Leigh Ivan Quintellio Wighton comments

Dismal stuff from the Sunwolves. They haven't posted much in their 3 and a bit seasons and I've noticed how each season has seen them field less and less local players. If they're not at least developing local talent, then I can't see much value in this team anymore. Most teams don't even field their strongest lineup against them either which is further devaluing their brand.

Smart move on her part. You can pretty much take the confiscation of your passport as, at the very least, a sign that they're definitely thinking of arresting you. If I were in her shoes when the prosecutors showed up and took her passport, as soon as they had left, I would've been on a taxi to my country's embassy to pay whatever it costs for an emergency passport and then to the airport on the first available flight out of Japan. Luckily for her she had another passport that they couldn't get a hold of. But yeah, they're definitely out to get her too.

Yeah? Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man...

Just ban Owen Farrell and around half of all rugby's dangerous tackles will have been removed.

Unfortunately it’s not just a “smartphone problem.” Even before smartphones, I’d often see cyclists doing all manner of things on their bikes like holding an umbrella, playing a psp, reading a book (without lights either). There’s a real lack of common sense among cyclists and pedestrians here when it comes to awareness and basic safety. When was it ever a good idea to read something/play a game, etc while you’re walking through busy areas, let alone ride a bike doing these things? It’s something I’ve seen more often in Japan than anywhere else. For all the constant safety announcements and warnings everywhere, you’d think Japan would have the safest streets and walkways in the world, but I think these things just encourage people to not think for themselves as many will just automatically filter them out as white noise.

sadly, it took someone getting killed to show how incredibly stupid and dangerous this behavior is.

Climate change or not. I've been here 15 years and it always gets over 35 degrees regularly in many parts of Japan. I've seen unofficial readings of over 40 degrees many times as well. Not saying climate change isn't a thing, but I've heard people say things like, "this summer is hotter than normal," every single year.

The mill has the maternal grandfather a Korean and Komuro went to a Canadian International School where many students of Korean descent are enrolled.

That shouldnt be an issue really - in the minds of sane people anyway. The current Emperor confirmed that the Japanese royals have Korean ancestors.

4( +5 / -1 )

Newsflash! Most Japanese people have some Korean ancestors if you start going back far enough. The Korean peninsula is only a hop, skip and a jump from Japan after all.

"Japan knows how to work."

Then paragraphs citing exactly what's wrong with the work culture here.

I'm always a little bit suspicious of moves like this. I'm no conspiracy theorist, but I can't help but feel that lowering the levels like this is a move to sell more treatments. Similar to what's happened with cholesterol levels. "High" cholesterol levels have trended downwards over the last 40 years or so to the point where a huge amount of the population is "at risk." Unsurprisingly, statins for lowering cholesterol levels are one of, if not the most prescribed drugs today. I dunno, watching your blood pressure is always a good idea. I'm just a tad skeptical about this.

It's antiquated in the sense that it makes no exceptions or allowances for people with rather tenuous dual-citizenship, such as in the examples we've seen so far where the persons in question didn't even know they were dual citizens. That said, you'd think members of government would familiarize themselves with the law before they take office no matter how ridiculous or antiquated these laws may be.

Sony, or Sony Pictures in particular, is struggling? Could it possibly be to do with their poor business decisions and awful movies? Can't be, right? Surely it's the foreign exchange rate's fault.

Great. Another contactless payment system. Japan is sorely missing a universal payment system where you can pay electronically everywhere through your bank's issued card. New Zealand, for example, has been more or less cash-free for about 20 years now. Japan is really lagging in this area.

They have a line of succession. I don't quite understand what all the fuss is about. I know it's never been done in Japan before, but I'm sure it'll be OK.

Don't just pray, make it so!

I'm just dissappointed in the awkwardly shoehorned Rogue One reference into this article.

Expresso coffee is not meant to bastardized

Neither is its spelling.

But they don't know any different really. Especially with the over 50 crowd here. That said, e-money is a bit inconvenient here. There is no universal system in place. Your edy card is only good at some stores so you need a different service for others. It's the complete opposite in New Zealand though. For at least 20 years the eftpos system has been the standard payment option in any store across the country. The last few times I've been back it's been even easier with the paywave option where I can just swipe my card or phone in front of the terminal. Yeah, you pay fees, but it's the price you pay for speed and not having to wait for people at the checkout rummaging through a fistful of small change.

Coriander is an interesting one. I heard somewhere that some people are genetically disposed to hating it. As in, to these people, it tastes like eating soap or something. Personally, I love it, but as someone with a strong dislike for certain foods, especially seafood, I get it when people just don't want to touch a certain food despite others always telling them how delicious it is. What I don't understand though is people going to Thai restaurants ( even Thailand itself ) or any other SE Asian themed restaurant and complaining about coriander in the food or insisting that dishes be cooked without it. Coriander is to Thai food what dashi is to Japanese cooking. Just go elsewhere. Some of the worst Thai food I had was in Thailand because they assumed all foreigners dislike coriander. Really ruined my lunch.

