JoiceRojo comments

For some unfortunate reason, I missed the Oscars and I was looking forward to...

What amazes me now, it is all that talk about the "lack of diversity", and ate the same time a Mexican wins Best director, So are Mexicans and Latino white people now? it sounds funny

Woah, this prince is real classy! and his comments are spot on.

The prime minister last week appointed a 16-member panel to advise him on a statement he is set to make later this year to mark the 70th anniversary of Japan’s surrender.

Yet the crown prince tells him exactly what should he say, for FREE hahaha

Thanks Bertie, but I often don't come across phrases like you say:

He loosed off ...

I don't relate the word "loose" or "loosed off" with "lose" i think rather of the composite "loose off" which has a meaning if you look up on the dictionary

"it's a quite common expression often used in modern English."

Indeed, but can we be sure of the writer's intention any more? Play fast and lose sounds like a clever proverb. As we say in these parts, festino lente.

Again I looked up on the internet:

So what does it actually mean to "play fast and loose" with something? Shakespeare didn't think this one up all by himself. Before Shakespeare was even alive, this was the name of the game. Literally. People would play fast and loose by placing two belts in a coil on the ground. Someone would be asked to find the true center of the loop by placing a stick in it. The person playing would have to get a stick to hold fast to the belt when it came loose (because it was pulled on either end).*

So it turns out that one never finish learning things haha...

"U2". That it? A letter and a number (and terrible music)?

U2 is a play of words "you too" and I do like their music

As for Japanese: Bump of Chicken, Flumpool, and Kis-My-Ft2 (it makes me thing of kissing feet too)

Non Japanese: Scissors Sisters (It makes me think of the Movie by Tim Burton)

Can you make some examples of misuse? To me it is clear that the meaning of "loose" (not fitting tightly) as and adjective, whereas "lose" is a verb... I don't see where it is wrong

"It's wrote on the wall."

Shouldn't be "It's written on the wall?

My partner says it is a real pain to take holidays because other staff will bully her afterwards

Yeah I've noticed that the main obstacle in taking a vacation is that the workers worry to lose their job, being bullied or lose a chance of a promotion, it's a cultural problem, and it happens in other countries too, it seems that in Japan is more common, though.

I remember that when I arrived the first time at the company I was working with a lady boss that liked to stay late working, she worked hard but she was kinda slow in some aspects of the job, I just came back from the U.S. so I got used to do stuff on time and not drag work after hours, since i have affinity with computers and technology, i developed systematization of the data, so, by the time the day ended, I just took my stuff and leave for home, whereas my boss stayed late (usually a couple of hours though).

One day, she "pointed" that it was kinda frown upon the fact that I was leaving "early" where other people stayed behind. and I said, "I have all my work done by the end of the day, if I´m not finished, I would stay, and many of the people that are working late it is not a sign of working hard, but rather that they are inefficient". She didn't say a thing that moment but I got her thinking, everything she asked me to do or have, I really had the stuff done, for example, the reports, the presentations, etc., she seemed to look for more job for me to do, but I still finished faster than her, and soon she started to leave just an hour after the office closed, and that was understandable, because that extra hour she stayed was to prepare things for the next day (with no pressure) or waiting for her husband that worked in the same building.

What it is really important is to synchronize the minds into productivity, there is a lot of talk about teamwork, but you have to improve yourself if you want a vacation, and slowly move your peers to the same, of course this is part of managerial job, since an employee can do very little on his/her own. I you do a little job and want to take a vacation, your peers may not feel the pressure when covering you, but if it is really little, then it is really necessary?.

Of course, there is also the fact that you "deserve vacation", I mean, dragging long work hours means that you need rest, but it doesn't mean you need vacation (or paid holiday). The managerial staff should use their leadership towards increasing productivity by doing the same work in the time allotted to do so, since they don't want to paid for overtime. Overtime should be something extraordinary, not the common rule. Once the company starts working more efficiently, then the people starts thinking in their paid vacation, since they earn it by all the effort put in their work, the feeling it different when you really have time with your family, but then again, it' s a cultural thing and in this time not only in the workplace but also at home too...

A co-worker doomed by her "permanent" job, is working Monday to Friday from 7am to 12 am, in case is a working day before her day off, she works past 2 am. She says that she must, as another woman got "fired" for being pregnant, now she has to do the work of 2 people. She earns NOTHING for this. In fact she is only wasting her life.

