Lew Archie comments

Japanese bears are extremely aggressive and dangerous. Japanese bears are extremely territorial. 3. The population of Japanese bears has exploded over the past 15 years. 4. Japanese kill bears because it is the only way to deal with the problem.

Good to see someone with some common sense. I'm pretty sure a woman was killed earlier this year by a bear in Hokkaido. But strangely some 'people' believe the lives of bears are more important than humans.

I get sick of people defending these beasts. Imagine how many fish would still be alive and available for our dinner plates if not for the greedy great whites. Show no mercy.

Really stupid article. I want the minute and a half of my life I spent reading it back. Now!

The resistance came from lawmakers, many in the DPJ that won power in 2009, who feared the laws could be abused to frame political opponents and only proposed punishing those who buy the material “repeatedly.” Japan’s bar associations also opposed the possession ban, concerned it would give police too much leeway.

I get the feeling that many law makers (the world over) have a bit of a 'kid fantasy'. The 'average joe' is saying these people should be locked up or humanely put down but for some reason lawmakers find it difficult to increase sentences, or in this case have sentences. What or who is holding them back?

For once business leaders can play a positive role in a social perspective. These guys should be urging their respective governments to cool down and look at the possible economic downfall of confrontation.

Bernie I've tried but the website just won't let me give your comment the 'good' thumb. Some female must have taken the webmaster hostage, and forced him to re-program the good thumb thing on your comment.

"Does he make a lot of Money" I think you forgot that one Miss Masuda..."

Yeah spot on Marcels. It's probably in the top 3 requirements for women all over the world, and I understand totally. They're still insecure despite all the feminist efforts and they feel a little safer with a (rich) man. Hey, I understand ladies, I understand. And by the way girls, I'm spoken for so save your energy.

Yeah got to agree with most people's sentiments here. Honda as many sportsman tend to be is out of touch with reality. Could we question his loyalty also . . . moving to Europe for the mighty dollar. Why not stay in the J League if you're so loyal. And judging by the crowd at Saitama Stadium when Japan took on Iraq earlier tonight, Japanese locals are actually pretty patriotic. Wake up call Honda! http://eastasiansoccer.blogspot.com.au/

She murdered her baby; she confessed. Life in prison. She is obviously mentally ill to act in this manner, so why should she ever be free to walk amongst the law abiding and their children.

@Jeff Ryan

Looks a lot closer to China to me. Just saying.

But if everything was mere geography, we could say Alaska belongs to Canada right.

Yep! I'd love to see Sendai snare the title. http://eastasiansoccer.blogspot.com.au/

This is what happens when citizens are disarmed. Even one legally-armed civilian with a pistol could have put a swift end to this murderous rampage.

Yeah, Japanese society would be much better off if everyone had guns just like the U.S., where people on university campuses and in cinema complexes get randomly murdered.

I like your work nostromo.

More stories on J League please.

Well done with the video Nigelboy. The truth is out there. What we have here is an upstart. If an Australian had travelled to Japan and put on such a demonstration I would be embarrassed and I would say he gets what he deserves. Unfortunately, this upstart didn't. As for all the usual lefty 'cop bashing' I can't see what they did wrong (yeah I'm aware the vehicle took an interminably long time to arrive). I watched the entire 15 minutes and can't say I saw any assault. Perhaps the author of the article Steven Simonitch was there before everyone else.

But Kayano, whose father was the only Ainu lawmaker in Japan’s history, has his sights on more than just reviving his ethnic group’s traditions and all-but-extinct language.

He wants the Ainu to be granted their traditional homeland of Hokkaido island—now a popular spot for skiing and wilderness-seeking tourists

People want the benefits of living under a 1st world nation with a transport system the envy of the world, they want everything that goes with being a citizen of Japan, but they also want their own patch. How about you have Hokkaido, but all the infrastructure is taken away.

And by the way, we were all indigenous once so saying that the world's indigenous people are all downtrodden and mistreated is one that must be indicating some kind of convenient timeline to coincide with certain groups' existence as hunter gatherers.

It's great how some people just randomly speculate about the parents possibly abusing the kid. Yeah, we should always have a bunch of excuses at hand for a teenager who wraps a baseball bat around the heads of sleeping victims.

It's the stupidest thing in the world. These days, men are so discriminated and are becoming 2nd class citizens. Those stupid airlines should put those kids at front seats where the flight attendants can see them (unless he is a man too, right?) Put them together so they can be "protected" from men.

Welcome to Australia. Or is it the 'west' in general . . .

Sorry... I meant to say any woman that has a baby out of wedlock, from an affair, a teen mother, rape, incest etc etc... Is all stigmatized towards the woman. There is little or no channels of support for these women. It's really sad.

Definitely the western angle. 'Lets make excuses for the criminal', it's society's fault etc. etc. No excuses.

What is the problem! The locals are anticipating that we don't speak any Japanese, and this is totally understandable as most of us don't. We get complimented on our limited use of Nihongo, we get complimented on our use of chopsticks and some of us take it as some kind of insult. Please people, lets not screw up Japan the way we have screwed up our own countries ie; Australia, GB, USA and so on. Political correctness doesn't need to infect every nation.

Living in Australia I have to admit that customer service in Japan is streets ahead of ours. Just like Kawakami san indicated with her story about the finger pointer (in Europe), the customer in Australia is a distraction for staff, who are busy discussing last night's episode of Australia's Got Talent or some other mindless reality program.

Sometimes the Australian media embarrasses me. In all honesty though I think this crop of swimmers isn't as talented or hungry as previous teams. Hopefully Sally Pearson can restore some pride for the green and gold. I couldn't bare it if Australia's little sister (nz) beat our gold medal haul. Now that would be embarrassing.