irony in the most vocal political opponent (Osaka-Hashimoto) of restarting Oi nuclear plants being most affected by shortages? I have to ask that since there was so much power sharing across the country (energy power that is) last year, why the affected areas this year are listed as being so localised. Did something change?

how fun to know one can charter it

Maybe we could organise a JT day out on it? :)

most likely an airplane. but it is an entertaining thought of a special shinkansen for his imperial majesty.

Not exactly a shinkansen but they have their own train to play with. Dingy colour though. Have seen it a few times at Shinjuku, but not sure if they board there or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_train#Japan

Shakey's Pizza is the worst. Half head, half beer, and the head does not even reach the top of the glass.

Surprises me actually. Top class joint there!

German beer has a healthy head - so the conclusion (for me) is that mabye the majority of the people wanting less head are either British (absolutely no head please) or US (comes out of a bottle anyway, so can't see the head). But as pointed out, way too much generalisation.

The false pride in Japanese engineering and science is the really astonishing thing.

Right on! I mean who's dumb idea was it to build a mountain there?

If marriage is defined as the time they are together then the marriage lasted less than three weeks!

From the start this was a disaster waiting to happen. Not being quick enough to qualify for the Japan team, he switched nationalities to get to the Olympics and to fuel interest in himself to keep his cat noise career alive. I think the IAAF should review ALL nationality changes in order to filter out these opportunists. It makes a joke of the games, and could even lead to countries hiring athletes to raise a countries profile (which is why the 12 months rule exists, and why you will have to prove that you lived there for most of that time).

As a runner he has done an incredible job of raising his game from a 4 hour marathon runner right up to 2h35min mark in a relatively short amount of time - for that I give him his due.

There was a guy from Cambodia who ran the Paris marathon quicker than Neko Hiroshi, but he had fallen out with the Cambodian Athletic federation (can't recall why) but in interviews after the race it semed like the only reason he was trying to prove he could qualify was to get publicity - had there been no focus on Neko hiroshi, I doubt if he would have bothered (or at least that's the way it seemed).

Opposition MP's want a chance to air his dirty laundry ahead of an election campaign to make DJP seem worse than the LDP. Yet another case of mudslinging because neither party really has anything valuable to offer. Personally, hearing his stories recently revealed in Bunshun weekly about the alleged child he fathered and kept hidden is going to be more interesting than instructing his secretaries to hide/shift the 4,000 ten thousand yen notes he knew nothing about (allegedly).

And.....where can one get these "legal herds" ...you know,,for scientific testing purposes :-)

Vending machines in Osaka sell it, and you can even order online with free delivery. The packs say do not inhale and as such is sold as a herb, which of course minors can buy too. Great, huh? How long before this canyon of a loophole can be closed?

@hawkeye

Obama needs the gay vote this fall to beat Romney so he playing this card now

I believe you are wrong on that. 51% of Americans (all parties) are against same sex marriage, 48% for it (1% are still asleep!) according to a Gallup poll recently. He will possibly instantly lose many democratic anti gay voters, which, in a close run election is not a positive political move. Fair play to Obama for doing this now I say. On the downside, it has taken quite a long tme for this to come out, perhaps Obama chose the right word when he said his opinion was "evolving" in recent years. Evolution of humans has taken millions of years, so what is four years in forming an opinion??

Putin promises a strong Russia on world stage

This is fantastice news. First stop is Syria?

I really wish that were the case but if you read the stats about employment in Japan, the rate of women, their rate of pay, the pension payout for working women vs men vs stay at home moms.... It isn't just my environment. MY apologies as I thought you were suggesting it wasn't a good thing for women to be where they are at in your situation. I wish more would be. It would make life much, much better for everyone all around.

Well I did say that attitudes have to change. My view is there is very low child care tolerance for MEN, and most are happy with that as it perpetuates the status quo. As I mentioned (numerous times now) the duty belongs to both parents to raise the child. Ending my input on this thread here.

@tmarie

Gyouza, depends on how you look at it. I tend to think, marriage or not, kids or not, a balanced work environment is good. You suggesting married or not, kids or not, women shouldn't be equally represented in the work force?

Please reread my posts if you can. I have stated from the start that the decision to bring children into the world is a joint effort AND resonsibility between father and mother. Both must be prepared to sacrifice everything in order to bring that child to adulthood. That includes the father giving up his career if required. In saying that the "opposite may also be true" it was relating to your assertion that I live in an unbalanced environment that isn't normal. I merely, and humbly suggest, that it might be you and your environment that might not be reflective of the larger society. Just an observation, not saying I am right, but it is a possibility, right?

Glad they are hanging on to this - not seen anything convincing to suggest that anyone could not be aware of 400 mio yen.

Gyouza, you run in a good group then as that isn't anywhere near normal.

Maybe - the opposite may also be true, right?

I know a good number of wealthy single working women who will be much better off than me at retirement, indeed the article was written by someone who doesn't actually need to work anymore!

A they would be a very, very small minority. Surely you can't disagree with that.

In the group of people I interact with directly, it is about 50/50. I do accept that there are more in different demographic groups.

Interesting. Probably well deserved, the FSA take no prisoners. I wonder how this would have been received here in Japan if a foreign firm was pulled up by Japanese regulator? No cries of protectionism I'm sure!

I thought the days were gone when a female was expected to bear children regardless of her own wishes. I reckon women have the choice to live their lives according to their dreams. A reluctant morther is less then ideal, but the perfect mother is none existant.By choice i raised six young ones and love them all dearly, now grown up and long since left the nest.

