louisferdinandc comments

Posted in: Do you think having female quotas in college admissions, government and company management positions is reverse discrimination against men? See in context

Quotas are usually a last resort solution to impose the end of an existing discrimination or at least guarantee a limit to the existing discriminatory practices: ideally they shouldn’t exist, but the reality says none of the other measures are taken to ensure women of the same competency as men are given their due by colleges, companies and governments. Thinking that in the current situation in Japan quotas might discriminate against men is surreal, as men enjoy at the moment a wildly discriminatory culture against women. Unless you think that the low percentages of women in the places were quotas might be applied is due to women’s lack of capacity or just to random chance. In that case, you probably also believe in Santa, merry Christmas.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Posted in: Our aim is to ensure that people line up in an orderly fashion on both sides of the moving stairway. See in context

If you pay attention, there’s banners reminding us that we are already not supposed to walk or run on escalators in Tokyo too. Same as people over 13 are not supposed to use their bicycles on the sidewalks. By law. Truth is, Japanese only abide by the rules they want to, and do as they please for the rest. As long as everyone follows, it becomes an unwritten rule and no law can beat the natural instinct of the herd.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: More than one in three Japanese working women in survey would rather be housewives See in context

Considering 70-80% of salarymen are unhappy about their work, this is a very stupid survey and would only be interested if the same question was asked to men too. Truth is, it’s a culturally and gender biased question from which no conclusions should be taken if not that the stereotype of housewife as an alternative to work (and not an addition to work) is still alive and strong. Everyone knows that the question really being asked is “do you actually want to be only a housewife?” instead of working and being also a housewife anyway.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Posted in: The ups and downs of being ‘half Japanese’ in Japan See in context

@REDwhiteblue the only reason why children with mixed heritage need to choose one (nationality, obviously they can keep their cultural heritage) is because Japan obliges them to.

3 ( +9 / -6 )

Posted in: Uber Eats delivery worker arrested for smearing curry on apartment door of customer who gave him low rating See in context

We do not know how things went and the guy could just be slightly nuts, but truth is there is huge trend of customers on Uber eats clicking on a decent tip at the moment of the order, which can make a delivery worker decide a certain run is worth or not the time (as the delivery fee itself is ridiculously low), and then: hop, after the delivery just give a bad rating and ´edit’ the tip, making it zero. If your livelihood depends on driving around for hours, sometimes in the rain, to put together 100¥ after 100¥, that kind of client might make you lose it.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Posted in: Italian detainee dies in apparent suicide at Tokyo immigration See in context

You can listen to his version of the story on Vimeo, he posted many videos since being homeless starting September 2020, after a classic 21 days of detention without a clear cause (we know a cause is not needed…),

https://vimeo.com/725503586

He clearly also developed mental health issues, but good luck to anyone forced into the streets in a foreign country after living there for 15 years not to develop any trouble…

Anyway, one thing the story certainly is: sad. One thing it shouldn’t have been: a death in a government facility.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Posted in: Japan to reopen to cruise ships after 2 1/2-year ban See in context

@REDwhiteblue

« J gov, please close the border again. We just had 100,000 case a month after you opened the border to foreigners. Can you connect the dots? »

Japanese have been cruising around and flying abroad on the same boats and planes for two years already during covid, back and forward, with several national and international records of weekly cases. So they can’t catch it and spread it when they are abroad, but the people from abroad can catch it and spread it while in Japan? Must be a sort of local allergy then…or a phobia…ah I think it’s called xenophobia.

-8 ( +6 / -14 )

Posted in: Pro shogi player loses game for not wearing face mask See in context

Of course, all this could be avoided since extremely accurate and cheap rapid tests with Cut Off Index (COI) exist and take literally ten minutes. But no, Japanese have to show self discipline and restrain even if doesn’t make any sense (and of course only while in Japan, because when abroad until they step into the flight back home absolutely nobody wear a mask even at the airport gate).

That been said, in this case it was clearly used as a strategy to distract the opponent and it then becomes a matter of rules of the game, nothing to do anymore with the actual sanitary conditions.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Posted in: Japan weighs plan for ban on hotel guests without masks: report See in context

Japan considers showing again to the world that despite having one of the highest infection rates on the planet they are afraid of foreigners bringing and spreading something that is already here, and massively so.

