idir13013 comments

@smithinjapan

You have most of the time very insightful comments. But in your response to oldman_13, maybe it is you who should think again about what irony means ? Indeed, it is pretty ironic that the media, after having cast hikikomori as so problematic and nearly impossible to understand, now are saying that the same hikikomori can show people a reasonable way to exist in the light of the pandemic and its aftermath.

That is irony 101.

@hachikou

Nothing in what you wrote proves that what Reuters wrote (and that you even quoted in your message) is wrong. It seems you are repeating arguments trying to prove another point.

Fact : There ARE war criminals enshrined in Yasukuni, and those people ARE responsible for horrible things during the War. How can anyone try to dispute or balance this is beyond understanding.

Very ironic to keep using a Japanese calendar for the sake of an old tradition, all while breaking a 1300 year old tradition of picking the name up from Chinese litterature !

@Tony G

Your arguments are perfectly valid when considering adults : fully "formed" mentally, and 100% responsible of their own actions.

In this case, many of those girls start joing at 14, 15 years old. Sometimes even less (for the junior idols).

And normally, child labor has very strict rules (education must continue, it cannot be full time and much less overtime, etc.). This is absolutely not the case here.

They cannot be considered as fully responsible of their own actions (they are not legally anyway but fall under a very strange loophole). And even if they were, one has to understand that they can make mistakes as they are children, and they should have way to be supported and "escape" as soon as they express their will to do so.

How can it be normal to start voting at 20 years old, while taking a direction that might destroy your own life can happen as soon as your enter your teen years ?

Wait a second. Does this mean that :

Starting to work basically full time well before becoming an adult

Starting to do so before being fully educated

Having your parents basically let go of you since you cannot meet them regularly

Being sexualized by thousands of men at such a young age

Being forced to meet some of some those men who are just plain perverts

Being paid a ridiculous amount of money

Probably being forced to a lot of weird things with the managers and other staff

Being threatened to have to pay back huge amounts of "training money" if you quit

Being forced to sign "non-dating" contract where you renounce your own feelings and sexuality (contrary to basic human rights)

is not good for the mental health of kids ? Shocker.

In any real civilized country, only checking 2 or 3 of the points above would lead to jail time for a quite a few people and a huge amount of support for their victims.

Who can be surprised by any of this ?

Only politicians and the press apparently, because none of them is doing the watchdog job they should be enforcing (politicians) or monitoring (the press).

Those talent agency force idols sign contracts that violate many of the UN human rights (child work, the fact not to be able to do what they please relationship-wise, overtime beyond Reason, salary not up to minimum wages, blackmail when they think about quitting, etc...).

Helll, those talent agency are working with girls sometimes even under 10 with unreal suggestive pics. Idols girls who retired or managed to change work are all saying they were abused one way or an other.

And people expect those agencies to behave well with adults ? It is just crazy people have to die before the responsible persons are put in front of a trial. Far too late, and the trial will surely miss the mark since it ius going to deal with the death of one person instead of focusing of the whole nationwide Failure that led to this.

At the moment, my sincere apologies to the victim's family and friends.

And one note to people commenting here : we might disagree but at least we talk about such issues. In Japan or in our own countries. Have you ever succeeded talking about such things with Japanese people ? I cannot do it with any of my Japanese friends without creating a vacuum that drains our friendship and our love of each other. This tells something, and as long as that something does not evolve in Japan (or Korea or China for that matter), people will deny everything all the time and it will never disappear. It is not denying the right to claim that make things disappear, it is listening and being the bigger man.

@Alex80

There is truth to what you said, for sure.

But another difference, and this where the use of the flag is not right, is that the government in France is not trying from time to time to rewrite history. There is a major difference between not talking about things (like in France) and actually saying that there has never been anything wrong, and that it was in fact so good that people should be thankful (reference to the Yasukuni museum where invading Asia has been rewritten to appear as a liberation from western forces).

And to the people thinking that it was a long time ago, do you say the same when Jewish people argue against something now that remind them clearly about the War ? Or to an afro-american to whom slavery is reminded through a bad choice of symbols ? It is not because people were not around that they cannot say it is wrong. I think many people are mixing "forget" and "forgive". People tend to forget, but when they are reminded (like with unsensitive symbols), they remember they have not forgiven.

@Alexandre T.Ishii

Where am I exactly ? To a detailed comment with references, facts and thoughts, you are replying "no need to talk that much, only people who are biased and therefore wrong talk that much". Is this how you engage debates with people around you ? I will let my various 300 page history books know that they are 299 pages too long since apparently it is enough to have one page to appear unbiased and therefore right.

@thepersoniamnow

No arguments in your comment ? Would you please elaborate, point out where I a wrong or where there might be things I wrongfully Believe ?