I wish there was a kind of place, website or something people could go to report this sort of abuse.

In my company as in most of places, we are encouraged to ONLY ask for paid holidays if we are very sick or there is an emergency. Our contracts say we must ask for paid holidays with 1 week in advance or it may be denied.

" Oh, I'm sorry, I'll be sick in a week, please let me have a paid holiday"

That company is horrible, however, you can plan to have a medical check up in a paid holiday and prevent getting seriously sick

Gawd, Japan is so far behind its ridiculous. At the job I currently work at I automatically get 5 paid days off (to be scheduled to my choosing) for each YEAR I work. It maxes out at about 3~4 weeks paid time off after 4 years.

Japanese corporations need to get over the idea that working longer = productivity. They need to understand that only time used productively (instead of pretending to work, employees should be actually working) equals getting work done. When that work is finished on time, then there is time to prepare for other things, or take a break.

I'm amazed too by this, I didn't think that working 14-16 hours daily meant productivity, but rather only a couple of these hours were "for show" or to be in the Boss' good books, but actually, it seems you can have the same work done with considerable less.

My case is similar to yours, I work in a mining company, so is far from the city and we have special transportation, so unless you have access to a pick up truck and a driver's license provided by the company you cannot stay late for work, because if you miss the bus, nobody can take you home and you cannot sleep in the offices (there are some exceptions of working very late, but are really really rare)

There are two types of shifts:

Continuous shift of 7 days of 12 hours each (with 1 hour of lunch) either by day or night and then 7 days off (that's por operators of machinery in the mine or the plant)

A shift of 4 days of work of 11,5 x 3 days +10,5 x 1 day (Monday to Thursday) and then 3 days off, this is for clerk and administrative workers.

National holidays that are between Monday to Thursday are compensated with a day off, but regulated in such way that you take it immediately (say if you have a holiday on a Tuesday, they move it to Monday and if the holiday is on a Thursday that day you don't go to work), but if the holiday is on a Friday you are not compensated since you don't go to work.

By law, you cannot work more than 45 hours a week, with a maximum of 2 hours of overtime each day, legally you are entitled to 15 business days of vacation but in my company is 18, which means if you combine well holidays and your vacation you can get a whole month.

Of course, you really need to have your work done and then find someone who will be substituting you, however, it goes both ways, when you coworker goes on vacation you have to cover for him/her. it is pretty important tho' that you organize yourself, do your work in time, and then leave very little to do when you are on vacation, in my case, I know that May is the best month to go away since the workload of what i do is the minimum, and for many of my colleagues could be February (it is summer here in that month) or September (Independence day holiday) so it can be a good system to take your vacation

Japan was immune to terrorist attack! if Abe had not showcased Tokyo's support for the multinational coalition against the Islamic State militants, Overseas Japanese wouldn't have been exposed such terror attack!

Do you really believe that? Japan was never immune since the moment the IS took Japanese hostages

As for labeling Goto and Yukawa "troublemakers" it is kinda typical of Japanese... why don't let those rest truly in peace?

“And The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” failed to spawn sequels.

Of course it was!!!, The original Swedish version with Noomi Rapace was superb and it didn't need an American remake, (The same happened with "Nikita" with the original French Anne Parillaud), a sequel with Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara is completely insane

When I read "Not so kawaii" I was thinking of personality traits, rather than appearance.

First, to is kinda contradictory to say "Kawaii" and high heels in the same sentence, Kawaii suggests me "cutesy", "childish", whereas "high heel" suggests me "mature woman".

But then, When I visited Japan 4 years ago I did notice their walk. As I've seen that way of walk before, either in plain shoes, flip flops, sport shoes and high heels I thought it was more related with some upbringing rather than a "trait", that is, the girls can't help it, because their way of sitting when they were little, or in the case of my country, their wobbly walk is attributed to NOT being swaddled when they were babies, anyhow, whether this last statement is true or not, you can see plenty of women that have that distinctive way of walking.

