kyoken comments

Remember folks, the official jobless rate is always lower than the actual. This number only represents those on welfare benefits

Correct. Already 1988 Vollmer published the following:

Japan's published unemployment figures are obtained from the "Labour Force Survey", a monthly survey where sample households are asked about their employment status.

Here unemployed are defined as persons 15 years of age or over who during the survey week worked one hour or less, who were seeking work actively and who were available to start a new job immediately.

Critics stress supposed definitional and methodical differences to international standards, and assert that Japan's statistics record cases considered as unemployed in the USA and Germany as being outside the labour force or still employed. They suggest that the comparable unemployment rate might be considerably higher and correspond more to those of other countries.

'Shallow-brained bureaucrats'

Sadly this statement has a point looking at how the "problem" is tackled; there is no discussion on why there is such a market for young girls and why the need is so willingly filled.

... and can not be trusted.

The reality these documents reveal about the US is that this nation stands alone.

This is good for the rest of the world but I would never invest in property in Japan. The value decreases year by year.

Not everywhere, Tokyo does have some areas that gain in value. The problem though is that these hotspots seem to change unpredictably within a relative short period.

Plus I would be very wary to invest in property in a country where property can be destroyed in an instance by shaking earth.

Sending aircraft carrier group is one way of showing to the concerned parties that the US Govt mean "business".. And if they will not take that business message seriously, the US will send another message by sending B-52 nearby.

And then? Is invading N.Korea really an option? All that is, is one bully trying to threaten another bully. George Carlin called this kind of behaviour rightfully "bigger dick foreign policy".

How long before China starts to copy Nissan, Toyota, Honda etc..and make their own cheaper off the wall car brands?

They already do and they are growing rapidly in China and soon the world; hence they are beating the Japanese in their own game. One of the reasons why Toyota tries so fiercely to become a premium car maker.

Their cases have outraged civil libertarians and inflamed the debate about the limits of free speech in a Web 2.0 world

Protection of free speech is the freedom to express an opinion; the "jokes" we have been presented here do not constitute as an opinion. Hence these people are rightfully standing in front of a court.

Interestingly even KIA outsold Toyota in Europe and VW is poised to dethrone Toyota as world's number 1.

I guess "uforgot" to read the rest of the article and just jump to the parts you like

What you'r saying?

These cases seem to be quite regular judging on the news; there is something wrong with Japanese women.

There is not much difference to the politics of war the US employs when their leaders need to show "strength".

The battle between N and S Korea has been re-initiated today. Maybe it was an accident, maybe not. Fact is we see both countries shooting rockets at each other.

Its time for me to get my stuff packed heading back to Europe.

Wow multitasking. Sounds like the 80s ...

On Nov 17, the principal responded to a citywide Board of Education questionnaire on bullying, stating that no girls at his school were being bullied

So he was lying, or he is incompetent. Either case, he can not remain in his position.

Even with all the bicycles here, it is extremely dangerous cycling in Japan.

At least in the big cities.

Looking at the report (see youtube) the front wheel was damaged that much, that it must have been quite an impact that happened on that small street.

We wanted to go to Hawaii for Christmas- - but American airport security has turned us off . . we will likely NEVER be flying into the States if we can help it - - the security measures are intrusive.

So do I. Sadly though we soon will see Japan as overly compliant apple-polisher to the US will follow suit and implement similar rules to the TSA ...

... as we have seen with the finger-printing of all foreigners as warm welcome treatment to Japan.

Finally some common sense from ... well Europe:

The security boss of Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport is calling for an end to endless investment in new technology to improve airline security. Marijn Ornstein said: "If you look at all the recent terrorist incidents, the bombs were detected because of human intelligence not because of screening ... If even a fraction of what is spent on screening was invested in the intelligence services we would take a real step toward making air travel safer and more pleasant."

Here's some data on the body scanner:

A typical dental X-ray exposes the patient to about 2 millirems of radiation. According to one widely cited estimate, exposing each of 10,000 people to one rem (that is, 1,000 millirems) of radiation will likely lead to 8 excess cancer deaths. Using our assumption of linearity, that means that exposure to the 2 millirems of a typical dental X-ray would lead an individual to have an increased risk of dying from cancer of 16 hundred-thousandths of one percent. Given that very small risk, it is easy to see why most rational people would choose to undergo dental X-rays every few years to protect their teeth.

More importantly for our purposes, assuming that the radiation in a backscatter X-ray is about a hundredth the dose of a dental X-ray, we find that a backscatter X-ray increases the odds of dying from cancer by about 16 ten millionths of one percent. That suggests that for every billion passengers screened with backscatter radiation, about 16 will die from cancer as a result.

Assuming that there roughly 600 million airplane passengers per year makes the machines deadlier than the terrorists.

New TSA logo: olegvolk(dot)livejournal(dot)com/919747.html

Still attracted by shiny glitter?

Political theatre.

Tell that to my 10yr old son who keeps up with this 40+ guy who has skinny but sexy calves.

Guess your son has to carry much less weight, so its an unfair competition. But training helps ...

Got 18 Gears on mine, so no need for power assistance. And was way cheaper than any of the PAS ones.

Guys, we are talking about a Mamachari mainly driven by ladies in short skirts, not by guys with big calves.

The price though is ridiculous; one can not leave this at the station without fear that its soon gone. And then the need for a new battery --usually after 500 recharging cycles-- for another 50.000 yen.

The permanence of the cheap but chic business model in Japan remains to be seen

The times Japan's strength lay in --cheap but good quality products-- is over as this area is covered by other Asian nations. Uniqlo is producing all its cloth outside Japan, mostly China; the mentioned Honda Fit is produced in Thailand. Where are the jobs for the people that should buy these products?

As of today 70% of the workforce up to age 35 is in unsecured temporary employment. In 2 years the baby boomer come into retirement age and by 2020 there will be only two employees to support one retiree (down from 4 to 1) in nation where the pension fonds are already on their limits.

Less people in secure well paid jobs, a savings rate that crashed from nearly 20% to under 2% (soon expected to be negative) in only 20 years, a nation that stands alone (unlike others in trouble such as Greece, Ireland, ..) a government drowning in debt and in fight with its lawmakers and its own inexperience (and partly incompetence), unable to move.

Japan Inc. will remain competitive in some few areas, but it will loose its edge in most others. Some economists expect Japan's output to sink to the current level of Indonesia by 2050. It might not come that bad, but the odds are clearly stacked against this nation.

But this might not be all bad news. Maybe the new generation is OK with Japan's smaller international role. Maybe there is more to life than being number 1 (or 2) in the world. Maybe that is what is really going on in Japan, a shift to a new paradigm, one that the older generation does not understand yet.

American automakers buy Toyota and Honda cars to benchmark and reverse engineer.

It's standard practice for all car makers to buy vehicles of their competitors in order to study them. The "benchmark" claim is BS.

If you have stubby arms, it might work. Normal foreigners look like monkeys in suits tailored for Japanese.

In the States, you lock yourself in the car, two seconds later your windshield is busted and you are tazed.

Certainly not the wind-shield. It's double laminated glass.

Hold on NZ and Australia catch a LOT of the Blue-fintuna and sell it to japan. They call it farming but nothing more than glorified fattening bans for the caught juvenile Tuna ...

Could you kindly prove those claims ...

How much fishing is too much?

OK, this was now a nice summary of many opinions, but no answer to the question raised in the headline. Has the author no opinion / conclusion?