I shared my view with details on a level that we can debate over them, if you are up to the task.

And I am French for your information, with France having done a lot of awful things that it has never acknowledged either (war in Algeria, salvery in Africa, medical annd atomic tests all over the world, etc...). I have no problem admitting it or discussing about it.

Right now, we are talking about Japan, it does not matter where I come from.

This is you judging my reasoning just because I am a foreigner, pretty narrow-minded and far from objective I would tell you.

Anybody not willing to see that using this flag rimes with previous atrocities commited by Japan is not really being objective I think.

First of all, it might have been used here and here for centuries, but its use with the maritime forces came first in 1870, right before Japan started to fully invade its neighbors. So it totally rimes with war time Japan.

Second, the Japanese themselves abandonned the flag right after the war, so it has not always been natural to use it even in modern Japan.

Finally, and this is where it is not as innocent as it seems, it is one of many drops that constantly add to the strange relationship Japan has with its own past. Just yesterday, the newly appointed education minister shared his view that teaching kids the old "imperialism way" could be very good.

For a lot of policy makers (thanks Nippon Kaigi!) there is a total denial about unit 731, the very existence of the Nanjing massacre, the very idea of sex slaves during the War, honoring war criminals at Yasukuni, and so on.

How can anybody add all of those things and still think "no big deal, get over it" ?

If there was only one left (say the flag), the argument would be valid, it would be overdriven to focus that much over it. But right now, Japan needs to understand the prints it left in people's mind, and how it is not even trying to diffuse anything by not even wanting to acknowledge there is some ground to all those various claims.

Allow me to compare with a person A in a house, and its neighbor B in the next house.

The house where person A lives is a house that has been passed on from relatives to relatives for 500 years. And on the front door of that house, there has always been an ancient symbol hanged, let's say a woodcarved tooth the shape of a dinosaur's tooth.

One day, person A takes that tooth, wears it as a necklace, and goes to its neighbor B. Person A starts to do horrible things, and this goes on for a few years, even ten of years. Everytime with the tooth around its neck.

One day, it gets so bad that realtives to person B are killed while in their own house. Not only killed, but killed in a horrible way.

Police officers are called, there are trials and everything, and things start to look normal again. But the son of person A decides one day to start wearing that very tooth around its neck, and go out on the streets. Not only that, the son person A goes regularly to its backyard where person A is burried, and "honor" the grave and what the person in the grave stood for.

Would you really expect the son of person B to accept all of that withouth even claiming its anger ?

Are they going to add paralympics athletes missing part of their hand to hide that fact as well in order to prevent people thinking they might be yakusa? Japan is by no definition a modern country anymore, completely stuck in clichés of their own making!

I am always impressed by how some people with Apple products are totally convinced that Apple is the best and knows better, without even knowing what other products can do. Just to give a few pointers regarding the comments above :

I can type this comment on my 10 year old Windows computer, thank you very much. A computer I paid around 250 Euros at the time, probably 4 times less than a Apple one, and a computer that, despite quite many issues, is still doing fine with what I want it to do.

Regarding how Jobs would be so proud now, don't you remember Jobs refused going above 3.5" for screens, and that Apple took the big leap towards 5" screen well after his death, and well after Samsung and others had already proven bigger was better ? So much for a visonary.

Talking about innovative products : have you taken a good look at iOS12 ? It is copying so many Android features it is almost ridiculous now.

No, Apple has not revolutionized mobiles phones by inventing smartphones. There were quite a few before, including the N95 from Nokia which was THE smartphone Apple took as a benchmark for sure. They added the great "simple touchscreen" interface, on a little bigger screen, and have been surfing on that wave ever since. It was a tsunami for sure when the iPhone launched, but there is no wave anymore , yet people behave as if there is one now even greater than before.

Honestly, I mean take a good look at things and how many great phones they are outthere. How can anybody be convinced that paying at least 300 dollars more than any competition is worth when the flagships from the competition are as good as they are now ?

And one thing I can' believed Apple dig. While the whole world agreed US would be the norms for phones, Apple included, they simply backtracked and had their own Ligthning connector. The whole world agreed to simplfy people's life, but more importantly to stop wasting ressources by producing so many chargers that could not be used within the same family, and chargers that needed to be thrown every time one got a new device. That was so bad, yet nobody took a stand about this.

Looking at that picture, gender equality is on the other hand not anywhere near growing anytime soon.

Always amazed how new products coming out, or TV events, are considered news. Such "news" are just free ad for private companies, unbelievable. And to promote alcohol in such a way where there are a million or so of alcohol addicted persons and a whole lot of diseases / deaths related to them is quite frankly as stupid as it gets for a country. In other countries, everything is done to prevent alcohol ads to be shown to children or to feature famous people, but here there are shown at the best possible time using the best possible media (and JapanToday i no exception).

