Japan T comments

"Sorry, can you please explain to me why meeting in the lobby of a hotel then going for dinner or something is unsafe?"

Article did not say "hotel lobby", it said 'hotel". The article also states that he filmed her nude. In the hotel lobby I suppose?

If the met at the hotel lobby to go to a resturant, why not say so? The article states they met in a hotel and he filmed her nude and he then tried to extort her.

You ignore what is in the article and include things that are not. There is more than enough info in this article to conclude they met for the first time at a hotel and they ended up in a room together and he filmed her. That is known.

Again, why in the world would someone be so foolish on a first date if they thought it could lead to something like this. They believe the myth.

Naivety is an epidemic here. Parents do not warn their children of the dangers becuase they do not know or belief dangers exist. Nor do school, teachers, friends or employers. They all belief the myth that "Japan is safe" and it being safe, no precaution necessary.

"Too many Japanese that I know view the internet as an extension of real life and never think THEY will become a victim, never get into problems because of the internet, and are naive in thinking that crap happens to other people and not them."

This is symptomatic of the constant drum beat that "Japan is safe". Why worry when everyone tells you there is no reason to be concerned? Why worry when bogus stats show that crime is rare.

Why not meet a guy you just met online at a hotel? What could possibly go wrong, Japan is safe, after all.

"This is often not true. Most of the time the girls are being controlled by pimps or trafficking operations and are often drugged, and beaten if they do not earn the expected income. In Japan?"

Yes, in Japan. The term "enjo kosai” dates at least as far back as 1997 when I first heard the term used in an expose on the "enjo kosai mondai" on Japanese tv while in college here. Many of the girls were so young and/or innocent that they did not know that the activities they just told the reported they do were in fact sexual acts. Didn't know pregnacy could result.

The new law may not for the upcoming olympics but it certainly isn't for the protection of young girls for if it were they would not have taken at least 15 years to get around to passing a law to address it. Besides, child porn is STILL being sold. Ran across some last week in Akihabara. Saw underage asian and western girls on the covers. Thought I was in a manga, store. In fact the first floor was but the upper stores were something different.

Back to the Enjo kosai mondai, for crying out loud, WTF do you think school girls are running around Shibuya in their school uniforms at 2 am on a school night for, tea and crumpets!?!

Some of you folks really need to get out of your ivory tower.

It may seem off topic, but it is not. The prevailing attitude that Japan is safe prevents thoughts on safety.

I have a three year old and live right next to a very busy street. It was a hell of a fight with my spouse, Japanese, to get something that works like a gate to keep the kid from running out in the stree. Another fight over window locks. Another fight to not jay walk with the kid or in front of the kid.

Luckily, we are in agreement on car safety and have a child seat but I see many family driving with children standing between the front seats.

In general, my spouse and inlaws have no concept of looking out for themselves and I have found the same to be true for the vast majority I have known here and for most I see on the street.

Additionally, when traveling and ask for a baby bed, the hotel staff put the bed right next to the window.

I know that it is difficult for lefties to get, but every time socialisn is tried it leads enforced mediocrity, rationing and bankruptcy.

Next to every major economy on Earth right now is experiencing huge budget shortfalls. Where is all the huge amounts of revenue they suck up go? It ain't goin to where it is truely needed. Worse, by having to pay these huge revenues, the citizens are not left with enough to pay for the things they need on their own. Many, many more people would be able to provide for themselves if not forced to provide for everyone.

No body, expect the rulers have enough under socialism.

This story is a great example. Why are there not enough day care centers? Why, when the birth rate has been below replacement levels for so many years, is the government not able to provide for the demand, demand that its own policies increased? Even people willing and able to pay for quality daycare for their children can not get it because it is in such short supply, it is rationed.

And thus it has always been and thus it shall always be under socialism. History proves it.

"Because we live in a society, and a society is a group made up of members. Not a bunch of individuals."

Not good enough. Especially, if you are one who either does not want children, having been trying to have children and can't or can not afford to raise your own. Why should they have to pay for mine!

Teachers often are involved in the bullying in Japan. More often they just allow it.

When I was in school in the States, children were never left unattended, teachers stayed in the classrooms. They did retreat into the teacher's office. Their desk was in their classroom. Not so here where teachers have their desks in the teachers office and the students are left to their own devices for considerable amounts of time.

Small wonder faculty and staff know little of what goes on.

@Strangerland

You might have saved her life.

"Likelihood doesn't matter, what actually happened is what matters."

Yes, but that is how you rule in or rule out possible scenarios to arrive at what happened.

I wonder how likely it is that she had an accident when her slippers were found in a field? Were they found near the river? If so the possibility of an accident increases, if not, it decreases.

Foul play or accident, whether Rina or someone else's daughter, tragic.

Why should other taxpayers cover the cost of my child? No, less government spending and lower taxes so that I have more left of what I earn to pay for my own needs is what is required.

I hope you are wrong, but the slippers in the grass are not a good sign.