As for that being the number 1 not so kawaii, it's weird, since I would've thought that it was their excessive make up or obsession with fashion, then again I'm a woman, so I think differently, although a survey of only 50 foreign men in Japan is quite small a sample

'This is about the USA, not about Japan. In Japan mangas are more exciting than this utterly childish book, which was written by and for frustrated housewives in the mid-west.'

Trashy sex novels = childish. Manga = ?

The poster said childish, because this novels are a fanfiction of twilight books with an erotic twist, a tale of how an "innocent" girl manages to make a Dominant rich guy into BDSM to fall in love with her.

Apparently 50 Shades was based off a Twilight fan fiction story. If that isnt enough of a warning to avoid it at all costs I don't know what is.

Yeah, The author started to make a Fanfiction about "Twilight" which derived into this novel. It´s cheesy, so, to each its own, myself, I only have to read it once, it is completely rubbish and forgettable

Are they still insanely popular, or have they sunk to the more middling popular level yet? Because if it's the former, I don't see how you can exclude them. If it's the latter, any old excuse will do.

That kind of money comes from teens who love AKB and will buy everything AKB puts out, not this mythical over-aged pedo army that you and everyone else apparently thinks AKB is selling themselves too.

The "popularity" of AKB is mostly because of the overinflated sales, the huge fanbase of AKB, wota, can up the sales of their singles or albums by 7x to 10x, so, even though they do have a huge fanbase, it is exaggerate for them to be "representative".

That is, I'm not against of having an idol group doing a small presentation at the Olympics, but I'd rather have 1 or 5 girls that can really sing live and have real talent surely Japan have those kind of artists, otherwise, what's the point to show 48 or 30 or 26 girls dubbing?, surely they could do a synchronized choreography, but it would be an embarrassment if they don't show real talent

It's not as if the Olympic opening ceremony would feature a JPN48 idol group and nothing else.

I saw this phrase and suddenly it came to my head a vision of Miyavi at the opening ceremony perfoming "JPN Pride"

hahahaha... although he's a good musician

He sings beautifully, plus I like the vibrato in his voice

An all-female cast? this is not going to be ghostbusters at all,

Weird and funny and genuine movies don't survive reboots. Not today.

totally agree...

My point is Goto`s foolish act has now left his children with no father and wife with no husband, and for what!? the loss of his own life!. is there any evidence his sacrifice saved the lives of others!? if he was a doctor/nurse that wnet there to help people then thats understandable, but hes a reporter and other than reporting for the TV/newspapers to further his careerer or not it was a total waste of his life.

I'll use CGBSpender words: Do not speak ill of the death, How dare you to say it was a waste of his life?, clearly you don't know what it means for some to do a greater good, even if it means to report to the rest of the world, or to you is being noble only if you are a nurse or a doctor?, what a about a spokesman/spokeswoman ho has the ability to convince people if they take a shot in negotiating are wasting their life?

My heart goes to Goto's wife, she's a classy woman

I watched "Trascendence", it was a boring movie, Depp doesn't do bad but does nothing to improve the movie either.

It seems that he's burnt after all the POC movies, which , incidentally I watched the first one and halfway the 2nd one i fell asleep, because lately he seems he's not putting much effort

Gee.. I wish JT has an edit button, for the second paragraph:

while Sajida chickened out and was caught red-handed by Jordanian security forces.

If that's true, then what's her value? if she "failed" her mission, then she will be sent to do another suicide attack or she be judged and executed, either way, i don't see the connection with the hostage.

Maybe her participation was another, steal a document, murder, who knows? - Surely they do.

If her role was something like that, it makes her a very valuable person to the IS, and a danger to the world if she is capable to carry on a plan for terrorist attacks of such dimension. Remember, terrorism came from the terror that generates not to know when and where a brutal attack will occur, can we afford to have brains on the loose?

while Sajida chickened out and was caught red-handed by Jordanian security forces. If that's true, then what's her value? if she "failed" her mission, then she will be sent to do another suicide attack or she be judged and executed, either way, i don't see the connection with the hostage.

The hypothesis that Yukawa was already dead by the time of the first demand for ransom seems plausible, however, I have this nagging feeling that he sacrificed himself to the IS, although the most logic explanation is that since he was perceived as a mercenary and a Spy by the IS, he was killed on the spot; either way, his Japanese family is the one who suffer.

