JMin comments

Maybe Japanese government should have done nothing at all to respond to COVID. No guidance on prevention measures, no border control restrictions, no encouraging WFH, no limits on big events, no vaccine distribution, etc. either. Just study COVID for another 5+ years until we can get rock solid evidence on how COVID works.

Then no one's "freedoms" would have been restricted.

Japanese government better make sure he pays his full taxes. Not some bogus excuse (tax avoidance scheme) saying his company in Sweden gets all the revenue, etc.

Paying taxes is the only reason why Japan should have given this guy a visa.

Beginning to think Kishida-san and other LDP leaders have no intention to allow foreigners to visit Japan in same numbers as pre-COVID. My view is Kishida-san basically lied in London when saying he intends to get Japan on par with other G-7 countries.

Elected leaders here believe restriction on foreigner entry equals more votes. No interest in being a "leader" and doing something unpopular with the masses, but best for the country in the long-term.

I don’t really care who owns Twitter.

Elon is free to joke around as he wants to as long as its within the laws. If he breaks the law why shouldn't he get punished like anyone else who breaks the law? He shouldn’t get any special treatment because some people think he is funny or think he is really smart.

Wouldn't it be great if a key policy argument in the US could be about whether to restrict benefits to US union made EVs or just allow the benefits for all EVs made in the US. (Instead elected leaders dealing with too many political distractions.)

The crime sounds very "premeditated" to me. Not that she just made a mistake in the heat of a moment.

I am not sure what this means, "The judge handed down a sentence of three years in prison, suspended for four years providing the woman stays in good legal standing in light of remorse she showed during the trial." Sounds like the lightest guilty penalty possible.

The judge really needs to make a lesson of this kind of behavior. In many cases its hard to catch this kind of crime; need to strongly discourage others.

And China and India just stand by Putin.

It really shouldn't be acceptable to just say your neutral or no comment in a situation like this.

China, I can expect this from because they always just do whatever is opposed to the US position.

India, I thought I knew better and have (had) a lot of respect for. Now I know better.

In a related development, it was announced that Japanese government would not withdraw from the Sakhalin 2 oil and gas project in the Russian Far East because it was important for "energy security".

Whoa! Wha-wha-what? Relying on Russia for your energy is the opposite of having a secure supply of energy. You are at Russia's mercy when if they want to pressure you by restricting your energy supply. Come on GoJ. You can do better than that.

Will Smith is such a joke.

Now that the Academy (finally) decides to do something and launches an investigation, then Smith decides to make an apology to the person he hit. Nice move to save your career Smith.

Perfect opportunity for people to try other drinks.

Think its pretty shameful Smith can full on slap someone unprovoked and Academy Awards people just let him go back to his seat and enjoy the party. (Academy Awards people too scared of how their sponsors will react if they dont have Smith there to get his award? (If he should get it at all.))

Interesting the press says Smith gave an "apologetic speech" later when receiving his award. From the transcript I saw, all he was saying is he is sorry about how this might affect his career or how its a tough time for him being at his peak. Really, an apology needs to the the person you wronged.

Still some time until the G20 Sumit. But, if Indonesia or the others don’t un-invite Russia then anti-war/anti-invasion countries should boycott G20 and do their own conference. Let the friends of Russian gather on their own.

You could have:

Boycotting (15): US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, United Kingdom, Argentina, EU, [Brazil,] [Saudi Arabia,] [Turkey]

Not boycotting (5): Russia, China, Indonesia, India, South Africa      

(*Above is roughly based on the 2March, 2022 UN Gen Assembly vote to condemn Russia. Indonesia voted to condemn, but their President seems to want political favors from Russia. Also wants to score political points by saying he is magically against economic sanctions (as well as against war).)

This is key information I found on another source: "The Tsugaru Strait is designated as an international strait, meaning that areas 3 nautical miles or more from the coasts is regarded the same as the high seas and therefore open to foreign ships."

Didn't Japanese government and Japanese people learn their lesson from "Tokyo 2020"?

Japan is not capable of handling this kind of event. Bureaucracy can't adjust if things don't go as planned. If you want to host you have to be committed to make the kind of games people around the world expect, with spectators, etc.

And, Olympics has become the genocide games these days (leave your freedoms and sense of human rights at the door). Who would want to be associated. (Which country will Russia attack after the next Olympics?)

