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Kundong comments

Posted in: Former PM Hatoyama's mother dies at 90 See in context

Semperfi,

Research the facts.

In 2009 5% of the US Congress were descendants of lawmakers, and 40% of LDP lawmakers are descendants of lawmakers.

Japan not only has a PROBLEM it has a RELATIVELY LARGER PROBLEM than other democracies, with the hereditary entitlement to political positions.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Posted in: Former PM Hatoyama's mother dies at 90 See in context

Who cares? Why is this news?

The hereditary entitlement to political positions is a fairly ugly and dysfunctional part of Japanese politics.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Posted in: Nakamura quits Slovakian club over racism See in context

This is not about soccer. This is not about Japan. The Slovak Republic has a nasty history of racism which Nakamura would have discovered by using Google.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Posted in: Man throws himself, ex-girlfriend into path of oncoming train See in context

If he felt sad and pathetic before trying to kill her and himself, how sad and pathetic does he feel now?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Posted in: Nakamura quits Slovakian club over racism See in context

Nakamura should have done his research.

The SNS - or Slovak National Party an ultra-right "socialist nationalist party," (sound familiar?), is part of the coalition government in Slovakia.

The party leader Slota stated that, "The Hungarians are a cancer in the body of the Slovak nation." So imagine what they think of us Asians?

2 ( +6 / -4 )

Posted in: Teen performer at Obama inaugural events shot dead See in context

Even if you ban guns universally, these things will still happen

AiserX, this is the pathetic "do nothing" argument.

The objective of any action will be to REDUCE the number of occurrences, not eliminate them.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Posted in: In Japan, gun ownership is a privilege, not a right See in context

Xeno23, your maths is terrible.

Using the numbers in the article above, the US has about twice the population as Japan (2.3x to be exact) but has forty times (40.7x) the number of gun murders as Japan.

So, from an individual's perspective, an average American is about eighteen (17.7x) times more likely to be gun murdered than an average Japanese person.

That is significant.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Posted in: How to function optimally in Japanese work environment See in context

These are among 5 of the excellent reasons why my advice to every young Japanese person would be to learn a second language and leave the country.

11 ( +11 / -0 )

Posted in: Tokyo's Setagaya Ward draws up rare certificate of residence for unregistered baby See in context

This would happen in the west too. Beauracracy does not like false declarations.

A better question is: Why does Japan need to know or ask the marital status of the parents in the process of registering a birth?

The next best question is: Why would the parents want to claim they were married when in fact they were not?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: Tokyo's Setagaya Ward draws up rare certificate of residence for unregistered baby See in context

Ms. Alexander, you have not read the article or Bullthe Buffalo's comments correctly. The parents are insisting that they were married at the time of the child's birth. This is not true. Why they are insisting in making the claim, I am not sure. But if they filled out the same form saying unmarried, the documents would be issued quickly.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: Hashimoto blasts education board over basketball teacher lapse See in context

Mindless deference to Japan's geritocracy is killing people - usually young people, if not their bodies then their spirit.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Posted in: Despairing correctly about Japanese agriculture See in context

Japanese farms are too small. Farms that small cannot be operated efficiently.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Posted in: Despairing correctly about Japanese agriculture See in context

"According to Godo farming involves two elements, technique and craft."

Technique is everything for 99% of foodstuffs.

"Unfortunately, various forces are conspiring to encourage technical farming at the expense of craft."

Yes its called economic sense. Farms in most parts of the world are run as efficient businesses. In Japan, farms are kept small and inefficient by protectionism, zoning rules and nostalgic crap about the farmer.

Consequently food is incredibly expensive, and while there are beautiful watermelons costing JPY10,000 available in department stores (craft), your average school kid can't afford an apple a day (technique).

9 ( +10 / -1 )

Posted in: Defects found at 670 points in Sasago tunnel See in context

Anyone wonder why a tunnel needs a false ceiling of suspended 1.5 ton concrete panels?