@TheGodfather Alright then. Please enlight me and show me articles where such a turn of phrase has been used in the past. And a company deemed responsible for her condition? You cannot live in Japan, companies are not even liable when their employees commit suicide or die from overwork here, soa company judged responsible for attacking other people is just as far from reality as it can be.

I really fail to see how reporting that the woman was unemployed is relevant to what she did. Is that to suggest that all unemployed people are potentially insane? If that woman had a job, would the reporter have written "an employed person..." instead?

Ok, let's calculate a little. 10 million for five means 2 million each. The business class flight is easily found under 800,000 Yen for that route, but let's take 800,000 as a reference. There is 1.2 million left for each.

As they are staying 6 days, one can assume that they will need lunch and dinner money every day. Breakfast is certainly included in the hotel stay provided for free by the IOC. So let's say 15,000 Yen for each day, or 90,000 Yen total (15,000 Yen in Brazil is way too much for two meals, but just for the calculation).

There is 1,110,000 Yen left.

Various official trips will certainly be done with a car and a driver, let's say 50,000 Yen each day or 300,000 Yen in total (again, way too much) shared by 5 people, so 60,000 Yen for each.

There is 1,050,000 Yen left.

Adding small fees such as laundrying, and there is 1,000,000 Yen left.

And now, considering that I have exagerated all costs, and not even taken into accounts that they will be offered many meals during their trips (they are the guests), and once can really wonder how the 1,000,000+ Yen is spent other than being wasted or "collected" by those officials.

Why can't any journalist ask for the details instead of letting everybody (myself included) speculate now and forget later once the heat is down?

How about the myth of all Asians looking alike? In her TV-series, her male co-star is of Korean descent but acting as of Chinese descent. Where is the complaining there? It is to me exactly the same, wrong in both cases. But when she is making money, she seems apparently not so engaged in that sort of thinking.

@Mukashiyokatta Right on. Not only harmful, but also always from the same chains and / or kind of place that are already famous enough, it all seems like a major advertisement. There are plenty of hidden gems in Japan, offering great products without even being noticed by others than the locals, those would be much more "news" to talk about that relating what TV ads and / or programs are already showing all over.

Learned from the past? Considering how bad all those logos are, with nothing that can be easily identified and nothing that is really challenging our mind, the selection was clearly made by people with no idea of what they are doing. It all seems like a joke, I can't believe this is where they stand now, between those entries!

@Andrew Crisp Such arguments are always used by officials in countries with the death penalty without looking at hard facts.

Fact1: The countries where there is death penalty are (by far) much more violent than any country in Europe. Just take the USA, with over 30,000 deaths due to gun violence every year. Just for your information, there has been around 1,500 deaths in the whole Europe over the past 20 years, so there is not even a comparison to be made in terms of where the real violent society with issues is.

Fact2: In China, there are several thousands people executed every year. It has been so for the past decades, yet the number of executed people is the same every year. Clearly people are not scared of it, and are not learning to act to avoid death penalty.

Fact3: Every person, including the worst criminals on earth, deserve to be treated with regards to his human rights. In Japan, leaving of fear of being called a few hours before being called and the family being informed after the sentence has been executed is nothing any developed country should do, this belongs to sadistic measures in dictatures.

Fact4: Since you are referring to problems in Europe, I assume you mean the guys bombing themselves in France, Belgium lately? Those guys are already ready to die and most of them do during the bombing or the aftermath. So I really fail to see how death penalty would prevent any of them to do what they do.

A great idea, but it need to have enough room in the middle for people to actually sit. With an usual tent, one can actually sit or lay down without any problem at all. With the crazyX, it is just impossible to sit where your sleeping area is, and sitting in the middle seems impossible as well.

A little more design work to make it more spacious, and be able to have the tent in four separate bags while transporting it. As it is for 4 persons, the tent could for example go as heavy at 5 kilos with each person only carrying 1.25kg, still amazing considering the "privacy" offered.

Stop worshiping athletes, they are not bringing anything that should matter in a society with enough sense.

1- They get paid to do what they know how to do. Sometimes to be great, sometimes just for their image, sometimes for no reason at all other than they know the right person. This is what any other work environment looks like, and anybody working is doing the same thing without getting any praise.

2- They get paid by sponsors, meaning by people watching them in the end (the advertising costs are included in the price customers pay for products). They are not creating new laws, inventing new innovations, changing the society in depth, this is "just" entertainment. While still very important, athletes should not be elevated to more than what they are.

