havill comments

Where are the "experts" who claimed that Japan would be unable to finish the venue on time?

They are the ones that are downvoting you right now. :)

The beauty of being a Japan cynic is you never have to admit you're wrong. You simply pretend your previous predictions of doom were never made and make new ones to replace them.

I don't necessarily think that NHK reporting on Japan's contributions is a bad thing. By doing that, it teaches the public the importance of tax dollars contributing to science, and helps ensure that money continues to come in.

Compare that to some countries that have a hard time getting public funding for science because taxpayers think it's a waste of money.

It's important for the press to report how Japanese public money is turned into successes so that the Japanese public will continue to want to fund it.

On the other hand, that NHK reporter probably could have gotten that information outside of the scope of the Q&A session.

To those who are in disbelief that graffiti vandals would travel internationally: yes, they do this, and they even document their work (including in Japan) on YouTube: search for "The Good Fellas - Japan" by the channel "SPRAY DAILY" to witness foreigners in action defacing Japanese trains.

Despite the fact that most of a fruit’s nutrients are in its outer skin

Not true. most nutrients found in the skin are also in the flesh. For example, lycopene, a pigment with antioxidant properties, is found throughout tomatoes and red bell peppers, not just in the skin.

Source: http://www.thekitchn.com/most-nutrients-in-fruits-vegetables-are-found-in-the-skin-fact-or-fiction-185491

steamed rice on its own, is a highly praised and respected Japanese food

There are lots of food in Japan made with processed rice. The sweet mochi is just one of them.

Hmm. The People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. World War II ended in 1945. They may be celebrating a victory, but it's not THEIR victory.

Congratulations on 70 years of peace, KMT, party of the Republic of China (Taiwan)!

One thing not often mentioned: the package declared on the outside as "jewelry" in it, which had the pills not in a clearly marked bottle, but interspersed in nooks and crannies throughout the goods, didn't actually have "real" jewelry in it. It was fake/plastic/toy jewelry... something no well paid / high power executive would ever wear in public or private or for work. She doesn't have any children, so it wasn't for her.

Why would you import toy plastic jewelry?

One reason is so that when a parcel goes through the x-ray at postal customs, it appears that the contents of the package match the description on the EMS customs label.

For somebody that claims to have not known or not intended to break the law, her actions sure look like somebody that understood the finer art of "smuggling techniques."

I'm sure that's just an incredible coincidence, of course.

I've got a blog *, a twitter account, and a private address too. Can I has FCCJ prez too?

I bet I have more traffic, followers, and even ad revenue than ShinGetsu too. AND I have more writers (12).

Let's turn FCCJ into a blogger's club!

Let ALL the bloggers and bloggers in!

@davestrousers Actually, "immigration being the answer to dropping population" that's not true for many countries; If you look carefully at the math (especially for places like Germany... which has a birth rate about the same as Japan AND it benefits from the Schengen Area where anybody in the EU can move in and live there as well, immigration is not mathematically keeping up with the declining population.

http://projectm-online.com/leading-thoughts/demographics/immigration-no-solution-to-german-demographic-crisis

Brian Martin wrote: "Even America apologized for its use of the Atom bomb on japan."

wut?

The stat about "40% divorcing" is a little misleading. It depends on the nationalities of both:

For Japanese men marrying non-Japanese women, the worst divorce rates are (by nationality):

1. Koreans (North, South, and technically stateless) women: 45.5% 2. American women: 41.5% 3. Philippine women: 40.5%

Best are:

1. Brazilian women: 31.7% 2. Chinese women: 35.3% 3. U.K. women: 35.5%

For non-Japanese men marrying Japanese women, the stats are much worse:

Worst:

1. Philippine men: 70.0% (!) 2. Thai men: 59.9% 3. Chinese men: 47.5%

Best:

1. U.K. men: 21.0% 2. Brazilian men: 24.8% 3. American men: 24.9%

Average divorce rate for Japanese men with Japanese women is 36.5% Average divorce rate for Japanese men with non-Japanese women is 38.5% Average divorce rate for Japanese women with non-Japanese men is 36.5%

Stats are from 2010.

Regarding the changing of one's name: Just like when you become American, you cannot use your official name if it's written in Arabic, Cyrillic, or Greek. Even Europeans whose names have diacritics on the alphabetic letters must drop the diacritics for formal U.S. identity. You need to use the "script of the land" for your identity.

You can still keep your old name (or rather, something close to it), but you do need to convert it into the "script of the land", which is kana (hiragana or katakana) or Japanese kanji. When converted, your name may sound almost identical (if you're lucky) to something very different.

For more info, read http://www.turning-japanese.info/2010/07/faq-do-you-have-to-take-japanese-name.html

Who wrote this? This headline is false. That name is (obviously) a joke. To quote a more authoritative source:

http://mainichi.jp/select/wadai/news/20120309ddm012040160000c.html

「鬼怒鳴門（キーン・ドナルド）」と書かれた名刺を区からプレゼントされると満面の笑みを見せた。言葉遊びが好きで、自分の名と音が似ている「鬼怒川」と「鳴門」から漢字を当てた。戸籍名は片仮名で「キーン・ドナルド」とするという。

In short, he neither chose that name nor is it his official name on his family register.

More info here:

http://www.turning-japanese.info/2012/03/donald-keene-becomes-japanese.html