Hiroicci comments

I've read a survey on this, and the survey says that more than 80% of them say it's certainly dangerous.

I guess that very many people, if not 80%, would agree, but very few people seem to care or might be thinking they are careful enough.

One time, I saw a young girl texting-walking in the street and bumping into an old man. The old man said gently, "Look where you going, OK?" The girl shouted, "None of your business! It's my right!" That's what you might get from many of those.

To be fair, this isn't particularly a Japanese phenomenon. I'm a bit of a world traveller, and I've seen the same in many countries.

I hate to say it, but these people won't stop this, until they've seen a big accident right in front of them or have been involved in one, due to texting-walking.

They are traitors to the Japanese, because they damage Japan's national interests, just as China and Japan are trying NOT to agitate as much as possible.

Would I call ANY nationalists "traitors"? No, I wouldn't. Only those who damage national interests for the sake of their own narrow targets and cheap satisfaction.

Do we have nationalists here??? Calling the nationalists in the article "traitors" has given me 3 negative points.

Just when the things are calming down...Traitors.

Easy: Japan borrows more to pay back. Japan's national budget is around 80 trillion yen, 30 trillion yen of which is financed by debts. Out of 30 trillion yen, the gov pays back 20 trillion yen. but 10 trillion yen of which is used to pay for interests, so Japan borrows 30 trillion yen just to pay back 20 trillion yen every year. Isn't this abnormal, Jeff? No?

Investors still buy Japanese bonds, just because they could be easily paid back if the gov taxed the savings that have reached 1,400 trillion yen. This is why Japanese bonds haven't become junk yet. But how long? The answer is clear: until the debts reach 1,400 trillion yen. Then what could the gov do? Devalue the debts by inflating the economy away. That would be a great way to destroy the national credibility.

I pretty much doubt that Japan will be able to pay off all the debts reaching 240% of GDP, even if the economy picks up and the tax revenues start flowing in, Jeff Lee, partly because Japan's economic growth will NEVER go beyond 4% max, beyond which inflation will probably start kicking. There'll be always a huge gap between what Japan borrows and pays back.

Japan is relatively safe, because it's sitting on a huge amount of savings made over the decades. It could pay the debts by sweeping on them, if it had to.

OK then, should Japan forget about balancing the book and living happy on its own debts? I guess you'd say yes, Jeff, because It could, but that's just abnormal.

Our salaries and wages are not going up, largely because both companies and we workers are really expecting future prices to rise only slowly and modestly. That really damps workers' demand for higher salaries and wages, and helps firms keep costs and prices down.

In other words, we are so used to deflation, recession and modest pay rise that we don't see a chance to raise our future expectations, unfortunately; we are all so stuck in the economic gutter that we think, "Low pay is better than no pay."

I see the gov's and BOJ's intention being that an economic recovery comes before setting the national finance right. Good, but they haven't shown us HOW they will cope with around the ginormous national debt that could reach 240% of GDP if Japan's borrowing keeps going as it is now. Just tell us HOW. The EU nations, esp. The Irish, the Spanish, the Portuguese and the Cypriots, are living harder, working harder and thinking harder.

I'm not a big fan of Yamanashi wine, because, I don't know, it seems to me that it has some unnatural taste...I've yet to try the expensive Yamanashi stuff though. They're as great as French, Italian or Spanish wines, perhaps???

It's good for the gov to keep pressure on the companies, look at how they actually have raised the wages, get them to explain their decisions, if possible, and make comments on them, but the wage matter should be left to them first and foremost. In no way should they be seen as evil in case of no wage rise.

What if you were dreaming of something filthy and unethical in an experiment? As soon as you wake up, you get: "you little filthy pig! How disgusting you are!"

I mean, seriously, you could be demonised as a potential criminal by the scientists and psychologists.

He must still be reeling from his party's heavy loss at the election and suffering from a massive hangover!

These guys are just bandwagoning on the back of the right wing party in power and online racists who don't take any action themselves at all. Those racists think they are doing the country a big favour, believing this is all patriotic. Trust me, they will tell you that you're a traitor, a Korean sympathiser or an ethnic Korean yourself, if you tell them this is all nonsense. Some of them go so far away as to suggest waging a war against Korea and put them down their knees so that ALL our historical as well as political problems would be solved. Refuting them, therefore, is easy: just ask them for their logic of it, and they'll be at a loss after two minutes and start accusing you of a traitor, a Korean sympathiser or an ethnic Korean yourself.

If that's not ignorance, I don't know what is.

What? Japan is doing too much on this issue, you're saying, Japan Today? If anything, not enough has been done. Japan hasn't introduced ban on smoking in public places yet and its ciggie tax is still low by international standards.

