Kingston Obike comments

The younger Japanese men are gradually changing this narrative of being physically abusive of their own spouse, its even more common for my male colleagues to talk about how often their own wives give them a hit when they’re pissed off and they give them a pass cause they are scared of their wives, apparently the law favors them more than their husbands, according to what they say. This is also one of the reasons why many of my older colleagues don’t want to ever consider marriage and why the others that are married don’t want to consider having a child so they could have an easier exit strategy if it does not work out. The very sanctity and role of marriage in this society has been so heavily corrupted and for the few that end up happily married with kids, they truly are the lucky ones.

There is a chronic labor shortage no doubt but Japanese companies really need to come to the realization that there is also a brain drain especially involving Japanese graduates that can speak languages other than Japanese, they’re leaving Japan for higher pay in western countries where work benefits are also considerably better rather than the constrictive, rule-saturated, and sometimes monotonous work environment prevalent in Japanese firms. Many of my own Japanese colleagues that graduated from Kyoto university that were lucky to get jobs elsewhere in Europe and North America couldn’t fathom coming back to work in Japan after experiencing the work culture there.

I am pretty sure the Chinese side realizes that by making such spurious comments (referring to the aggression and tragedies of the Sino-Japanese wars) the Japanese side has no choice but to attend now or appear weak in the face of Chinese warnings. Its the same thing that played out with the visit of Taiwan by Pelosi when she was speaker of the house, these warnings only help aggravate the situation and forces the other side to do whatever it takes to save face and project strength.

In the University, I realized that even though the male : female student ratio is oftentimes in favor of women, you would barely see that many female students in STEM related disciplines, and are usually more represented in the social sciences, so definitely its worrying why there aren't many in executive positions in Japanese banks because I'm positive that there are many female bankers good at what they do. One possible suggestion might be the fact that women believe men do not consider them for marriage after a certain age, so they try their hardest to marry early, and in some cases choose to have kids as early as possible so they'd be able to focus on other things later in their career; but it turns out that finding a person to wed these days is more difficult than ever before, despite the popularity of dating apps; and for those that succeed in taking that step, you'd find that they did not get married for the right reasons and it ends up being tenuous. For those with no intentions to get married at first, you find that when they eventually balk due to peer pressure or loneliness and try to get married, mental health problems set in, this may lead to resignations before they even get to the peak of their career. With men, due to the expectations that society already places on them, they don't bother much with the same problems that their female counterparts are forced to endure and slave away at their monotonous jobs for the vast majority of their lives knowing that it is "normal" and expecting anything else would be looked down upon.

Unfortunately, I did not back some of what I stated with statistical data, it is just based on a great many articles I've read at various times on this issue and what I've encountered with colleagues in Kyoto and Okinawa. However, societal problems are definitely the most significant impediment to this problem which may take at least a decade to resolve at this rate.

The amount of wastewater being generated at the plant amounts to approximately 140 tons, now if a ton is equal to about 268 gallons of water, this would mean that for the more than 1million tons of water that is already in storage, this is equivalent to 268 million tons of water; I assure you, having that much water around a defunct nuclear facility poses a risk in itself as another earthquake or even more devastating tsunami may occur at anytime, sure they’ve already rebuilt sea defenses and upgraded them to account for any major surge over a period of about 5 centuries or so, but it’s really hard to determine just how big the next tsunami could be or when it could happen. Storing that much water underground also poses its on risks and would be a very expensive undertaking, something that politicians would always frown upon. They’re just delaying the inevitable at this point. That’s what we get for harnessing resources with a negative effect on our terrestrial ecosystem despite the scientific backing of the water being “technically” safe for the dumping into the pacific.

You wouldn’t really know how good we have it here in Japan until you go overseas and see just how badly inflation has devastated people’s budget plans for the year! Here inJapan, I, just like most others, have most certainly felt the inconvenience of the price hikes on food stuff and energy and I've had to cut down on certain purchases and the inconvenience of wearing additional layers at home, people simply expect more from a developed country like Japan especially regarding wage increases which are still grossly inadequate. Instead, the government is increasingly becoming more fond of spending a great deal on defense and a more functioning deterrent to war. One of the reasons why post war Japan saw such a quick surge in the standards of living had to do with not having to worry too much on dedicating such a huge chunk of public resources on the military but rather on people’s welfare, but I guess the times differ.

Many of the folks that decided to remain probably work for NGOs like Doctors Without Borders (MSF), UNDP, or the International Red Cross Society; much respect to them and I hope they remain safe.

When Russia or China does it everyone is very keen to call it cybercrime or an act of war, but when the U.S does it we hear justifications saying the U.S. was monitoring and not spying (because apparently there’s a difference), or that the revelations were manipulated or are entirely fake. This is what the so called international rules based order looks like, it’s double standards everywhere you look and that’s why the world is so glaringly polarized. Peace and prosperity will always evade the globe if we can’t judge all actors with the same standards as everyone else.

