Lloyd Weems comments

It's not sexist, it's clumsy, ghoulish, badly made and leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth. The image of the young girl changing to broiled eel looked like an advert for cannibalism. Creepy.

Fantastic! This is exactly what Japan needs to break out of the economic doldrums - more designer handbag shops, Italian restaurants and nail salons. All wrapped up in a sparkling 21st. century design. I just dont know how the rest of the developed world will be able to compete.

There's a succint video about this topic by Dr. Frances Ryan at the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2016/sep/07/its-time-to-stop-calling-disabled-people-inspirational-video

Abe: Pull my finger, Erdogan.

Erdogan: No no, you'll unleash the kamikaze!

In addition, the investigation team... didn’t have access to data stored in computers issued by the committee that had been destroyed when the bidding process ended. The team largely relied on documents that had been kept by former committee members.

Hmmm, the Japan Olympic Committee destroying data after the bid has been won? Now, where have I heard that before...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/digest/daily/jan99/nagano21.htm

the inference being that old age is simply too much for some

Erm, surely the inference is that mental illness, poverty and loneliness are too much for some?

Police, preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, are busy preparing defenses against international terrorism.

By conducting secret surveillance of 72,000 muslim residents of Japan, including 1,600 children.

Maybe, the magazine suggests, they should focus as well on this spreading domestic variety.

Aum Shinrikyo and the Japanese Red Army were Japanese.

Everyone knows that Spa! magazine is little more than toilet paper but this really is scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Goal-line technology ( usually Hawk-Eye ) is installed in many top-league stadiums in Europe and is used in the Premier League, Serie A, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga. It was used in the last men's and women's World Cups and the Europa League and Champions League finals. The technology exists. However, its use is not mandatory. One reason for this is expense - stadiums must be fitted with the system which doesn't come cheap, unfortunately. Saitama Stadium, the venue for the game, doesn't have the system installed so it couldn't be used.

She said she is currently developing a special fabric for female Muslim athletes to use during the Olympics.

What? So, in addition to her regular duties she's now a fabric designer? And for Muslim women?

“I’ve always wanted to be someone that people would say, ‘you are the only one,’” Koike said.

She's 64 and still single so no-one has said it yet. Cheer up, Ms.Koike, maybe that special someone is out there. It's never too late to find love!

No doubt people will mock this, yet they overlook that in their home countries, you will NEVER see a CEO publicly apologizing with humility and genuine remorse.

It's Mitsubishi, mate. They've had appalling scandals like this for decades and nothing has changed, absolutely nothing. They just bow, scrape and carry on until the next scandal gets exposed. It's a disgraceful company, utterly shameless. These performances are meaningless.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-18/mitsubishi-motors-scandal-was-an-accident-waiting-to-happen

Absolutely brilliant. But then I've watched it all on the BBC iPlayer...

What's that strange noise I hear? Ah, it's the sound of someone scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Bring power generation and scaling it to the individual household is an incredible accomplishment and a big growth industry.

Yes, this is the future. Hats off to Yamanashi, well done. Now, how much tax money is Shinzo spending on the maglev?

What really qualifies her anyways for this job?

That's a good question. She has served 4 terms in the Diet but is now a Cabinet minister for the first time, having jumped over 70 LDP members with more seniority than her. Perhaps it's just loyalty to Shinzo ( and his ideas ) that has landed her this job, for which she seems to have no particular aptitude. Who knows. Maybe she has a special friend, like Takaichi Sanae.

Japan is definitely moving to the right.

If they go any further right they'll fall off the edge!

Half truth news as always.

Yep, if you spend a few minutes on the internet you'll find what's really going on: vast sums to international pariahs like Mugabe in Zimbabwe.

"At the news conference, Mugabe invited Japanese companies to invest heavily in his country, which is rich in such minerals as gold, platinum and nickel. He said Japanese firms can take advantage of special economic zones in the country".

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/03/28/national/politics-diplomacy/abe-offers-%C2%A5600-million-grant-zimbabwe-bid-counter-chinese-economic-offensive/#.V5qJ1KIuNIU

Shinzo's friend in Africa:

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/689885/robert-mugabe-kim-jong-un-north-korea-zimbabwe-flowers

Monsters.

"...Christopher Gaffney is – a senior research fellow at the University of Zurich, a prominent voice in the anti-Olympic movement – and he describes it this way: “Wherever we see an educated population that has a relatively free press, relatively high levels of governmental transparency, and that has put it up for a referendum, in every one of those cases we have seen the Olympics be rejected. Without exception.” In the west, at least, it seems no one wants to play host any more."