-8 ( +15 / -23 )

Posted in: Half of Japan's ruling LDP lawmakers had ties with Unification Church See in context

The title should read « Half of Japan's ruling LDP lawmakers recognize they had ties with Unification Church » 

This is the result of a survey, and as in the joke about women being asked if they know who is Rocco Siffredi half of them said yes, the other half smiled.

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

Posted in: 72% of survey respondents say border controls reason for not visiting Japan See in context

It would be nice instead of the PCR for incoming people to see Japan do like some other countries - like Rwanda - and impose a corona test to outgoing travelers for a ‘zero export’ virus policy.

7 ( +10 / -3 )

Posted in: Court refuses to recognize trans woman as parent of child born after transition See in context

@ILLYad

« Considering we evolved to be raised by two sexually dimorphic parents over the course of millions of years? Yes, it probably does matter. The data on children raised without a father figure is a devastating repudiation of this belief that it doesn't matter. »

You have the right to prefer the image of a father and a mother you probably grew up with, but I can assure you that it represents a very small, recent and heavily religiously distinct form of family in the history of humanity. Most social organizations in most times and places in the world, including today, have complex kinship and pedagogical relationships in which the role of the biological parents is only a part - if at all - of how children are raised. The fact you do not know the existence of anything else than 1950s inspired American families does not stop history and contemporary society to be much more diverse.

-11 ( +3 / -14 )

Posted in: Court refuses to recognize trans woman as parent of child born after transition See in context

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_assignment

For those of you who talk about biology as if humans were living in caves and eating raw food to act according to nature, I suggest to read the History section of the Wikipedia page on sex assignment.

And yes, it’s not a problem for 99.4% of people, but it’s the same for having red hair and you don’t see courts refusing parental rights because of the color of their hair…

-9 ( +6 / -15 )

Posted in: Court refuses to recognize trans woman as parent of child born after transition See in context

@SAME# sex is assigned at birth, yes, and while it’s usually an ´easy’ job to do that (and is different than later gender development, though mis assignment can influence it) statistically you can still literally fill Tokyo stadium with the number of people who were born with sexual characters that made assignment difficult. Even with conservative ‘zero point zero something’ estimates, there are at least 70,000 people in Japan alone that were born with ambiguous sexual organs. Biology 101 might not be enough if you want to seriously discuss sex and gender.

-8 ( +12 / -20 )

Posted in: War-displaced Japanese on Philippine island stand up to claim roots See in context

"I realized people never (easily) forgot these incidents," Inomata said.

As they were not incidents but systematic occupation and war crimes and touched all people in the region (and other countries…), they were passed on with history, oral or written. Only the descendants of those who committed those crimes have the luxury of forgetting them. For those who suffered them, forgiving is possible. Forgetting, never.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Posted in: At least 5 members of Kishida's new cabinet had links with Unification Church See in context

“The emperor’s new clothes” come to mind:

‘Two swindlers arrive at the capital city of an emperor who spends lavishly on clothing at the expense of state matters. Posing as weavers, they offer to supply him with magnificent clothes that are invisible to those who are stupid or incompetent. The emperor hires them, and they set up looms and go to work. A succession of officials, and then the emperor himself, visit them to check their progress. Each sees that the looms are empty but pretends otherwise to avoid being thought a fool. 

Finally, the weavers report that the emperor's suit is finished. They mime dressing him and he sets off in a procession before the whole city. The townsfolk uncomfortably go along with the pretense, not wanting to appear inept or stupid, until a child blurts out that the emperor is wearing nothing at all. The people then realize that everyone has been fooled. Although startled, the emperor continues the procession, walking more proudly than ever.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Posted in: Japan's population falls by record 726,342 to 125.93 mil in 2021 See in context

“Deaths at an all-time high of around 1.44 million”. Nothing to do with the epidemic of course, which has been managed brilliantly thanks to the superior cultural habit of hiding the head in the sand.

-6 ( +19 / -25 )

Posted in: Lawyers decry ban on 'menacing' eyewear at Japan prison See in context

And let’s underline the fact that the ‘menacing’ guy is in prison for a traffic violation, not exactly for mafia crimes. And that the reason for taking his glasses away is both because he could look threatening to others and/or the others could bully him. So basically they don’t really know why, but they just think he doesn’t deserve to see.