May our fears be unmet.

@Smithinjapan

"Exactly. How many times do we have to read this kind of article before that sinks in for some people? I guess the myth is nicer than reality."

Precisely.

@Strangerland

As discussed before, a nation that investigates so few unnatural deaths can not be called safe.

It is extremely likely that the mother of the missing child would have kept her daughter much closer were they touring overseas. It is thus less likely that this girl would have gone astray.

The false sense of security that most demonstrate here and you promate leads people to be less careful than they should be.

I pray she is found safe and sound, but even if she is, it can not be said that all is well. There is a family worried sick right now, and possibly a little girl too. The loss of time of all the volunteers and emergency service personel looking for it is not to be taken lightly.

And it all could have been avoided if people placed less belief in the safety of Japan and more in their own responsibility to look after themselves and those they love.

30m is not all far. Remember, Japan is safe.

@Bullfighter

"This Japanese language article and the graphs in it show clearly that not only has there been an increase in the number of children in daycare and that the increase accelerated with the onset of the Abe administration although it began earlier."

And yet, they were not prepared. Did they not expect mothers to actually reenter the work force? Or did they just overlook the fact that if more mothers are at work, then more daycare facilities will be needed?

As this is a result of a stated goal, there is no excuse for not the size of the problem, none what so ever. For a familiy that MUST have both parents working to make ends meet and there not be a place in a daycare facility for their child despite paying taxes for such facilities, NOTHING has been done. What you cite are excuses, and excuses never solve problems.

I don't care what it is in other counties, I and my family live and pay taxes in Japan. It IS a problem we face in JAPAN and is thus a JAPAN PROBLEM.

I live east of Tokyo. Yes, down market areas have shorter waiting lists, they generaly also have fewer facilities for expectate mothers and hospitals that accept injured and sick children. Should taxpayers in Japan be satisfied that we have to choose between medical facilities for pregnant women and young children OR for a daycare facility?

I am not.

The cost of living and raising a family necessitates both parents work in many, many families. Day care is rationed in Japan, it is very difficult to get your child into one. If your child can not get in, then serious financial difficulties are all but assured for the family.

Licensing alone is of little use. Many chidren too many children die in them too, albiet less that unlicensed. When we were looking for day care for our child, the best one was an unlicensed day care. The staff to child ratio was the best, they had a great educational system, pluses all around except for location. Luckily, our second choice, an official day care, has worked out wonderfully.

But many of the official day care centers we visited were not apealling at all. Across between boot camp and what I have read prison to be like.

Due process in Japan?

It is not so unusual for American parents to apolgize for the misdeeds of thier adult children. After all, it is (was?) from parents that children learn the difference between right and wrong.

The line between discipline and abuse differs not only between cultures but generations. I was not abused but some of the methods my parents used, common when I was growing up in the US are considered abuse today.

Locking kids out of the house is not an unusual form of discipline in Japan. My mother in law did it to all her children. And that family is one of best examples of a family I have ever known in any of the countries I have visited.

A neighbor used to roughly man handle one of his daughters out to the balcony and lock her out of the apartment where she would screem and pound on the door for very long periods of time. My spouse said it was usual, that they were that child many years ago and I can see for myself the good quality relationships that exist between all members of the family.

I stuns me how quickly people express disbelief of the fathers excuse. It is not so rare we read of teens and preteens attacking their parents with a knife, often fatally. We do not know, but the father did rush his son to the hospital. It could have been a case where his son attacked him and the resulted in the father accidentally stabbing his son in the chest.

I once knew a Japanese housewife who always complained that all her husband did was come home late, leave his briefcase and suit jacket in the genkan for her to pick up, expect to served quietly so as not to disturb his TV viewing and then to look after his dirty laundry and set out his work clothes for the next day. She hated her husband. and repeated this fact and the rest of the story often,

One day, she told a different story. She spoke lovingly of her son in high school who played on one of the school's sports teams. She spoke lovingly of how she picked up his gym bag with his dirty uniform from the genkan after he returned from practice. Again lovingly, of how she silently waited upon him at dinner so as not to disturb his tv viewing. How she lovenly washed his clothes every day and set out the next day's clothes for him. She told us of she looked forward to making dinner for him each day.

I told her that she was teaching her son to be the exact same kind of husband as she had. I never saw her again.

Men in Japan are as they are largely because their mothers made them that way and their wives accept it.

If the guy is a clod, don't marry him. If you have no idea of what kind of a man he is but believe he must be a gem because he comes from a good family, don't marry him.

This particular housewife was of the generation which said that the perfect husband was, genki, okanemochi, rusagaii- healthy, wealthy and never home. What kind of chances do you think he had to be any different?

Yes DV happens and I do not blame the victim. But to automatically blame the father and provide a story that fits the traditional role of the father in this country will do nothing to solve the problem.

