igloobuyer comments

StrangerlandAPR. 14, 2017 - 11:25PM JST

Tampering with religious items and concepts in some countries is a capital offense. Tampering with private or public property should be an offense. Whether or not they are religious should be irrelevant.

We don't have enough information about this story. What is the 'oil'?

This is bizarre. Have you seen the 'stains'. Looks like a splash of water that you can hardly see - probably just some insect repellent. Really weird stuff. What's really going on?

Check the local rivers, they'll be another 30,000 there I'll bet.

sangetsu03APR. 10, 2017 - 10:15PM JST Take a look at the Scandinavian countries and the quality of life they have. Scandinavia is one of the few industrialized regions which has a suicide rate higher than Japan's.

Link please.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/suiciderate.html

Japanese managers need training in the ability to empathize with their staff and better consider their welfare. As a Japanese friend who works at Google Japan put it, 'Japanese managers need to learn that part of their role is to respect their staffs time and not to waste it'.

No way can this many children 'fall' from high rise buildings in such frequency - why no investigation or autopsy!? The government already knows there is an infanticide/abuse epidemic in this country. Not good enough. Where is the public outcry Japan?

Sad. Why was her daughter in the front seat at age six (obviously not in a child seat/restraint) - no laws against this in Japan

Wow, what a contrast with stoney-faced, man-child Trumps visit. Never thought I see the day a Japanese leader looked more statesman-like than a US leader (then there was Bush of course).

Hmm, if you want a higher skilled and knowledgeable workforce invest more in tertiary education. Even if you get more poor students into university, the quality of the majority of universities in Japan are well below par - they hardly learn anything!

It's stories like this that remind you that Japan in some ways is still living in the past and refuses to change.

bass4funk

Well, I would never believe anything that came out of Obama's mouth, I learned that a very long time ago. So he says, he didn't order a wiretap and I say, maybe, maybe not, I will not put anything past this guy or his admin. that's all I'm saying.

You're funny, so you're telling us, you believe more of what comes out of Trumps mouth than Obama!? You are joking right?

Trump false statements > 33% Obama false statements > 12%

http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/ http://www.politifact.com/personalities/barack-obama/

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At least keep one in the memory of the thousands of women who were enslaved there.

Hey, stop complaining, you still have among the lowest wages in the developed world - make the most of it! You would be very hard-pressed to find anyone in the US, UK Australia, Canada etc. earning less than 1,006 yen an hour!~!

Another reason I chose not to bring up my son in Japan - nowhere safe to play, narrow streets with nop sidewalks and careless drivers.

Ah, duh, yes. Who wouldn't?

And I thought Japanese had real taste in clothes.

Japan has a serious food hygiene problem - never heard of so many cases of mass food poisoning. In fact, I haven't heard of any food poisoning cases in my country since I was in school. What's going on in Japan?!

Just another super rich 'swap' leaders - nothing changes.

Just a userFEB. 10, 2017 - 07:11AM JST Their country their rules, hasn't turned out well for other countries so no harm in being strict on the subject. Singapore has a similar stance (I think)

Wrong. Look at NZ, Australia, Canada - they have all seen their nations prosper dramatically due to the influx of immigrants (many of whom are refugees).

If you have an open and kind minded culture immigration can be a boon for a nation in many ways (socially, culturally, economically etc.).

Yet again, it's 'gaiatsu' that forces Japan to progress.

Blacklabel

As far as voter fraud, I would like to see some form of voter ID come out of this, an end to being registered to vote in more than one place, and removal of all deceased people from the voting rolls. The excuses for not having ID are lame,the government knows who is dead, and there is too much potential for fraud with no ID voters or people registered in multiple places.

For what purpose? Voter fraud accounts for something like 0.0001% of all votes - the only thing that doesn't work with US election system is the college system. In EVERY other democracy in the world the leader is the person who the majority of citizens want to be leader - in the US that would be Hillary. This baffoon should never have been given this level of power.

The man is insane - anyone who thought he would change after becoming president have had their hopes dashed.

His approval ratings are going to break more records - he will not last the whole year.

StrangerlandJAN. 25, 2017 - 02:46PM JST Parents for your children;s sake, do NOT allow your children to walk home alone, no matter where you live - is the risk really worth it?

It really depends on how much of a risk it is. I'd suspect, though granted it's purely an impression and not one backed by any numbers I've researched, that your kids face more of a risk any time they get into a car. In such a case, then the risk doesn't seem to be a big deal to me. Now if it turns out that the risk of a kid walking home alone is fairly significant, then I'd feel otherwise. The problem here is I have no idea how much of a risk it actually is, so I personally can't answer your question.

Okay, so because you don;t know the risk, you would choose to allow your child to walk home alone? Surely, best to assess the risk BEFORE allowing them to go out alone. You can't really get far in life without a car these days - but there are myriad of ways your child can get home supervised by an adult.

sensei258JAN. 25, 2017 - 12:25PM JST

As I was walking to work today, I passed a private kindergarten bus full of students and teachers. It was stopped in traffic, and some older man was standing next to it just staring in at the students for a long time. Not waving or smiling or talking just staring. I stopped to watch him because it creeped me out.

Yes, I've seen similar things myself - I think people in Japan just don't see it though. There is serious child sexualisation everywhere and this only feeds sexual deviation which is higher than it should be. Parents for your children;s sake, do NOT allow your children to walk home alone, no matter where you live - is the risk really worth it?

StrangerlandJAN. 24, 2017 - 06:25PM JST

This is why I wouldn;t bring up my child in Japan - too many child predators whether it violence or sexual. So where do you figure is safer?

Most of the developed world - people need to get it out of their minds that just because Japan has a low petty crime rate does not mean all crimes in Japan are low. My sister in law was sexually assaulted as a child in a local park - she never told anyone about it until recently (now in thirties) and I know from various newspaper reports that sexual assault is severely underreported in Japan due to culture barriers, and we know there is a serious problem with sexual assault on trains. Is it such a leap of logic to conclude that sexual assault on children is a more serious problem in general in Japan?

No way would I let my daughter spend more than a few weeks holiday in Japan. To those parents allowing their daughters to come home from school alone - shame on you for taking the risk because like my sister in law, your daughter is unlikely to ever tell you if someone attacked her.

This is why I wouldn;t bring up my child in Japan - too many child predators whether it violence or sexual.

What is this Japanese Eugenics!?

There is NO Japanese race! Doesn't exist. No such thing.

Japanese are made of of several smaller ethinc groups including Yamato and Ainu which originate from the North-East Asian ethnic group (Chinese, Koreans, Mongolians).

You can thank Meiji era leaders for this myth among the Japanese population that they are genetically unique.

Anyway, humans are 99.999% identical genetically any 'differences' are so minuscule to be invalid.

And many Japanese wonder why Koreans and Chinese don't believe 'apologies' from Japan - they can see there is a wide base of denial of Japanese wartime atrocities in Japan.

No. There are far more democratic and less corrupt political systems in the world - New Zealand, Scandinavia, France even the UK.

And why do Americas keep telling lies to themselves like, 'the leaders of the free world', or the 'greatest nation in the world' - what a joke!

There is definitely a clash of cultures here. My Japanese students have not grown up in a society that believe animals have rights or that they shouldn't be exploited - quite the opposite. The western world has been moving towards greater compassion and concern for animals for their own sake, not for the benefit of human beings. But this way of thinking is largely non-existent in the general Japanese populace. BUT the whaling is taking place in international waters so it is Japan that is being culturally insensitive since no country protests whaling in Japanese waters.