20 ( +28 / -8 )

Posted in: A look at the Unification Church's ties to Japan's politics See in context

“the Korean Peninsula, which has been split between the totalitarian North and democratic South.”

The South was a totalitarian state at the very least between 1961 and 1988.

7 ( +10 / -3 )

Posted in: Japan to recognize Turkish Kurd as refugee after appeals court ruling See in context

I guess those saying he would be better off in Kurdistan are sarcastically pointing at the fact that Kurds are a people without a land.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Posted in: The thinking that homosexuality is some sort of illness was rejected years ago, so the clear inclusion of such a passage is, to me, an expression of prejudice and animosity. See in context

@paul first of all there’s over 450 ‘creatures’ that engage regularly in homosexual behavior, some of them exclusively (for instance a good 10% of domestic sheep males refuse to engage in sex with females but do so with other males). That been said, human behavior is not ‘natural’ in most areas of life, otherwise we would be living in caves and eating raw food and probably wouldn’t use fax, which is to me the most unnatural behavior Japanese still engage in. So I don’t see what ‘normal’ means in relation to the human habits, when Japanese can’t even agree on what’s the ‘normal’ side to stand on an escalator between Tokyo and Osaka.

2 ( +9 / -7 )

Posted in: Thailand betting on 'boys' love' tourism boom, especially among Japanese travelers See in context

« Thai BL dramas often conclude with a happy ending ». I am sure the writer is proud of this little wink at those who put together homosexuality and sex tourism in Thailand, of which many seem to be in the comments here. Considering the extent of the sex industry in Japan, it is interesting to see how many associate BL dramas and Thailand to sex tourism, as if one would associate Korean romantic dramas to prostitution in Seoul.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Posted in: Japan to host G7 summit in Hiroshima on May 19-21 next year See in context

And I bet one family jewel, not both but one yes, that other G7 citizens will still not be able to enter freely the country.

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

Posted in: Nadal survives Wimbledon scare as COVID forces Berrettini out; Serena loses See in context

While there is no obligation to test, and most athletes at Wimbledon are vaccinated and far from being at risk, Berrettini acted in a very responsible way and self-tested after the first symptoms, renouncing to the world’s top tennis event where he was among the top 2-3 candidates for winning.

I have tons of colleagues and friends who clearly had covid in Japan but never tested for fear of being stigmatized and, god forbid, lose a day at work, where they kept going every day commuting in crowded trains. But I still have to see the Japanese make a sorry face and step back when I say I have family in Italy (though I haven’t been there myself recently) as if it was some kind of virus hell with irresponsible people.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Posted in: Popular Japanese yakiniku chain introduces Vtuber meat delivery robots as staff See in context

Anything but immigration and having to interact with actual human beings, I guess is the devise of the country. Hope the robots can pay taxes and social security and support Japan pensions system.

-9 ( +1 / -10 )

Posted in: 'We must change': Japan's morning-after pill debate See in context

"There's a strong paternalistic tendency in the medical world. They want to keep women under their control."

I misread ‘medical’ as ´medieval’. Or maybe I was right.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Posted in: Japan-born American files suit against Japan's dual nationality ban See in context

I wonder if the change of the legal age in Japan to 18 will allow kids with dual citizenship from birth to file suits before they are supposed to choose. At the very minimum that would oblige the court to suspend the obligation until the ruling is given.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: Japan test tour by 4 Thai people canceled after COVID infection See in context

Negative at departure.

Negative on arrival.

Positive after three days in Japan.

Sure, the incubation period. But might it be that with one million declared cases in the last 30 days, of which absolutely none tested because of a sore throat, Japan has nothing to worry about foreigners bringing something that is already here?

9 ( +18 / -9 )

Posted in: Japan to resume accepting guided foreign tour groups from June 10 See in context

So tourists, Japanese and foreign residents coming (back) to Japan will be in the same airplane, coming from the same ‘blue’ place, with the same vaccination and negative pcr tests, into a country where the virus is endemic, but the tourists need to have different rules because…?

13 ( +19 / -6 )

Posted in: Japan's foreign minister hints readiness to aid N Korea over COVID See in context

Japan will contribute its strategy that has proven successful : close bars at 8pm (probably not something to worry about in North Korea), do nothing else, don’t ask don’t test.

1 ( +7 / -6 )

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