kimuzukashiiiii comments

I think this is great. I hope they also look into the possibility of hiring older staff too.

kimuzukashiiiii, are you a politician? Your attitude would suggest that in Japan you would do well.

Whys that? Because I suggest that working mothers are allowed to represent themselves in the political arena? Instead of those who have no idea what its like to be a working mother, and who only got where they were because born with a silver spoon in their mouths?

Or because Im suggesting that women are given the opportunity to have babies at a sensible age, when they are young and energetic enough to birth them easily and take care of them properly? And given the choice whether to work at the same time, and the support if they need to?

Because Im sure Aso Taro would not be supporting THAT.

The way those men talked and jeered at her was disgusting. A real disgrace.

However that being said, I don't think that either a "childfree by choice" career woman, OR a bunch or workaholic old men who have rarely seen their own kids while they are growing up, are the ones who should be having a conversation about working mothers and child rearing. Neither this woman or these men could be further from the realities of working mothers.

And as for the "infertility" speech she is giving us. She might want to bear in mind that fertility drops off a cliff after 35, and even more so after 40. Its not infertility after 35 - its biology. Its your body preparing for menopause. We should be encouraging women to have kids in their twenties and early thirties, not pouring money into (hugely unsuccessful) IVF for women in their 40s, just in a bid to get the population up.

To be honest, Japan is well within its rights not to accept mass immigration if they don't want to. As they say "Its your funeral."

But if they wont accept immigration, they are going to either find an awful lot more babies, or accept that Japan is not going to be the same place it is now in 50 years time. That the working men of today are probably not going to have a pension, and that the elderly are going to be at risk of neglect because of a serious shortage of elderly care services - both in terms of financial aid from the government and a shortage of care workers.

In my opinion they need to be practically begging the women of this country who already have a child, to have more children. The young women who only want to live at home with mummy until they are 40 and spend their salary on louis vuitton, and the herbivore men who dont like women, are a lost cause.

I say offering a large lump sum for every child born, which increases drastically with each subsequent child, to help offput the costs of living and education. Along with huge tax decreases for large families.

knox .... "All the quality hallmarks if a good, standup J-citzen here. Alcoholic "construction"-worker with full body tats. Sound like one of those plentiful small time yaks... Seems like a real catch."

I happen to believe that this guy was a drunken idiot, who had too much to drink and made a stupid mistake. PUnching a flight attendant is never okay.

But on the other side of this - all of the tattooed construction workers I know (many, by the way) are excellent citizens, husbands and fathers. More so than their "suited" counterparts. One of the biggest surprises I have ever had was when a very shy, slightly otaku, male coworker rolled up his sleeves at the office revealing a tattoo sleeve, which he then begged, BEGGED me to not tell the company about. (Of course I didnt!)

You wouldnt call all salarymen names if one of them did something similar on the plane - so lets leave off the negative stereotypes.

It is pretty disgusting, and Im finding it hard to not wish for ill health of the robbers who go into contaminated places to steal at will. Its just too easy. They do need to increase security around the towns. Maybe a nice big electric fence.

Im glad they could reclaim some of the items and can get them back to the owners.

So ... Let me get this straight. They are raising sales tax, making it more difficult and expensive for ordinary families to survive.

At the same time they are cutting company tax, giving the companies more money which they will almost definitely not pass on to their employees, despite what Abe thinks/would like to happen.

And at the same time they are trying to encourage us to have MORE children?

A compulsory mental health assessment would be good.

Parents refuse them for kids who they know have mental problems, because they are worried about their kids being stigmatized. However they do this at the educational expense of the other children, which is simply not fair.

Also the ability for those who are smart to jump a year, and those who are struggling to cope to be kept back a year. This is still not done in Japan, where your date of birth determines everything. Which is simply ridiculous. It should be a starting point, but other factors should also be taken into account.

Its crooked. It was at the time of 3/11, and will continue to be next year. The one guy speaking up against NRA is getting bullied out. Not an independent member in there, how can it expect to be independent as a body?

To be honest I think its difficult to know whether it was heatstroke, exhaustion, or the fact that he was 79. Certainly all of these factors have some role to play. 79 year olds who go out golfing all day are going to be exhausted, but they often think they can do all the things they used to be able to do.

I do agree with the prosecutors, that he was negligent.... however I cant help but feel sympathy for the driver too. It does sound like an accident, and I hope they will take into account his age and previous clean record (I assume.)

I think the saddest thing is that I never even knew this girl was missing ... was it published anywhere? I didnt see it in either the Japanese or English press. just 17... how sad.

I really feel for the less popular girls... The ones who don't even cut the top 50. It must not be very good for their confidence. I was disappointed to see the girl who had to shave her head last year for having a boyfriend, has dropped down down to number 22 or so....

I hate it when jumpers ruin my trips. If they want to take their own lives they should find betters ways of doing it.

What an awful attitude to have. No sympathy, no kindness, just selfishness.

While I agree with your sentiment , "dont kill yourself in a way like this, if you want to do it", I agree for different reasons. Not because "It ruins your trips", but because of the intense mental trauma it will cause to the driver of the train, and to all the people who happen to witness it.

My condolences to the family of the deceased. Who will have to pay an enormous fine, as well as dealing with their pain at losing a loved one.

Im late to this, but I really think it has a lot to do with the individual child . My first would walk nicely and hold my hand, was a non bolter. MY second was a runner who would just GO. And my second was darn fast. If I had not had a harness, then I am positive that he would have been in real danger.

I must admit though, I preferred to use a baby carrier on my back when we were out in very busy places. Aint no running from there...

