JeffLee comments

Used to hang out around Jimbocho in the 90s because it was such a cool place. Its now a shadow of its former self. Nearly all the original century old university buildings have been torn down while the bookstores and sports retailers have been devastated by online shopping. The music stores are still buzzing, though. The area needs preservation rather than “rifuomu”.

Anyone who feels the need to own these breeds has serious personality issues. Same goes for those keep deadly snakes, tigers, etc. Just get a beagle.

Just learned that GM announced in June it reversed course on the Bolt, deciding to keep it after Barra got lots of hate mail. Well, good for GM for actually listening to its (angry) customers. Let's hope it's not another "SUV crossover" with a higher price tag and larger size.

Remember the article a couple of weeks back about how middle-class Americas are increasingly unable to afford buying and maintaining a car? Well, no wonder, subcompacts, which are prevalent in Europe, Asia and Latin America, have mostly disappeared from the North American market. If the Chinese were allowed in, they would change that and quickly dominate the market.

To qualify it as growth is disingenuous.

No it isn't. Japan's working population and overall population are declining, and GDP is a measure of total output, or the economy's size. Even if growth were 0%, Japan would be doing pretty well.

China is supposed to be collapsing 

It's real estate sector collapsed. Ever wonder why mainland Chinese tourists were coming here in the masses a few years back and now there are considerably fewer? They ain't got the money no more, that's why.

Ironic that GM was the world's first to mass market EVs, way back in the 90s, after which it launched a aggressive campaign to wipe that model from the face of the earth by literally destroying every single vehicle.

More recently GM came out with the Volt, which had the potential of killing much of the competition that is now killing GM. Did I say it was ironic?

It's not as bad as most people say.

ANY American airlines.

I like Delta.

110 cars! They've been busy over the past 2 years. Long jail sentences then deportation, please. Don't care if you've got a Japanese wife and kids to feed. Off you go and never come back.

It will never happen in my lifetime. There is solid consensus in Japan encompassing both the public and policymakers in favor of executing hardcore criminals. Retribution is a big factor in Japanese justice. Victims' families often call for "the ultimate penalty" for those who done them wrong. Just read the news.

American factory produced junk food 

The biggest junk food phenom in Asia in particular has been instant noodles: a styrom container of chemicals. That's a Japanese invention.

I personally find it easier to healthily in the West due to the availability of salads, ie, raw vegetables, which Asians tend not to eat, as well as reasonably priced raw fruit and more diversity and options in supermarkets and restaurants. Never have problem getting plenty of fiber and nutrients. Japan, however, with its volumuous portions of polished white rice (starch bomb) in almost every meal is harder work.

We have a couple of secret spots in the valley that no one else seems to know about. Literally, on weekends or holidays we swim or hike and encounter almost no one. On weekdays, no one at all. 50 minutes from Tokyo, too.

Everyone else is at Takao and Okutama. LOL.

 In 1960 the technology to detect (long dormant) seismic faults was not available.

The article is talking about active fault lines. Seismographs have been installed in large numbers in quake-prone locations since the late 19th century.

increasingly borne by low-income and middle-income countries

No kidding. Many of those countries are hot and humid, where outdoor activities can be a real ordeal. Kids sit inside with the air con on with their noses to screens.

They’re also developing a strong sweet tooth. I saw a woman at a buffet in Vietnam who poured herself an orange juice and then put in three tea spoons of sugar.

the presence of possible active fault lines...underneath it.

You'd think they would have checked that out BEFORE THEY BUILT IT.

most Western popular culture, which equates samurai with warriors.

I didn't realize that Kurosawa movies and the like were "Western popular culture."

The government will draw a supplementary budget to finance the stimulus measure

How are all those promises of "fiscal consolidation" going, folks?

Nearly all the batteries require several lithium batteries,...

I meant to say "flashlights."

If you have an illicit drug habit, don’t come to Japan. Just don’t.

SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm

The British regulators who allowed that sale to, ugh, Softbank should have been tried, convicted and sentenced to very long jail sentences.

Nearly all the batteries require several lithium batteries, which isn't so convenient in a disaster. I have one that uses a single penlight battery, which was a rare find.

The Anglicans are not much better.

The Anglicans are a lot better. Their priests are allowed to marry and lead normal lives as husbands and fathers or wives and mothers.

Corporate Japan keeps getting richer and richer. Too bad it doesn't want to share its ever-expanding bounty with its workers.

 those responsible for 2008 were all in the mainstream.

They weren't policymakers. "Those responsible" were in the private sector -- the sub prime snake oil salesmen, Wall Street investment banks that peddled billions of dollars of their toxic debt and private credit rating agencies that gave triple A ratings to securitized junk in exchange for basically bribes. The policymakers were the ones who had to step in to rescue the economy.

"....deporting immigrants in the U.S. illegally who posed safety and security threats...

Isn't this what countries are supposed to do? Especially ones committed to the rule of law? If I sneaked into Japan, from say Canada, by landing on a beach and skirting immigration procedures, and the authorities knew about it, I could expect to be detained in a cell until deported, even if I didn't pose a safety/security threat. And no one would care.

Why is the US case controversial? And why the double standard when it comes to the US (and usually other Western countries)?

Imagine walking on perfectly safe sidewalk and then suddenly getting runover and killed by an errant car? Can happen to anyone.

The fire was burning for 11 hours and was still going when the story was filed? How well are MSDF crews going to cope in the event of war?

Noooo!!! The government should be encouraging small displacement vehicles, which are a lot more fuel efficient than the larger models, which Honda will continue manufacturing. Makes no sense to me. Make the gas guzzlers electric.

Canada's government...has less control over how many people claim asylum.

The human-smuggling crime bosses know this all too well. Several Canadian cities report that around half of shelter spaces intended for the local homeless are occupied by refugees. Meanwhile, in recent years there's been a 650 percent surge in the number of refugee claims by....international students!

Canada's a mess these days. It's quickly losing its ability to address fundamental problems and threats.

"antisemitic squads" = rascist thugs

I was surprised last time how many Japanese didn't seem to mind Trump, and some who actually liked him. Most didnt like the Trump tariffs but admired his tough stance on China.

cash handouts to low-income households under the serious impact of higher food and energy prices,

Yes, and if you keep doing this plus the utility bill subsidies, Japan's employers will never feel the need to give pay raises. You're only further weakening Japan's already-pathetic wage-inflation cycle. The only thing stingy bosses respond to is pressure.