jamplass comments

I have asked my 18-19 year old Japanese students this question over the years: Do you consider yourselves adults? And invariably they say "no". They are not in any hurry to grow up, vote, make other big decisions or even that eager to consume alcohol. Is this in line with the rest of the (Western) world? No, but I'm not sure it should be either. However, come their 20th birthday, they had better start acting like an adult or at least be ready to accept more responsibility in their lives.

"Being a middle school student must be hard. You’re not quite an adult but you’re definitely not a child either." How long has this journalist been in Japan? I ask my 18 & 19 year old university students if they think they are an adult, and the vast majority of them say "no". I'm glad the kids spoke up in this case.

Are these permanent collections of the museums in question? I do hope they are brought back to Japan and an exhibition is done here. It is art history after all.

Tamori looks pretty young for 68. I wonder what his secret is.

That had to be more than one day's take for a ramen shop--why keep so much cash in the store? Kind of asking for trouble. But I hope they catch the culprits!

Cigarette smoking has always been a nasty, dirty, habit. Yet some people still associate it with being "cool" and fashionable. It doesn't help when you see popular celebrities like Justin Timberlake in his new video taking a drag from a cigarette and throwing it into the street. What an irresponsible ploy to maintain popularity and "street credibility".

Smoking killed my mom, but even so I don't think I would completely ban it. BUT it must be done away from non-smokers in a completely segregated area or outside. I'm tired of having my dinners in restraunts ruined by noxious fumes of cigarette smoke. And if restaurants do not have designated non-smoking areas, smokers think it's their "right" to pollute the air. As people who hate smoke, we need to make our voices clear: we will not support businesses in Japan who do not have non-smoking sections, and we WILL actively support businesses who go non-smoking and hopefully the trend will catch on.

pretty awful, unnecessarily vulgar. And about 6 months too late.

The solution: If airlines decide to move someone for whatever reason they should get an automatic upgrade. That should keep everyone happy.

I suppose Micky can do Davy's vocals. Glad Nesmith is along this time. I'd like to hear "Listen to the Band" live.

A strange case because it involves a female teacher. Unfortunately possession of child pornography is legal in Japan. Not sure what happens if you are the pornographer. This is why ethics courses are so important for teachers' pre-service education. I do hope she never works at a school again. But she probably won't do much jail time, if any.

The gals are doing lots better than the guys, who are kind of disappointing this year. What happened to "Boys be ambitous!"?. Too many herbivores around these days...

I hope he includes tracks from his Kuwata Band days. I don't think they're even available on CD.

The consumption tax and now the nuclear issue. It's kind of remarkable that Noda has been in office this long. Although as most of us agree, his days are certainly numbered...

Gee thanks Japan Today! I now know where to go for my soft porn in the morning. The double entendre caption is oh so clever too!

The reason Gaga gave for cancelling had more to do with concerns for safety of her and concert goers. Given that a large proportion of the violence in this world is perpetuated by fundamental Muslims I think she was justified. I feel bad for her fans in Indonesia, but the country's leaders are obviously not ready to embrace diversity and freedom of expression. So they can watch her concert on a pirated DVD instead. Maybe in a few more centuries...

Uniqlo aleady has store(s) in Ginza, so I'm not sure what the "flagship" one will accomplish. Their clothes are of quality and functional, but not necessarily stylish or unique in any way.

While this is disturbing it really is no surprise at all. Ishihara has been spouting the same nationalistic drivel for god knows how long and Kawamura, although he's new and youngish represents one of the most conservative cities in Japan.

BTW, Irish Chang's book has been criticised for very good reasons. The Chinese photos that are bandied about as "evidence" are complete fabrications. The best research on the Rape of Nanking has been by Japanese scholars, most of whom agree that yes, it did happen, yet the actual numbers of Chinese killed is probably a third of what the Chinese government claims.

Yet, denial of the Rape of Nanking is another thing--ignorant, and Japanese need to be educated about this important pat of their history.

Or, Omori could have been sent to India in order to cover up his role in the scandal. More intrigue there if you ask me. And he offed himself for something he did and was remorseful about, so yes, I think "shame" had something to do with it as well.

The stats say that more women attempt suicide but more men actually go through with it. This has to be related to the company scandal. You just don't hide the loss of billions of yen and think that there won't be consequences. The book/movie will be fascinating and a best-seller when it comes out.

I'm assuming this was a translation from a Japanese article, so this misinformation is what the Japanese regularly read (and believe) about "foreign criminals". But for the reasons already given by others it's very slanted and exaggerated.

I am not adverse to using the death penalty when the aim is "justice", but in this case, killing a criminal who was a minor with a horrible upbringing and who now expresses remorse, isn't life in prison a more "just" sentence? Sounds more like revenge to me.

Something told me this question would get over 100 replies in less than 24 hours. Shall we try to double that? For those like myself living in the city, I also would say noise while in shopping areas could be the most annoying thing about Japan. The loud repetitive "Irasshaimase!" yelled to no one in particular, the use of megaphones (which should be banned) to amply the insanity (ABC Mart and Matsumoto Kyoshi are some of the worst culprits). The thing that really gets me, is when you ask these staff a question about their merchandise you often get blank looks or an unhelpful attitude.

Women's magazines don't have anything better to write about than ways to categorize men? I think we should return the favor someday.

"down tools"? "production is set to seize"? Come on JT. Let's use language that we all understand.

Considering they get no tips I think they generally are pretty hard-working and efficient. Some could smile once in a while for regular customers, though.

Why doesn't someone just vomit into the rice cooker? I'm sure the result will be the same.

My top 3:

The transportation system-You can get practically anywhere without having to rely on an automobile. The food-generally is very good. And in the larger cities you can get good variety of "ethnic" food as well. Environment-generally safe and clean (well that's two). There are few "bad" neighborhoods in Japan where you might fear for your safety.

Isn't "kizuna" also supposed to be the kanji/word of 2011? So the defectors/leaders think it's a trendy catch-phrase that will encourage others to blindly join the party, regardless of what their platform is. The Japanese people are probably smarter than that.

It was a tragic accident. 7 years of incarceration is enough. This man will spend the rest of his life trying to make amends to the families of these kids.

I look at labels of everything I buy. I won't knowingly buy anything from Fukushima prefecture and I try to buy Hokkaido or Kyushu products. What's tough is meat, since it often just says "domestic" and nothing else.