Is this in Japan? Or America?

Surely it would be a better idea to create a registry and add people to it, before they go missing. Not after.

However, the ministry said there has been an increase in the number of women in their 30s and 40s giving birth, TBS reported.

this is exactly what Japan does not need. Especially not those in their 40s.

They have apologized multiple times. However Japans version of an apology ("Im sorry") and these womans version of an apology (¥¥¥) are very different. Its the same story, every year or so.I feel sorry that they went through those traumas, but how many times are they going to keep saying they want and apology, then refuse to accept it, when an apology is offered.

Burning bush - no-one is saying that we all have to be the same.

Change is needed because currently men are dropping dead from Karoshi (death by overwork). The birth rate has fallen off a cliff, because of a variety of factors, including long work hours, and lack of childcare.

Nothing to do with culture at all. ALL to do with giving the Japanese workers some kind of work-life balance.

That men who watch alot of porn are less intelligent.

They dont know if its because the porn makes their brain less intelligent, or that they are naturally less intelligent and therefore watch porn.

how embarrassing ... I think she should quit

poor little girl. My heart breaks for her few hours of life.

My heart also breaks for the single mothers who struggle against the Japanese "single mothers are scum" mentality. It is incredibly hard. They work hard and bring up their children. They love them. They do well.

My heart does not break for this mother. She is, in fact, a selfish piece of crap. I wish they could do to her what she did to that defenseless little girl.YES it was unplanned, YES it would have upset your life, and YES what would your friends and family have said... but it didnt mean you had to murder her. Just leave her at a baby hatch, a police box, a hospital. Give the child a chance at life. Just because you gave birth to her and didn't want her, didn't mean the only option was to kill her.

Its so hard...

On one hand I know that this was a natural disaster. It was not anyones fault. You can't sue someone for a catastrophic event of unprecendented scale. In reality you cant really expect that a school can foresee such a huge tsunami. It begs the question, how huge do you have to forecast for? A 10 meter tsunami? 20? 50? It becomes impossible after a while. And we all know how the tsunami risk can vary according to where the earthquake is, how far from shore, and how big the original quake was. There are huge quakes which never cause tsunamis, and I think sadly, around that area, people just got a bit nonchalant about the risk.

On the other hand, as a parent myself, I cant imagine their pain. I cant imagine going to sleep and waking up every morning without my child. And I cant imagine knowing that my child died in a situation that could have been prevented. I Cant imagine NOT being angry at those who allowed this to happen. In this case, my logic about risk areas and evacuation protocols, is strongly overpowered by how much I love my kids, and how positive I am that those parents loved their children too.

I believe the parents when they say its not about money. Because no amount will ever ease their pain. It will never take away the birthdays of those children. The graduation days that never came. The thoughts about their future marriages or children. What they would have been like, as adults. To be honest, If my child died in such a situation, I wonder how my life would go on three years later. Would I be able to work? Get out of bed? I cant answer that. They are not sue-ing for money. However I am in no doubt that money has become a problem, because their kids have died.

I cant help but feel that, if they sue and win, other schools in other tsunami risk zones might sit up and take notice, instead of just shrugging their shoulders and saying "shouganai." If they win, and it encourages other school boards to think much more seriously about their own schools, and students, and what they would do in another huge earthquake and tsunami, which ends up preventing another 10, 100, 1000 children from dying needlessly... is that not a point well made? Is that not money well spent? Because I think it is.

This poor woman. I really feel for her. Even for many married couples (where the wife used to be a housewife) the economy has made it difficult to survive on one salary. So for this lady and her part time job, and child, it must be crippling. I wish could help.

Hooray!! cool aircon and escalators again! NO more setsuden! Hooray!

The 20% who are not being hit on are the 20% who will never marry and be bitter OLs in their late 40s.

It used to happen a couple of times a week to me...

women in general dont need it. Pregnant and elderly do. Neither groups get seats on Japanese public transport...

good reason why it was fenced off then... My heart goes out to his sister and friend.

It's very easy to point the finger and blame her parents for not paying enough attention, but it's impossible to know the full story from this short article.

It is possible to know the full story. They were both not paying any attention to their kid, and she managed to get out of the house, fall into a irrigation ditch and die. THAT is the full story. The reasons why they wern't looking after her properly are irrelevant. Whether it was for a minute (very unlikely) or an hour (more likely) is irrelevant.

Are you saying we should NOT blame her parents for this? Who are you intending we blame - the 2 year old?? I know some might find this radical thinking, but IMO, if you have a child, then that child is YOUR responsibility. It means that you have to take care of them. Give them help if they need it, stop them from doing things that will hurt them.

The thing that every parent of a small child knows (or should know) is that you DONT leave them for a minute. You CANT turn your back for a second. Many other children are "runners" (including my youngest) and you just have to make adequate preparations for when they do (and they do) run off. Locking doors, not leaving your garden gate open, and (heaven forbid) actually being with your child. Its easy to keep them nearby.

parents? Plural? what the heck were they both doing that they didn't bother checking where their child was?! This is complete negligence. Completely avoidable.

Im sorry, but I have a few kids, and I have never had one wander off and drown in a ditch. And Ive done the vast majority of parenting alone. This is not just a little mistake on behalf of the parents - I hope they are prosecuted for not paying attention to their child. It is the job of the parents.

We need more kids, but we dont need 40+ year olds having them. High rates of abnormalities and conditions like adhd.

We need to be giving women in their twenties career breaks, while they are young and energetic, so they can raise kids and work, if they need to.