No offense to the countries he is going to, they’re all valuable partners of Japan, but they can’t be described as being “major” African countries. This is why Japan is losing so much clout in Africa to China and Russia. These countries are politically stable with no clear support for Russia, I think that was the main criteria here, if that’s the case, then the prime minister is already losing as the chair of the G7 for this year and his supposed intentions towards chairing a platform for mitigating global issues.

Let's call a spade a spade, you can't bring your battleships and soldiers to carry out military drills with South Korea and expect the North Koreans not to feel threatened and then say that they're using such drills as a pretext to prepare the means to better defend themselves, the statement in itself seems rather hypocritical. I'm not trying to justify the North's consistent launches that threaten civilian aircraft or the possibility of accidents at sea when the missile lands in waters outside it's EEZ, but having drills that obviously target a certain adversary are not a smart way to legitimize deterrence in this present society, that was effective during the previous cold war.

Shinzo Abe was actually a lot more popular overseas as a familiar face of Japan than he was in his own country, I was personally devastated by his passing as I would usually quote him whenever I engage anyone on global politics. He wasn't a perfect politician, and there's the fact that he comes from an influential political family which may give people impression that he may have been far removed from the concerns of the common folk, but to a certain extent he proved he was different certainly one of the best politicians of modern day Japan. RIP Abe sensei.

I totally agree, seeing another male lead for the role of "BLack Panther" would not go down as easy as seeing another person play the role of "The Joker" in the Batman.

......thus ushering a new era of the revolving door

I hope the Japanese political center does not go back to the unstable hullabaloo that categorized it before Abe.

2020, a year that won't be missed.

I really can't think of additional measures that could be implemented to serve the interests of individuals that identify with the LGBT, people are generally allowed to use toilets that conform to the gender they identify with and workers are given some degree of orientation about the group and why it is important not to discriminate. This is enough in my opinion, special privileges aren't needed because they are pretty much just like everyone else.

@englisc aspyrgend

I think it is better to have them under government observation than to have them self isolate at home, it is really easy for people undergoing self isolation to easily give in to a moment of weakness and decide to break isolation protocols.

Humans are fundamentally predisposed to oversimplistic thinking and selfish tendencies; what good will come from leaving Tokyo?

Hence the term DEMO-CRACY, that is, the true "demonstration of crazy behaviour", Trump nor Clinton were capable candidates to begin with anyway, it all came down to choosing the least of the worst and better the "frank" man and the "lying" woman.

Rest in Peace Mikasa, your legacy is far better than that of your older brother, that's for sure.

Constantly changing prime ministers has always contributed to the smear of Japanese politics, there is no continuity and the concept of godfatherism would always remain a constant. I don't see any other person in the opposition party being as bold and forthright as Abe in handling the most sensitive of issues that have trailed Japan for decades, so he should stay for now and concentrate with handling issues that will bear fruit in the long term and not trying to please everyone in the short term.

To think that 10 years ago everyone thought the Japanese were probably the best in preparing for the unforseeable future; well, accidents happen but work for 2020 just got a hell of a lot more tedious.

The words "Japan" and "military" in the same sentence is still a cause of rattlement, but I understand the sentiment of Japan, although a much more resounding and positiveresult would come from consolidating their (Japan's) presence in nations with less Chinese influence.

Presenting China before international courts won't do anything, these international courts are all bark and no bite when the security council membership are not willing to enforce arbitrations and court rulings. But, seriously, don't these two countries ever get tired of there consistent confabulations, China will not stop no matter how many protests through diplomatic channels come their way. The best counter for their arrogance is to build facilities on the Japanese side as well and expand on their military presence along Japanese borders.....even the Trump idea isn't seeming so ridiculous now as the case may be.

He wanted holidays, someone said no, and someone got angry and beat someone to death......does life hold any meaning anymore?

And this happens barely a week after the two leaders exchanged handshakes and smiles....HYPOCRITICAL

Well deserved, there are quite a couple of other Chinese action stars that ought to be given honorary awards too, I guess Jackie is receiving his because of his "hollywood" impact.

There is nothing more tiring than diplomacy, these two will continue talking for years saying they are trying to make a decision to concedes to the will and well-being of the Syrian people, the people of whom are currently in misery and are dying with each passing hour of the day. So messed up is the game played by groups and orchestrated by world governments.

I get the feeling that this headline can be so very easily misunderstood

Its a good move but I really do think that making Kenya the center of this scheme is a step in a suspiciously wrong direction, there are much larger economies on the African continent where initiatives would bear greater fruit despite the ever-present scourge of corruption.