Congrats Christine, I come from a large set of siblings and am so glad that I have a fantastic set of the closest friends imaginable - thanks to a great mum! I'm sure that your six feel the same way!

For this article though, and to touch on your comment, for me (now a father of two) the most important decision of my life was to have children. I knew deep down that if they weren't healthy, any thoughts of a career would need to take second place to raising the kids, I knew that if my wife's career looked more promising that there could be a need for me to scale back my own plans. It has to be a conscious decision to raise a familiy as a family as opposed to a father or mother isolation saying "I need/want children". Neversubmit summarises it perfectly I think.

Absolutely wonderful achievement.

@tmarie

You may be generalising with a specific pockets of society in some of your comments.

I don't think it is that simple. A women who doesn't want to get married in this country is treated like a leper in her older years. Add in that she wouldn't have been paid the same as a man, she's looking at very desolate "golden years" with very little in the terms of pension or help. What are her options? Work your butt off and be poor when you are old or... get married. When you get married in this country, the pressure to have a kid starts in.

I know a good number of wealthy single working women who will be much better off than me at retirement, indeed the article was written by someone who doesn't actually need to work anymore!

Yes, there are benefits. But some women can't breastfeed. Does that make them less a mother? Do you think their kids "suffer" because they weren't breastfeed?

So lets go to the other end of the scale here, with the WHO reporting that formula fed infants are 4 times more likely to die than their breast fed counterparts when living in squalid conditions. So the kids COULD suffer as a consequence of the CHOICE to not breast feed, right? If that choice is forced though, not being able to breast feed does not make a mother any less a mother in my view.

Emperor Akihito (I believe) does a lot to change the aggressive view of Japan,

The nation that's adamant about conquering 25% of world's landmass finds Japan 'aggressive'? I am so worried

I've not seen any indications of this kind of wish from Emperor Akihito, the subject of this article.

Regarding her subtle attack on breastfeeding, is anyone aware that she is the founder of an advertising and communications company with close ties to a major French producer of infant formula?!

Wow - didn't know that, kind of colours the article a bit more but jury out on whether she just doesn't want to breast feed and hence supports the (Swiss) manufacturer or if she is being sponsored to say so. Also, found it interesting that she is one of the wealthiest woman in France. That fact has a lot of bearing on the article as she is operating from a very priviliged position and there are millions of women at the other end of the scale who are DESPERATE to earn money but can't due to limitations on childcare availability - out of that group, there are many who would welcome a career chance too, but is an almost impossible dream.

I find this article disturbing, and I believe it demonstrates some disrespect for children and their welfare Let me explain:

Meanwhile, any number of child-rearing experts – whose opinions, incidentally, seem to swing opposingly in 30-year cycles – are telling women that anything less than total dedication to their child’s physical and emotional needs means that they are not being good mothers. The child reigns supreme. The mother obediently serves.

But surely as a parent you ARE 100% on the hook for the child's physical and emotional needs. This doesn't mean that you have to be there 100% of the time, it means YOU must make sure it happens. To be more accurate, it means You and the other half of the leadership equation, the FATHER.

Babies, so we are told, must be breast-fed – on demand. Attachment parenting theory dictates co-sleeping and baby wearing. The perfect mother, apparently, must hold herself totally responsible for what happens to her child.

Dealing with last bit first, yes again. YOU are completely responsible, because the kid is helpless. Breast feeding is proven (by the medical experts you allude to) to have significant health benefits over formula. I believe some admit that even SOME breast feeding is better than none. Do you have evidence to the contrary?

I want today’s women to equally forge their own paths in life, free to make personal choices without feeling that they have to fit into a particular mold.

Well here is something we agree on, and with deference to Cleo, this is achievable, but maybe not by the means you wish. Childcare is woefully inept to support working parents. The working environment is often completely intolerable of anyone who has children, and this is true for career high flyers as it is for production line workers. Attitudes have to change before we make inroads here, but it is nothing to do with autonomy of one sex over the other. There is a place in society for everyone, but being a parent is going to be a challenge. It will drain you of all your energy at times, and competing against non-parents in an aggressive career path is always going to be a balancing act. On the one side you have the challenges at work, on the other you have the challenges at home. They can coexist, but only in balance as sadly none of us actually are Superman or Wonderwoman. Success can be judged in how well you can balance those two, but ultimately being a parent has the greater responsibility and is arguable, much more rewarding.

On the whole, being a parent is a choice, initially at least, but once that path is taken you only have one goal to achieve - success.

Bon Voyage - hopr it is a succesful trip. Also hope it isn't spoiled by needless demo's by ex-POW's. Emperor Akihito (I believe) does a lot to change the aggressive view of Japan, and is probably the first royal at Prince or above to not take a miliatary title. Is turning backs on him the same as Jewish POW's turning backs on Angela Merkl? Symbolic, but not really relevant.

gyouza, Marc Dutroux is not an example that fits the question in any form. Even the confessions that were gleaned from him were taken without torture.

Duh! Point is that hideous crimes like this exist.

To entertain it anyway, if it did happen I would not resort to torture. If I did then I may as well become a criminal myself, because it would then be obvious that morals mean nothing to me.

So having access to the whereabouts (for example) of your abducted partner, kid, or parents in front of you, you would do nothing, having tried all forms of honest persuasion, in order to try to get the info out of someone you KNOW has the answer. And you could live with the trauma after?

Well, probability is low I'd definitely agree on that - and something that I am grateful for too. Lets hope we are never tested.