Lifetime employment has been a pipe dream for quite some time. I'm almost 40 and I'd say it all but died with my grandparents' generation. I don't think the "full-time employee" system need die. What does need to die here is the notion that full-time equals cannot be fired or rid of. The employment system in Japan that has been entrenched since the post war boom is basically just an extension of the welfare system. There's no reward for working efficiently, and there's no punishment for not doing so. May as well be collecting welfare at home.

New Zealand used to be similar to Japan in this respect. Something changed in the last ten years though. Every time I've been back to NZ in this period, I only need to get near the crossing and cars come to a screeching halt. Whatever they did with enforcement there, it worked because drivers there seem to take it very seriously now and stop anytime someone is waiting. Maybe Japan could take a leaf out of NZ'Sbook here. I hope so coz I'm tired of waiting for someone to stop at the crossing near my place. Funnily, my inner city place in the past was way better for drivers letting pedestrians cross. My place in setagaya is terrible though. Something to do with setagaya, nouveau riche types, expensive cars and an over inflated sense of entitlement perhaps.

@sf2k

I'd never work in that industry again here. It was only ever occasionally for me anyway.

I used to do occasional work as an extra on TV, films etc. While it was somewhat novel and interesting at the start, I quickly became aware of how terrible the industry is here. Sometimes jobs were easy. You'd be in and out in an hour or so. Sometimes though they would be seemingly endless. On one NHK drama we spent about 16 hours on set. We had to fight with NHK management to get extra pay and a bento. I did several episodes of Aibou as an extra. We were treated fine, but the Japanese extras were all unpaid and were told to walk to the nearest station while we were bussed to and from. Eventually though the deteriorating conditions and low quality of the finished productions allowed me to decide that this was not worth one more minute of my time. I did several days shooting on a drama called "Japanese Americans". The director was a complete a-hole. Slightly bigger than average Japaneae guy who used his size and bark to bully everyone. He'd even physically shove people around. Saw him shove an almost elderly woman around where he wanted her placed on set. Absolute talentless scumbag. The finished show was so laughably bad that he wouldn't have a job in film and TV outside of Japan. Thankfully, I didn't rely on that job, but some do. I feel sorry for them.

Wow. This from a minister of finance? Yeah, stocks and bonds are potentially risky, but not doing anything with your savings is also risky. There are such things as moderate and lower risk investments though. Yes, there will be troughs in the market, but there will be peaks also. Time in the market is the old adage spouted by many successful investors. Over time, a well balanced portfolio will generally come out making a profit. I've heard loads of Japanese people say the same as Taro here. There are times when risk avoidance is beneficial, but when it comes to finance, risk management is an essential part of the process. This "avoid all risks" mentality that pervades society here is really damaging to the country's well being.

I don't doubt it's (slightly) healthier to stand rather than sit, but I fail to see how my logic doesn't make sense. Standing relatively still on a train simply won't burn 200 calories. Look up standing versus sitting studies. Standing with periodic movement might burn you an extra 50 cals in an hour. 20 mins of cardio at 70% of your ( well, mine at least ) heart rate absolutely will burn 200 calories ( or very close to it ). If I see a seat available on my commute, I'm gonna take it without much worry for my health.

don't mind standing on trains. Apparently, you burn 100-200 calories more per hour standing on a swaying moving train, as opposed to sitting

So standing on a train for an hour is the equivalent of cycling or jogging at 70℅ of your max heart rate for 20 mins? If that were true, standing in trains would be the most popular cardio exercise ever.

Same old spiel. Expect similar results. She didn't waste any time blowing something like 10 million yen on a 6 day trip to Rio just days after she was elected.

The OP found Japanese easier than German? That's weird. For myself, and other native English speakers who studied German that I've talked to, I found German "sticks" so much easier than Japanese in that it's a cousin language of English. There are so many similar words in everyday German and English. If at first a German word or phrase doesn't seem similar, I found just thinking about it for a few seconds would reveal that they're just the same words spelled differently. German grammar is finicky though. I'll give the OP that. Germans are famous for following rules and regulations and their language seems to follow suit. Japanese grammar is pretty simple by comparison.

I'm interested in the native words argument. Have to admit, I'd never really heard of it much when I was learning Japanese. Loan words are pretty commonplace in Japanese and it seems silly not to use them if they're considered standard. However, as time goes on, I notice that a part of me that finds katakana-ized loan words really grate on my ears. I'm not like one of those old codgers that complains that Japanese should be kept pure, but there are certain loan words, German ones in particular, that to me sound like nails on a chalkboard.

He should retrain as an eikaiwa teacher. I hear they rake in the money these days.

Seriously though, people mock English teaching in Japan, but the money is just as good if not better than a lot of other jobs in Japan. Security and promotion opportunities aren't really any better or worse sometimes either.

95,000 yen a month on a 3.5 million salary for a bachelor is not bad at all. I'll be paying 130,000 yen a month for my new house after a 5 million yen down payment.

Agreed. It really isn't that bad. Outside of having rich parents to bail you out, a major factor in financial security is living within your means and saving: cutting back a bit on stuff now to have more later on. Sounds simple really, but it's something I really wish I realised in my 20's.

That temps in the 20-30 degree range are ideal for events. Unlike the 35 degree plus temps we're likely to see at the Tokyo games. Schedule it for mid to late September. It's still hot in Tokyo in September, but at least no one may die from heat exhaustion.