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jul/27/biggest-threat-future-olympic-games-rio-2016-ioc-thomas-bach-hosts

Poor old Olympics, nobody wants you. Because they know what a complete fraud you are...

Hopefully this will be better than the usual Oliver Stone movie, which usually seem to consist of a load of macho types shouting at each other for two hours.

Snowden is an absolute hero, though. More power to him!

Radio either live or in the form of podcasts is also perfect for the hours I spend on the bus traveling between Sheffield and Oxford or Sheffield and London. I've tried watching watching documentaries on my laptop. I get motion sick if I do.

Fair enough, I can't watch anything on the laptop while traveling either. BBC radio drama is fantastic and they seem to cover pretty much everything you could possibly want to hear. But still, there is some great ( and serious ) drama on the BBC that also has a popular audience. You can learn so much about post war Britain by watching Our Friends In The North or Boys From The Blackstuff. I'd be interested in any Japanese dramas that have had a similar impact but I don't know of any...

So, Mr. Son just bought one of the world's best tech companies at a 10% discount.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EugL4W2FOBw

I lived eight years in Britain without owning or watching TV. When I did sometimes see it in pubs or homes, the content confirmed that I was right not to have a television.

Funny. So you missed Play For Today, Cathy Come Home, Boys from the Blackstuff, Brideshead Revisited, I, Claudius, Edge of Darkness, The Singing Detective, Pennies from Heaven, Our Friends in the North, The Royle Family, I'm Alan Partridge, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Father Ted, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Ascent of Man, Kenneth Clark's Civilisation, House of Cards, Arena, GF Newman's Law and Order, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, Philip Martin's Gangsters and Bill Brand. Also, you missed Alan Bennett, Mike Leigh, Denis Potter, Simon Gray and a whole host of other great writers. Well done.

A program called 11 PM produced in Osaka was seriously raunchy. There was even some serious political satire. I don't know whether the government clamped down or whether it was uptight citizens, but it was certainly better then than now and it changed long before Abe got into government.

There was a change to the Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Act in 1985 that spelled the end of that great period of late night TV:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Businesses_Affecting_Public_Morals_Regulation_Act

11pm was great, a wide show for adults with sexy bits, music, satire and general cool stuff. I remember seeing the Beastie Boys, RUN DMC and a whole host of bands on it. Times change and it looks like something from another world now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD4hK37HwH4

It's a beautiful temple in a pleasant city. Hopefully the sexual harassment case against the 82 year old chief priest will be resolved soon.

What a fantastic idea. It's great to see something positive amongst all the grim recent news. Thanks JT!

Missing maps:

http://www.missingmaps.org/

MSF story and link:

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/doctors-without-borders-launches-mapswipe-app-help-crisis-areas

I'd be willing to bet the Yakuza got wind of this guy and found a way to rob him.

I thought the Mount Gox bitcoin pile was stolen by a pair of rogue DEA agents, who later surrendered to the FBI?

Neither Pokemon Go nor Line are robots.

I'm aware of that. Where did I say they were?

The existence of robots created by countries other than Japan does not disprove the existence of robots created by Japan.

I'm aware of that. Where did I say it did?

Take a look around.

I have. Creepy receptionist humanoids and a glorified Asimo that helps people to stand up, the same as a couple of years ago. Nothing near the level of these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVlhMGQgDkY

So, Pokemon Go was created in the US, LINE is owned by a Korean company, the Softbank Pepper robot was designed in France as was the DeNa autonomous robot shuttle bus. Just where are all these amazing Japanese robots and AI devices that are going to save the economy and the aging society? People keep talking them up, so where are they?

You'll have had your tea, Hideki...

No one seems to want to cooperate, and in the meantime everyone gets nowhere fast. Why do things come to such a grinding halt over here when a difficult challenge appears?

Because no-one wants to accept responsibility for anything. No-one wants to deal with difficult, complicated situations. No-one wants to cooperate unless guaranteed their share of the cake. No-one wants to repair something old when they can splash tax money on a shiny new thing. No-one wants to pay taxes. The list is endless....

My struggle.

How quickly they forget. Aso Taro expresses his admiration for the way the Nazis changed the Weimar Constitution:

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/02/world/asia/japan-politician-nazi-comment/index.html

Takaichi Sanae endorses Hitler's election strategies:

http://www.huffingtonpost.jp/2014/10/21/hitlersenkyo_n_6019042.html

http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1398718/sanae-takaichi-japan-hitler.jpg

It's not as if they are hiding their true intentions, is it. Everything is in plain view. But still people vote for them....

Four cigarettes, a can of coffee and a quick game of tsum tsum. Ain't life grand!