True, Kimura san was an anti-smoking minister, but, remember, Noda san was a puff loving PM, so, unfortunately, there was a limit to which the gov's anti-smoking push could go.

Japan's little contribution to Asia in the form of "super" tuk-tuks.

I'd love to see these running on Asian roads!

This would reduce the uni enrolls in Japan dramatically. TOEFL is not a walkover type of test. It's very hard, as it has too many sections, so it takes a great deal of time to prepare. Who could teach this to kids anyway? School teachers??? They'd need to go to TOEFL schools first for a few years. There are very few well qualified teachers to teach this in this country, I'm afraid.

I usually don't make any comments on this boy, but let me just say that the boy in this photo is uncool. That hairstyle and the sunglasses are so wrong. Reminds me of the bad old 80's.

Many girls have told me that dyed hair is now more natural than dark hair. One of them even said dark hair is wrong and wished she had been born with dyed hair. Two of them, "Japanese boys don't like dark hair, so we've got to look pretty and cool with our "natural" brown hair."

I still get Japanese people telling me that Japan has no homeless people.

FGS, block all the roads on a heavy blizzard day! Ban them from going out, no matter what! Only the emergency cases should be allowed to go out with proper assistance from the state. Make a better system! No one wants to see this sort of thing any more. I don't want to see more heroes and heroines like him!

Painful.

I hate to hear people talk about the Samurai spirit for nothing, but, if the spirit is all about saving one's beloved ones, this dad was a real samurai guy. In such a hard way as this, he became an eternal saviour and hero to his daughter.

I don't know if it's a big ask, but is the system good enough to ensure people's safety???

What if you were allergic to strawberries???

A crime? What are you on about? There's no law against that. It's the same as smoking/non-smoking demarcation - you're just asked to leave or rebuked by angry women.

As for those cars, they've got to stay for a while, as long as there's some demand for them and are gropers, no matter how silly the idea is or infrequently women actually use.

■ Sankei – 91.1% ■ Yomiuri – 88.1% ■ Nikkei – 86.2% ■ Mainichi – 84.1% ■ Asahi – 82.2%

An interesting thing is that these findings represent the political spectrum of these newspapers: Sankei as most rightmost wing and Asahi as the leftmost, except for Akahata (Commie). I'm sure the Sankei researchers ask this way: "You support death penalty, don't you?"

I think he wrote "巻く", instead of "撒く", intentionally, so that he thought he could avoid the police investigation. He was trying to be funny, but it did backfire.

As for the article above, don't count too much on so called counsellors. Get real sociologists.

Don't try to give an impression that the Westerners are better mannered.

Instead, in Western cities, especially in London, you get drunk yobs playing music aloud with a can of beer in their hands. I've seen some people piss at the train car junctions. Wanna see fighting? Try the trains on a match day.

"On trains, the Japanese seem to hate each other or send a "none of your business" message to each other.

Everybody's tired, esp in the morning and in the evening, so with one little accidental touch from you, they look at you sharply or just look annoyed.

I just wondered why and thought this out: the trains are "not-too-public" a place between their workplace (fully public) and their residences (fully private) to them. They don't know anyone on the trains, so they have no reason to keep their politeness or facade to be liked or accepted on a permanent basis. Second, they are probably too tired to give a toss about how they are seen. Third, the train space is where they are finally alone and, perhaps too early, feel free from all sorts of constraints and restraints, after a long day. For these reasons, the train space becomes less public to them than it actually is. The less public and more private space they think it is, the more they defend it or feel annoyed at one little hint of invasion from others.

As for the young ones listening to music on full blast, however, I think the train space can be both public and private, because they may be thinking that they are listening to the coolest music in the world, so they wish to let others know what it is (even when they are actually listening to AKB), while the train space continues to be a little private."

Ramen is one thing that I would defy anyone's orders (my doctor's, my gf's or God's) not to get.

My full retort:‎

He wouldn’t have to do anything in particular, just be there for me when I’m lonely - then they accuse you of being useless later. When I’m tired or sad, I would want him to just take me in his arms without saying a word - then they say, "Leave me alone." I would want him to take me to lots of nice places - What nice places? Disney? No thanks. I would want him to quietly and attentively listen to my complaints about daily life - They don't if you ask the same of them. I would want him to take care of me when I get sick - How do accessory gifts work when they are sick??? I would want him to sneak up behind me and suddenly give me a hug - This would piss them off as well. I would want him to play with my hair - "Oi, stop! How long do you think it took to finish this morning!" I would want him to cover me with a blanket when I fall asleep - "Why did you cover me completely? Did you think I was dead???" When we’re out and about, I would want him to hold my hand and walk close to me - They most likely push you away in summer... I would want him to arrange surprises for me - If you surprise the shit out of them, they get furious.