kenchan comments

any docs on JT? whats the medical basis for this stuff? any? I only ask because I worry that my wife will go try it in the future as she works close to there.

its funny when I read people's compliants about the worsening behaviour of Japanese in public places like trains....I don't disagree but relatively the Japanese are still way more polite than western countries like the UK, US, France etc...It will be another 5 to 10 years before Japan even comes close to being as rude and aggressive as the public in the west.

Therefore, the argument that the Japanese are spreading the virus alot because of their rude coughing is a false assumption imho.

smith> yr rationale would make sense if the Japanese contagion was in Tokyo, but its been in Osaka and that has about the same population as London. Plus I would consider London transport to be one of the most dirty systems in the developed world. It is infested with mice everywhere and I make sure I wash my hands after coming off the northern line.

Bento is probably right about higher checks rates in Japan...but only because getting an appointment at yr local GP in the UK is a nightmare...you'll be over yr flu by the time you can get an appointment..I kid u not people!

hmmm are these really fully fully confirmed cases? why is the Japanese rate of infection so much more than in the UK and Spain where the first cases happened before Japan, but both currently have half the cases that Japan does!

I smell panic in the air....

blue tiger> although its all too easy to joke and speculate...you are probably right. Some people will sacrifice everything and everyone if it means they can reach their goals.

I feel for the kid....as she will most likely neglect them too. nannies etc.

dark mocha is lovely...had afew in London last year in the summer...

great headline...I applaud u JT editor for this one.

shame the actualy article was a about as boring as racing snails..although I can't wait to see Rory McIlroy take over the golf world for NI after Tiger retires/fades in 5/10 years time.

smithinjapan> hope u r not a negotiator in yr line of work as you would get royally screwed by the otherside if they even use any kind of strong arm tactic. Don't get me wrong I agree Japan's handling of the matter has been poor (in back-tracking), but it doesn't negate the fact that KIM is a total nut case and is someone that no country/person should ever compromise with. As for the US and SK statements on the situation (monitoring only), what does "monitor" ever do for people who get injured by anything to do with the launch? Are you implying that the J govn't should also just "monitor"?

i wish people would stop thinking like the world works like a dictionary...apart from afew purists, people will integrate the principles of socialism, capitalism etc in different levels and ways....the US government is not 100% capitalist and the french are not 100% socialist...but what i was intimating was that the french govn't is using the G20 to ride on the wave of socialist feelings in the majority of france at the moment. The french government knows that spring is socialist strike time and this even more so and it knows that this is a good way to calm the striking masses and improved popularity.

lets see if the french spoil the whole thing for everyone else just because it feels that a socialist stance would be good for their polls during the spring french strike season....

slap slap slap slap....this is the sound of honda marketing bosses smacking their heads onto tables.

and tomorrows headline....

Japan stocks Plunge on U.S. financial sector fears

...zzzzzzzzzz why bother even reporting this total guessing game?

lets not get carried away here....irrespective of the negative image that these legally bound bonuses are attracting, the important issue is that institutions such as AIG and other govn't (state) majority owned firms should be forced to change their bonus practice from this day forward. lets just take this unfortunate bonus story as one of inevitable fall-outs of the behaviours that brought the financial markets down to its knees. Its another part of the learning lesson

no because those costs are relatively even between platforms and is the developers costs...nothing to do with the sales of software/hardware....there are 2 figures that the industry abides by..hardware and software and the interlink between them...I just wanted to point out that this article missed this point.

pukey> its not just a Japanese thing that the media and the people who follow it, are attracted to home success. Its part of being proud of your nation doing well - you need to ask yourself that same question about your own country and their sports - can your media be interested in a sport without national success?.

F1 has become big news (more widespread in terms of media coverage) back in the UK because of lewis Hamilton...whys that? National success is the best way of attracting new young young into that sport and expand its base...that applies to ALL countries. If you are going to have a pop at Japan's view of sports success then it should be targeted towards the inept ministry of sports (part of the stupidly large and poorly grouped MEXT) and their handling of such sporting success and future planning.

yes and sony makes loads of money from game hardware....NOT

good article! I enjoy squash and would like to play when I go back to Japan in the near future.. thanks JT

...hardware numbers tell only 10% of the story on their relative positions....lets forget that the PSP has 50% less install base and concentrate on software sales per hardware sold (tie in ratio)...as of dec 08 the rate for the DS was 4.8 and 4.2 for PSP....this might not seem such a big difference but this shows that the DS has sold 30,000,000 more software than the PSP over their entire lifecycles to date (true the PSP came 4 months later). Overall, the DS not only has higher hardware sales but higher software sales....therefore this whole article about the PSP challenging the DS is utter crap.

you get what you put in....up to you as an individual

kanadamanada> people say the same thing every generation a new form of communications arrives and disturbs society...people were unsure of emails and chat rooms at the beggining etc, but they are now accepted norms....I'm sure people were unsure of phones when they first got introduced to the masses...I guess people said things like "why do I need to talk down this MACHINE when I can just go visit my friend in real life"....see what I am getting at? Open your view abit as "linking" people is no different to having your friends phone/email details in your address book...the important part is what you do with this form of communication from there-on in.

kanadamanada> Aside from the numbers game that you mention (I agree that some people use it as a game)...facebook is just another communications tools...no different to a phone, email, forums (like JT)....it just opens up avenues that wasn't available before. It is as good as people want to make of it...you are just missing out on another communications form thats all. btw peoples lives move/change alot as time goes by but we can still treasure some friendships...why is that a bad thing?

surely the article should at least have tried to discuss the status of facebook in japan.

Tonight's game was "same old same old". Japan needs a cocky striker, and the Aussies looked for the draw. Aussies 1- Japan-0

I reckon the Japanese need to get Cahill "naturalised" asap...isseki ni chō dane

thats just rubbish..no treasury in the world can "hold" aside such large sums for something that is 7 years away and uncertain to happen. Probably all they are doing is calculating the % of tax revenues that they will cream off and put into this "bank" over the next 7 years.

If I am wrong and they have that amount in a bank then I would say that they are being irresponsible to hold such public funds aside (not gaining much interest) instead of using it to help people now in the economic doldrums.

Either way....the principles of what they say are wrong...and will not help their bid.

is son trying to tell us that his mobile phone service is a joke?

Athletes> good spot, but my point is that is the ball is about ties with Austria then shouldn't the dancing be mixed?

sorry, but wheres the austrains?

ok i will get flamed for this but here i go..... i would have voted for obama if i was an american and wish him luck in his presidency BUT this photo represents the circus nature of his inauguration....what a total waste of everyones time....including obamas

Someone should put out a newspaper and some slippers for the poor fellows lol

Sarge> No one product causes the overall losses that Sony will make for this financial year, but its clear from their own admission (link below) that the PS3 has not made a positive impact on their balance sheet. For a supposed great product that is over 2 years old, not to make a profit is just rubbish.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/hirai-hopes-for-ps3-profit-soon