Goto is a hero, and i feel for this guy

I wonder if the "door" was made of glass, it would be thought differently, about a "door to nowhere"

As for the article, it was the design of putting the restroom in that part that was wrong, the entire building has those doors, and only the restroom was there.

Either way, it was the responsibility of the owner of the establishment, the one who decide to put a restroom in that part, to secure safely that door either by putting secure locks on the door (it was not a escape door) or more bars to stopping a body to pass through.

I think this was an accident, nevertheless, there are people that must be held responsible

I went to Japan on 2011, 2 months after the earthquake.

But I didn't find it expensive, so the first thing that makes Japan "unpopular" is the perception of being expensive, you do have to do a little research, but at that time, all the advertisements that percolated overseas is that if you wanted to eat the blowfish thingy (i don't recall what is called sorry) it was incredibly expensive, and the perception grew to other stuff, like accommodation and transportation. When I arrived at the hotel that I booked via the travel agency it was not expensive and it was close to many "conbini", so i didn't starve or had a bad time.

The second thing that does pose a problem is the language, people are very nice but too shy if you speak them in English (I didn't want to spook them further talking to them in Spanish), still, I knew a few words in Japanese and, boy "Sumimasen" was my golden word!, I could manage to be around town, visiting shrines, Tokyo tower and Akihabara but somehow I felt that I missed a lot, because it was difficult to ask for directions or read some signs at the stations.

Still, I´ll visit again this year, but Japan really needs to up its publicity a little, it amazes me that for all the English that they promote in schools, it is very little you can find there, even at touristic places, in my country, for all the 3rd world it is, we have a touristic spot in the middle of the desert where you can find many people speaking English...

Actually, this is appropriate, says Yoshida, during the “input” phase – when studying and absorbing information. But not just before “output” - the regurgitation for the exam.

Can anybody see what's wrong here?, the system of entrance exams are based on input something and then regurgitate it on an exam, Where is the knowledge kept?, students just study for the exam, with no clue of what that knowledge is for and worst of all never remember it... It's the same to those students that prepare and take the TOEIC or TOEFL test, just input and then output, none of the English actually "stays" in the student.

I still remember the type of questions of the entrance exam for the university in my country, it was an academic aptitude test, meaning that it was basic knowledge of math and language presented in some challenging ways to solve a problem, Nowadays that test is more about knowledge rather than thinking, so it became the same as Japan, input-regurgitating output.

I would advice parents that they should consider different alternatives to college education, be it overseas, or some kind of community college, or technical institutes, I don't know if they exist in Japan, but I hope so in the future get rid of the stressful system of entrance test/exams because it seems to be out of control (with kindergarten having these exams too), and worry about our children to strive in their own ways (and no, I don't consider being an idol a career worth striving :-) )

Mulitculturalism is a massive hoax. If there is no urge to respect one common culture, then society disintegrates. Immigrants are fine, and tolerance of different customs should be encouraged, but not at the cost of a common culture that bonds the society.

Exactly!

multiculturalism is the very opposite of assimilation politically creating a paradox, for any society to become multicultural degrees of assimilation ie cultural mixing is paramount, otherwise these communities end dangerously separated, divided in every respect.

To see an extreme, even it is fiction, read: The Curious Enlightenment of Professor Caritat, by Steven Lukes

True, but we are here and in the now, so let's deal with the current situation and that is-Japan's population is aging, living longer and who will take care of thousands of senior citizens. Many young Japanese don't want to go into farming and agriculture, so again, what and how should Japan change this?

Certainly it is not by encouraging the immigration of low-skilled foreign workers

Japan would be wise to not worry about letting in foreigners - it's more about integrating them in, giving them a voice, treating them fairly and not marginalizing them. It CAN work.

That's sensible stuff.

What I see is that in the world we see like two big tendencies: One towards globalization and tolerance of other cultures and other centered on the struggles of terrorism which calls to "close up". What I see is that there are cultures that are not open to tolerance or being "flexible", and they expect to be respected or accepted in other countries, the clash of cultures with strong religious holds (like Islam) is too great to be accepted in countries with opposite beliefs, (like Christianity or Catholicism) but even so in countries more neutral, agnostic or atheist , Islamism is extreme, which makes it difficult to accept, because we have seen that whereas may Muslims in countries like USA, or Asia are people who don't "make trouble", there are factions so zealous that it is too extreme to bear, which taints the general population of Muslim origin.