3- By focusing so much on things that a single man (in this case) did, the real true stories are completely forgotten. A few days ago in Sendai, a court upheld reparations to be paid by demonstrators whose identity was illegally taken by the police. The only "crime" of those participants is that they demonstrated. One has the right to demonstrate in Japan, and one has the right to object to policies from the government in a democratic way, but still they were treated as suspects, and continue to be. This is a very serious thing, similar to what a fascist state would do, and yet the media focuses on that baseball guy, on Smap and on Becky while fascism is coming into place.

I do not expect any change, people are fed sleeping pills to stay in place in the matrix basically. But to the question "should the media", absolutely not, they are the main responsible for the whole mess by not doing their job (as proven by the Reporter Without Boarder Press Freedom Index where Japan managed to go from 10th in 2010 to 60th only a few years later, the only developed country with such a negative trend).

Instead of chancing a centuries old symbol that has never meant in Japan what it meant in the West, I suggest they change the Rising Sun Flag (i.e ban it completely) since it ACTUALLY only is a reminder of colonial Japan and the atrocities that were committed in the name of the empire. That flag is the actual equivalent of the Swastika, but is officially used by various arms of the government and by citizens as well in various fields. It is just insane it is still used, knowing its history and the fact that it only started to be used by the government as the exact same time Japan started its colonial grip on Asia (in the 1890s').

The real scandal should be that those cram schools exist in the first place. They cost a fortune and prevent children from doing what children should do: enjoy life, be happy, wish to explore and achieve as high as it gets. All that just to pass some useless exams and to make everybody the same underachievers that will never speak his / her mind clearly, and stand up for what is right because they fear the person above them.

So let's see. According to any serious organization monitoring Japan's situation:

There are still major gaps between men and women when it comes to work and pay. Worst of all developed countries by any measure.

The fertility rate and the renewing of generations has already been a problem for 5 years, with the population number dropping by 1.2 million. The population will be half of what it is in about 60 years.

The "greying" of Japan is already so bad that social security costs are increasing every year despite a decreasing population. Pretty soon, there will not be enough active people just to maintain what must be maintained, and the ones doing it will be taxed so high they will not have any way to build a future anymore.

Japan still is dead last among developed countries when it comes to child pornography (and the sick stuff they have that is not but is not pornography by their own definition), child abduction, general discrimination (apartment, not accepting any refugee despite international agreements, etc...) against foreigners, slave-like conditions for foreign workers, justice system (with a dictature-like 99% conviction rate), business practices that are so rotten that a company dealing with blood samples and medicines can falsify data for 40 years without any punishment.

The whole Fukushima mess is still not cleared. More children are showing signs of cancers all over Japan, even way outside the radiation zone. People are still living in temporary houses after 4 years.

Freedom of the press that has dropped from 10th in 2010 to around 55th this year, to due to the cover up of Fukushima, the new secrecy law allowing anybody to be put in jail for no other vague reason than "revealing something threatening the nation" (a state scandal would qualify, so you can now go to jail for writing about a government guy doing something bad).

And the list goes on. And what does the genius running the country decide to put priority on next year? By changing a constitution that does not prevent Japan from doing anything. There is absolutely no matter right now that is vital for the society that is restricted by the constitution.

So at last, here we have it. The first real step towards becoming a dictature. After that, elections will be done so that there will be no opposition (a bit like today, but even worse), religion will make its grand come-back, and instead of talking more, Japan will show muscles and get even more arrogant towards its past.

Sayounara democratic Japan, you had a few decades to grow, but were never allowed to fully grow into something strong and modern.

I really don't get the way those apologies are conducted. At first upon my arrival in Japan, i was truly impressed by how people apologized here, showing they are the bigger men, and that they can acknowledge their own errors.

But to see a consenting adult woman apologized for getting involved with a consenting adult man, this is just pitiful. There is absolutely nothing to even apologize to the public for.

In Japan, people get away with pushing their workers to work to death, with mother harassment, with idols forced not to be romantically involved (contrary to human rights), with discriminating against foreigners, and a whole lot of things that cause harm to people, the society, and leads to unspoken disorders, mental or physical.

But a famous person doing what a solid third of the population does, and this is worse than murder. The hypocrisy and the irony are mind-blowing. I mean, does anybody think in Japan anymore? Has nobody ever thought of why there are so many love hotels everywhere, especially at highway exits? Those are not for students with no place to live. Those are for business people "enjoying" on their way back to their families. Nobody cares about this, and now people like Becky have to take the whole blame? "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone" is obviously not something people live by here.

How is reporting a poll coming out of China any real news? It should not even be called a poll, it is just the official voice of the Party badly disguised as a poll.