Harry_Gatto comments

I personally know of several cases where major companies wanted to send their best and brightest to help run the Japan entity or to introduce the latest innovations or knowledge, but the employee declined or left early because they're spouse couldn't get a visa.

For you to know of so many cases of this most unusual situation is very, impressive. What was the primary reason that the majority of spouse visas were refused?

That was just taking advantage, borderline greedy, not a pleasant trait in anyone.

.......aid in their joint viewpoint that marriage equality should strengthen the international competitiveness of businesses in Japan by allowing them to recruit talent from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities worldwide.

"Opening marriage to LGBT couples would help to level the international playing field for companies in Japan," the viewpoint said.

Really? A measurable strengthening of their international competitiveness gained by employing LGBT people? Just how many LGBT people with the appropriate skills do they think are wanting to work in Japan but feel that they can't because their gay marriage isn't recognised in Japan?

Someone is dreaming or has an agenda.

............but Theresa May has to speak not just for the 52 percent who voted for Brexit, she has to speak for 100 percent of the country," he added.

Worth mentioning that 52% *of those who bothered to vote** *voted for Brexit and they represented only about one third of eligible voters.

(hell, they even have electric motors many of them)

Yes, I've noticed that too, many of those electric bicycles do indeed have electric motors.

1.6 million people were clear in their votes to leave the EU..........

Only approx. one third of eligible voters voted for Brexit based on what they were being told at the time and some innate racism. However, now that so many people are beginning to realise just how much of a disaster Brexit is going to be, a new vote now that people are better informed of the consequences is necessary. If Brexit is still perceived to be a good thing then it will be reflected in the vote so Brexit supporters should have nothing to worry about.

Garuda Indonesia will also offer codeshare flights on select transpacific routes operated by Japan Airlines.

Be very wary of this when booking with JAL and carefully check who you are actually going to fly with.

If these guys were "known GRU agents", why weren't the British authorities tailing them?

Come on, tell us the source of your quote.

+2 on the lady on the right. Elegant and classy.

That may be true but I'd need more than a photo before reaching that conclusion; Singaporean ladies can be a, let's say, a challenge. Listen to the lady on the left, she really is elegant and classy.

Will the owners / captain of that tanker be held responsible for it crashing into that bridge with their insurance company paying for the repairs? They must bear some responsibility for being unable to control their vessel.

Is there anyone here familiar with marine rules and regs, insurance etc.?

........did she really win or was it given to her? With the Ump acting the he did, makes you wonder?

Did you watch the match? She massively outplayed Williams, and she's smart enough to know it.

Another Keystone Cops reboot...let's hope the 3 million comes out of the operating budget for that station, or the pockets of those on duty at the time.

Did you read the article? It said the reward was being offered by a company president.

Around Aug 25, an Osaka construction firm announced via an SNS that it would offer a magnanimous reward of 3 million yen for information leading to Hida's apprehension.

Overalls/coveralls on women. They are about the least flattering an item of clothing a woman could wear.

Not always, it depends on who is wearing them, what they are made from and what she is wearing, if anything, underneath.

This may not bode well for Japan.

You mean Japan might have to stop importing all those American cars and trucks?

Who is Steve?

Power outages also wreaked havoc at hospitals, with an infant girl briefly falling into serious condition after her oxygen inhalator stopped.

A simple UPS on such life-support equipment would give them time to sort out a more permanent solution.

"What do we do then?" a worker asked.

You don't wait for "then", you do something about it now. Find some diesel, try a bus company, trucking company but don't wait until the generator stops before doing something.

How do vibrations wear down wires?

By causing chafing which wears down the insulation and causes shorts which in turn generate heat from the high current and can result in fire or explosion.

Certainly in Japan Toyota should recall the DRIVERS of all Prius models and have them re-trained and re-tested. Expect every Prius driver to do something stupid and you will almost never be disappointed.

Is strangling someone an act of self defence?

Well, it seemed to work for this guy, she stopped attacking him, in fact she stopped doing anything at all.

.......for suspension of their clam and other seafood fishing operations in a local lake......

Seafood? Lake? Is it a salt water lake?

"Fingers" Fujita won't be feeding his cat anything from his jail cell.

Let's hope someone else does while he's away.

On the day of the funeral of the Queen of Soul, who died last week, the Band of the Welsh Guards played a version of Respect during the Changing Of The Guard outside Buckingham Palace.

Senegal doesn't really have a northern coast, more like a western coast. Trying to get to Spain in a dugout canoe is ambitious to say the least; it's a 1000 kms to the Canary Islands and another 1000 to the Spanish mainland.

Conditions in second and third class rooms there were better than in 90% of hospitals in Japan.

Agreed. I have been amazed at how backward and Third-world most hospitals are in Japan

You guys must have been in a lot of Japanese hospitals to reach those conclusions.

Good to see that Mayor Matsumoto has a sense of humour, a rare condition among Japanese local officials.

.............the problem is that many foreigners don't understand bathing etiquette, ..................

Most, usually older, Japanese men don't understand it either, they are the ones who enter the onsen, throw a bowl of water over their bits and then get into the bath without washing first.

I like pints.

US pints or proper Imperial pints?

But Google recently cleaned up its app store, Google Play, telling developers that it will no longer accept apps that mine cryptocurrencies on its platform.

"no longer". Meaning that it was previously aware of these apps but accepted them anyway.

I had an unexpected expense at my father in law's funeral; my wife demanded that I give her a clean 10,000 Yen note to fold and put in his pocket just before the cremation "in case he needs some money when he gets to the other side".