What amazes me is that European countries, being old, don't have a strong hold in their roots and culture like Asian or SouthAmerican countries do. True, in SouthAmerica we were colonized by Spanish and Portuguese and the strongest religion is Catholicism, (now towards more Christianity, but still similar belief) and even though it is adopted and the Indian beliefs have had faded over the time, it is kinda a strong culture, Certainly, there are Muslims here, but it seems that out "hot blood" is too much to reverse tendencies like allowing prayers 5 times a day, or women covered all the time.

As for what Le Pen says, my opinion is that he's an idiot, he should mind his own business, Not because what he said is not true, is that his opinion to me is not worthy of respect (a conservative old geezer, sticking his nose on other country's business)

I'm with Pandabelle, as far as I've heard the movie is not that good and this "plot" to bring down the movie "orchestrated" by NK was spot on to promote the movie

It seems to me that the program for having foreign students in Japan is oriented to rich kids who can afford to pay expensive universities and also complementary expensive language schools.

For those of poor origin, opportunities for a scholarships are scarce, for example, in my country, there are only scholarships through the government to study undergraduate, graduate, teachers and Japanese language students. You can´t find programs from the universities

As for the broker system, I find it extremely perverse, it is a scam making families go into debt, forcing youngsters to do crappy part-time jobs and trapped in Japan, covered in debts and having miserable lives.

I doubt it is only the Vietnamese, although it looks like they are the majority or the group most underprivileged. What I mean, I know that many people from Philippines would enter these programs but they are more protected than people from Vietnam, Thailand or other countries close to Japan

I'm not surprised of the answer here, where the "If" conditions seems legit, it is amazes me that the women surveyed are putting ALL the responsibility on the guy who is divorced. Moreover, even if a divorced guy divorced a girl because she cheated on him (for example) or she and her family were leeching a lot from him, they still would find the fault in the guy.

It is the Ohimesama complex as another poster said.

As for singles (never been married) at middle age, that's a tough prejudice, it goes for both man and women, since the blame (again) lies in the person being responsible for being alone, and rarely they consider bad luck or bad relationships, It is funny though, considering the number of hikkikomori and socially awkward youngsters in Japan

Even If it is Roberto Orci, it will not be the same without J.J. I don't trust this Lin guy to make a good star trek film

After reading this long thread, I stay with fds.

Smoke haters can be zealous, for example in Case 1. I find perfectly justifiable to ask the smoker not to smoke in a balcony, due to the spread of second-hand smoke through the balconies and air vents, but from there to accuse him in the middle of the night with a cigarette butt, is exaggerate. What if it was some other visitor (a person visiting, from another apartment building). Why this guy is a criminal?.

Good for the wife who spread deodorant/sanitizer over the visitor, however, I think it is polite when inviting a friend to tell him/her that you are not allowed to smoke in your house. That way, a Smoker would not have the opportunity to indulge his habit when visiting.

This I don't get: if the number of non-smokers that encourage to ban smoking everywhere is that high, why is that they don't enforce politely the scant laws where it is banned? I mean, why they don't complaint more often?. It seems that they are reluctant to say "no" when a smoker asks, why is that? I don't get it, they vent their frustrations here it seems, as I see even anger and name calling from many posters on this thread from non-smokers.

I said it before, I smoke, I do not impose my habit unto other people, if I feel confident enough, I ask my host/friend if I can smoke, and I don't feel bothered if they say no. Heck, even in my own home when receiving a guest I ask my guest if he/she doesn't mind if i smoke. If that person says he/she doesn't want me to, I don't lit up a cigarette. All I ask in return is that they don't pester me with name-calling and imposing their views trying to convince me to quit.

I would like very much to hear here the comments of people who want pot legalized, and see how contradictory this is.

And yeah, I'm prepared to get lots of thumbs down for my comment, because it seems people can´t be polite with a smoker, with some exceptions of non-smokers here that make sensible comments.

it is about time.

It will be difficult, but it is a step.

I don't find the Catatsu a "ridiculous" item, Cats when they feel cold would use it because it's warm, (my cats just snuggle under the bed, which is similar). as for the dog... ummm that's ridiculous.