koiwaicoffee comments

Both sides are horrible, I cannot take sides with any.

Palestinian's and Hamas, a terrorist org that is, of course, religious extremist, keeping hostages after a year.

Israel killing without contempt thousands of civilians, including more than 10.000 kids. Kids!

Humanity at its worst. War for religion. War for territory. We didn't learn a thing from the XX century.

Why nobody notices in Japan that this is just another face for the same thing? In fact, they could have used any of the guys in the picture with exactly the same results. The party has had the power since WW2, and their only goals are nepotism and keep rich people rich.

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Nepotism, as usual. The guy has done nothing apart from being a PM son.

Watched him a couple of times on the TV and he seemed to be so detached from real life, with no clue about real people's problems.

Where are his plans to raise the minimum wage, the massive increasing public debt, world peace, the greying population, lack of opportunities for the young, structural reform and tackling the never ending self serving LDP rife with scandalous behaviors.

Well said.

All the marching and militarism is so weird.

This has serious Imperial Japan overtones.

Right so.

Why the negative bitterness??..

Because these kids are taught and represent many outdated values; militarism, to follow orders, gambare-ism, sexism (girls cheering their "heroes"), acceptance of bullying, ...

It's not Showa anymore!

Different prices means "we are ripping you, tourist". Not very omotenashi.

And the moment where a waiter has to judge by the looks if you are a foreigner -not a tourist- shows a lot of xenophobia. Because they are not going to charge this tax to Japanese residents that travel from Tokyo to Shikoku, right?

"How can we set the same menu price for local Japanese-speaking people and for foreign tourists, who require special assistance in English?" said Shogo Yonemitsu,

BS, they just need a printed English menu.

There was an article the other day on Barcelona raising a tourist tax, and no one batted an eye.

Kyoto already charges a tourist tax via hotels, and I think there's another one to pay in the airport at arrival as well.

I don’t get it. I don’t see what’s attracting so many foreign tourists to Japan.

You kidding? (we the) residents may be critic to many aspects of Japan life, but it's one of the most interesting places to visit in the world; the culture, food, temples and mega cities with so many unique things to see.

It's also safe, polite and very easy to navigate. Families with kids welcome that. The cheap yen just makes it easier to come.

Woke movement is very obsessive and absurd at times, but the right wing side is going to become really dangerous if they win the next election.

 I can’t stand people being referred to as “they,” “them,” etc., as if a single person is plural. I don’t care if you were born male or female but choose a preferred pronoun/ gender and stop making it so difficult.

True.

I'm not American but, isn't the USA going crazy? Every country is radicalizing their postures about pretty much everything, it looks like we didn't learn anything from the 20th century.

JJE, stormcrow, and the first few comments are appreciated. Informed, educative and without the usual trolling. If only Japan reporters learned to look for facts instead of just following the "book".

Not only that but females are literally expelled from the imperial family once they marry.

But conservative members of the ruling Liberal Democrat Party continue to oppose this and block any debate about women on the throne from moving forward. They claim that the “unbroken” male lineal succession is based on an ancient tradition and is something “inherently Japanese”.

There you go, the inherently Japanese sexism, courtesy of your LDP ojajis.

Celebrating war?

I remember the last time they changed them, I was surprised how fast the change was. You couldn't see any of the old ones in just a couple of days.

Look at that picture. That's like a hundred people meeting in Nara, all expenses paid. Attending a "conference" with no practical goals, having a good time in Nara at the expense of whoever is paying for it -not them, of course. That's what this Expo is about.

Investment funds that sensed the changing wind bet on higher prices, pocketing a profit in the process.

Investment funds and other such corporations only benefit the rich and have no moral standards. You can easily guess that cocoa growers will see no benefit from this.

Why does the world allow this to happen?

That’s very similar to the percentage of people inside Japan who feel the same.

Exactly.

I don't like how this is presented.

According to the survey, a total of 44.9 percent either felt lonely "often or always," "sometimes" or "once in a while.

It's very different to feel lonely "often" than "once in a while", the later being quite natural, specially living overseas. But they put them all into the same bracket!

How about a comparison with people in Japan, and an analysis of the reasons, Mr Government?

Big corps to comply with law and care about their customers? In Japan? lol.

Expect some light bowing and back to business.

It's just propaganda.

put the rate of wage increases among major companies at 5.58 percent 

Which accounts for less than 10% of the working force. Keidanren forgot to mention that the other 95% of the people has seen little to no wage increase at all.

I know that locals may be right, but there should be betters ways to handle the issue.

Japan to build anti-tourist fence 

This sounds just wrong, but very Japan at the same time.

I see a lot of kids in their 20s uninterested in finding a couple. A real couple I mean, not just a convenient spouse to comply with society expectations. And many of them find to have a boy/girlfriend bothersome, having to make the effort to share their feelings with someone else when it's easier to just disappear behind their mobile screens.

Don't worry, the LDP dating app will turn things around!

This idea surely comes from a bureaucrat that thinks that everybody in Japan has the same safe, nicely paid job as he (because it's a he).

Have they ever tried to analyze why people don't have kids anymore? The same bureaucrat doesn't even know that half of the job contracts in Japan are not permanent but mostly baito level with minimum wages. Then comes the other 20 or so reasons that no one in the government will ever pay attention to.

"Let's make an app so it looks like we work", same bureaucrat's team concluded.

You buy at Amazon for convenience, but if Amazon suddenly disappeared we would just adjust and wouldn't notice much difference.

You know the drill. Some public bowing and back to business.

The moment politicians are bought by corporations -with "donations", lol-, they stop working for the people and start serving these corporations.

Agree with Jim. Kyoto needs the tourists money but at the same time they would prefer to not have to see them around? Cannot have it both ways, Kyoto.

But it's also true that tourists as a collective are getting dumber -worldwide I mean-. They wouldn't go to half of the places they visit if they couldn't take the stupid Insta picture.

Thousands of people have walked those private roads for hundreds of years making them public right of way. At our Nagano house, there is a right-of-way across the property to reach the river for water.

This should be also true. The prohibition to take pictures is for all around Gion, even when they are mostly open public roads.

such as more training in businesses to raise awareness of rights issues, setting up mechanisms to hear grievances, enhancing diversity and strengthening checks on labor conditions, as well as sanctions on human rights violations.

I cannot even picture Japan moving in this direction. Which contrasts with how much humanist they paint themselves.

Conveniently omits the number of people affected by the leaks.

affected less than 1,000 individuals each time,

So, how many people, Mr. Reporter? 1 million? 10 million?

Toyota knew who they were doing business with, but it was very convenient for them to tie the brand to Tokyo Olympics. Being this Japan Inc this contract was probably a part of the deal.

The news agency, quoting the sources, said the money was "not used effectively to support athletes and promote sports.”

I don't believe such altruism exists at that business level. That's just nice PR.

No sorry for Japan being a modern, safe, civilized and FREE of guns society..

Well said!

Nobody in Japan sees any cruelty on having a man more than 40 years in a death row?

Their country..

Their culture..

Their traditions..

Their rules..

Get used to it..

Would you say the same about some other countries gay couples prohibitions, whipping punishments, women denigration, lapidation, ..?

Microsoft unveils 'spy-you ready' PCs.