Last time I watch a Mark Walhberg or Tom Holland movie, if I can remember or if I even realize they are in it.

Is anyone making a list of these producers, directors, actors that bend over backwards to pander to the Chinese government? I guess most people in the US (still the biggest paying audience?) don't understand what's going.

Just don't show that part of the map if you don't want to piss off anyone.

Don't take away my fork for my pasta. Not going to help their ready-made pasta sales.

All the bento food has so much plastic packaging anyway I'm not sure it will make much difference.

I might finally become a Zara and H&M shopper.

Kazuaki, thanks for explaining the important information I was wondering. No other (mainstream) English source seemed to think it important.

Kids/Schools: For the last 2 weeks about every day my daughters school announces 1 to 3 new COVID cases among students. And each time they say that they have precautions of masks and some open windows, so they dont think anything needs to be done. School continues / the spread continues.

They dont even tell you in which grade the cases occurred, so not much a parent can do.

(Her school is about 400 students)

I don't see why Winter Olympians get to the right to source vaccine before others. Allow everyone to source their own boosters then.

I can think of dozens of categories of workers that should get their vaccines first (either because of health needs or being "essential workers" in a wide sense).

He wins his court case on a technicality. Now he may be kicked out of the country on a technicality.

As they say in tennis, "you win some and you lose some."

At an "early date"???

Kids 5-12 in US are already getting their booster shots (3rd shot). [Rest of] the world's developed countries have allowed it for kids under 12 many months ago ago.

It not a requirement that any kid (or adult) in Japan get a vaccine. Its just an option, so please Japanese government get out of my way. Being in the way of allowing vaccines is not really governing.

Desert Tortoise, great comment.

Amazing the article does not mention this critical fact that the product is an ozone generator (their Japanese website says so).

Generally, ozone can be ok to clean a room IF there are no living things in the room (including plants/pets) and you wait some time (like 30-60minutes) to enter the room after the machine shuts off. But I think quite a pain if you have to leave the room while the machine works.

I guess it could have been expected.

Score another point for the anti-foreigners. (Anti-foreigners are doing well these days since COVID hit.)

Considering that "results of local referendums are not legally binding", isn't the "referendum" more like an opinion poll. Hard to think how foreigners living here can damage Japan's sovereignty by registering their stance on issues.

By the year Japan starts letting foreigners in again, we wont be using smartphones and apps anymore (direct-to-brain devices or something). Japanese government might as well put their software on a CD-ROM.

(BTW, JapanToday does not allow me to abbreviate the word "Japanese government", its really into proper English.)

Tokyo Olympics is not refunding the tickets purchased! (Purchased directly from Tokyo Olympics via the original lottery)

This is why they don"t need extra money, they are stealing the money they claimed they would refund.

How I know?

When my refund didn't come in October, I have asked them 3 times to refund it but they just replied to "wait". Now, today I get an e-mail saying the ticket refund website will close later this month and basically "please get your refund before then". What scamers.

It terrible. The Swiss Cheese Sauce totally ruins it. Sauce tastes like processed garbage.

I eat a lot of Dominos and I thought it would be interesting, but suggest you avoid.

Tokyo-m, you took the first sentence I was just going to write. "Here we go again."

Supposedly the restriction is "for the time being," but we all know that probably means that restriction is here for many months. Probably only months after the whole omicron has settled down, will the gov consider releasing the restriction.

Pretty big "typo" on the original report.

About 8 billion people trying to figure out how this pandemic happened, and almost 2 years later someone finally realizes this typo. (My level of trust is pretty low new development)

Not sure if this author of this article neglected important information or if lawyer for the suing party was just trying to start commotion in the press, but all the things mentioned dont say much.

" there was no reason for a live bullet to be placed in that .45 Colt revolver" - [no justified reason,] no one is denying that.

"did not follow film industry practice on the handling of weapons and allowed a revolver loaded with live ammunition" - yes, I would assume pointing loaded weapons is not industry practice (but who did what to allow the weapon to be live?)

"We are asking for a full and complete investigation" - what a great idea, the suing party's lawyer should go Santa Fe and explain that concept to the police

If your suing Baldwin you should show something that he did, that was negligent and allowed this to happen.