If you look at photos of the accident the structural roof of the Sasago Tunnel is fine - it retained its circular shape. So why hang decorative concrete panels from the functional ceiling... that... wait for it... weigh 1.5 tons??

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Posted in: Japan's alienated youth overlooked in elections See in context

The LDP is the party of the rural old whose pork-belly politics is a tax on the young. The DPJ's deflation is a tax on the young.

If you were young and Japanese, who is there to vote for?

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Posted in: Japan tunnel disaster a wake-up call for other countries See in context

The horrible realization = as much as Japan likes pouring concrete, it pours concrete badly.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Posted in: PAC men See in context

It would be an interesting strategy if North Korea actually hit Tokyo with an unarmed missile test because it might generate sympathy in South Korea and might drive a wedge into the South Korea-US-Japan alliance.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Posted in: For better lifestyles and lower costs, firms locate outside Tokyo See in context

The sad reality is that no one wants to invest in Japan, foreigner or local. What a stupid waste of tax-payer's money.

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

Posted in: Abe keeps up rhetoric against BOJ See in context

"Everybody else LOVES deflation."

Not true Gaiijnfo.

It is simple economics.

Old people with cash, no debt, and no income like deflation. Young people with no cash, but significant debt do NOT like deflation.

The irony of Abe's position is that rural LDP voters are old, with cash and no income, whereas DPJ voters are younger and more urban.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: Japanese universities in crisis - what they can learn from Europe See in context

This is naive. Japan clearly does not want or value the attributes you ascribe to a good education - heterogeneity, openness, non-hierarchical, disagreement.

Japanese students who value these attributes, leave.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Posted in: Tanaka under fire for canceling plans to open 3 new universities See in context

There is simply no demand for new universities in Japan, particularly in places like Akita.

But politicians make a lot of money from construction projects, particularly the LDP in the countryside.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Posted in: 16-year-old girl arrested for abandoning body of newborn daughter See in context

"how about arresting the baby's father who abandoned her in the first place?!"

Megosaa, that's a big assumption with no evidence.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Posted in: Skeleton found in closet of house being demolished See in context

"Police believe someone had gone into the empty apartment long after it had been vacated, and died."

Seriously? And after he died he covered himself with a sheet??

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Posted in: Y26 million found in vacant house being demolished in Hokkaido See in context

"Often the heirs don't want the property because of the tax burden. "

Another silly argument. The tax will never be greater than the value of the property. The heirs would always be better off if they took the property.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: Brad Pitt blasts U.S. war on drugs See in context

Imagine if the minorities imprisoned for drug-related offences were offered that, instead of serving a prison sentence, they could serve in the military and pursue the war on drugs.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: Y26 million found in vacant house being demolished in Hokkaido See in context

"That would be Socialist/Marxist."

Idiotic comment. What do you think tax in a capitalist economy does?

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Posted in: Taliban gunmen shoot 14-year-old girl activist in Pakistan See in context

A primitive culture behaving badly.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Posted in: Tsunami 'miracle pine' cut down as part of project to preserve it See in context

"...the only living things that survived that close to ground zero." Virtuoso. More wrong. There were real people who survived Hiroshima within 300m of ground zero. Screw the dead tree. Celebrate people.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Posted in: Tsunami 'miracle pine' cut down as part of project to preserve it See in context

" the only living things that survived that close to ground zero." Virtuoso, you are very wrong. The four famous icho (ginko) trees weer all more than 1km away from the blast. The eucalyptus in Hiroshima castle was significantly closer (<750m). But somehow an imported Australian tree doesn't fit the nostalgic drivel you would like to perpetuate.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Posted in: Shiga police question 3 boys accused of bullying suicide victim See in context

Why would the teachers interfere with bullying? Bullying is viewed as a useful part of inculcating groupthink and obedience.

Its viewed as working in school, at work and in the military, and I don't think a small number of adolescent suicides will change that perception.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

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