Yes, I do pity the father and will do so unless evidence is found that he seriously abused his family such that his late wife felt that the only way to save her children from a life time of suffering was to do what she did. MAYBE I could then be convinced that a father who wakes up to find all four of his children murdered my his wife is undeserving of pity.

@Fred Wallace

Yes, the American public was dead set against getting involved in other people's wars. Having YOUR ship intentially sunk, however makes it YOUR war. The American people would have been enraged if they knew it was intentially sunk and that Japan lied about it. If President Roosevelt wanted war, he had in 1937 for the taking. Yet he chose not to take the opportunity AND took action to prevent it, having the incriminating scenes cut from the newsreel. Your theory that something on a much grander scale was needed is undercut by this fact. But let's say your theory is correct. What purpose would then be served by editing out the incriminating scenes?

Another point that is overlooked by both those who believe that Roosevelt manipulated the Japanese into attacking the US and those who debunk it is how nearly the war in Pacific was lost. A major deciding factor was not the fighting abilities of the two nation's fighting men but in each nation's ability to supply them. The US Navy was compelled to temporarily abandon the Marines at Guadalcanal because supply ships were too few in the Pacific and thus more valuable to the overall war effort than the Marines they would be supplying (hat off to those Marines who nonetheless won) and could not be risked to loss.

Knowing this, one must wonder at the sheer good fortune of the US and the bad judgement of Japanese military command. A nation can have 500 times as many ships as the next largest navy in the world but they are useless if they are without fuel. The fuel storage facility in Pearl was, and I believe still is, right there out in the open. All that was needed was to drop a very small amount of ordinance among the fuel tanks and the US navy at pearl would have been nothing more than a floating museum and all plans equally useless for a sustained fight until more fuel could be brought and storage facilities rebuilt. I have looked, there were very, very few fleet oilers in the Pacific on Dec. 7, 1941 and I do not know their lading at that time. True, I do not have any idea of the civilian fuel oil transport capacities, but regardless, taking out Pearl's fuel dump would have set back the war effort's timetable in the Pacific considerably, possibly allowing the Japanese to land at Australia as the US would not have had the ability to get any force to Guadalcanal which a defense of Australia called for. Then the out come could very well have been different. At the very least would have cost more US lives, money and material.

That is a MIGHTY big risk for Roosevelt to have taken. Unless you believe that Admiral Yamamoto was in on the conspiracy and intentionally left the fuel alone so that the US would have a fighting chance, the evidence against a conspiracy to allow the attack at P H is great and the evidence for a conspiracy, light.

Malice should not be assumed when simple incompetence will answer.

Good Bad Fred Wallace

@Fred Wallace

"It's terribly improbable that the US was 'suprised' by this horrendous event given it had been intercepting all communications from Japan. It's a bitter pill to swallow but the economy was against the wall and the only quick way out of that mire was all out war, Japan gladly provided the motive and the rest as they say is a dark history."

IF that were the case, then the US had all the motive in needed when the USS Panay was sunk in the Yangtze River near Nanking on Dec. 12, 1937 by Japanese aircraft. The Japanese said it was a case of mistaken identity from bombers at high altitude. However, when President Roosevelt saw the news reel, there being several reporters from various nations aboard, he summoned the producer to the White House. The producer was "asked" to cut the bits showing Japanese attack aircraft at main deck level and the huge painting of the US flag disproving the Japanese claim that it was a case of mistaken identity. The footage was removed because the American people, seeing it when they went to the movie theater as it was common in those days to see Movietone News before the main feature, woud have demaded war. Yet, Roosevelt had it removed and thus the US did not declare war at that time despite its economy being little better than it was at the time you claim it was the motivation for going to war in 1941. Yes, messages were intercepted stating that an attack force was underway but that in no way means that that it was understood where the target of the attack would be, especially with Japan having been at war in Asia for a long time. While relations between other former enemies and Japan are not always as cordial as those between the US and Japan, many in the US are furious over Obama's visit to Hiroshima, especially as it came before a State visit by Japan to Pearl Harbor. Mrs. Abe's visit may have been, in part, with that in mind.

"Bread and circus, works every time!"

Until all the money is spent ad there is no more bread nor circus, which happens every time.

"According to police, at the time of his death, Eichi had nearly 40 bruises and other wounds on his body, including cigarette burns."

And it still took a CONFESSION to provide enough for an arrest!?!? WTF do Jcops to earn their salary?

Kangawota,

Tokyo's reservoirs at at the lowest levels ever. We have major water problems if we do not get lots of rain very soon.

Tossing water on concrete just raises the humidity and cools off the area doused only momentarily. Tress, if they are allowed to grow a canapy, shade the concrete from the sun as well as provide other benefits.

I agree with Smithinjapan on this one.

So high school girls "manage" high school boy's basebaall teams. Who knew?

Lots of local news in my area goes unreported anywhere. Car accidents on route six, deaths by heat stroke or suspicious circumstances. Some are, but many are not.

Yeah, I too always thought that you must being doing something wrong to get carded. Getting stopped yourself really changes one perspective.