Magnus Roe comments

Screen use, reading small print, looking at bright screens in a dark room etc do not cause bad eyesight, these are urban myths.

The article clearly says this is for the Western and Central regions, why is everyone talking about evacuating Tokyo?

Samurai DaveToday 10:05 am JST

I saw that news on Japanese TV and they interview some of the foreign interns. Most of them were complaining of working long hours and getting a very low wage for their work. Some of them are paid as low as 300 yen an hour.

Internships aren't paid positions in Japan, the organizing company pays their living expenses and they are there to learn skills, not get rich.

You seem to be under the impression they are free slave labour, in fact there are large time investments to train interns to perform tasks relevant to their field of study and they are often only engaged for a couple of months. Unless they get hired on full time later, having interns is a financial expense for most office based businesses.

How is this a "gift card racket"? It sounds more like plain extortion, and why she would have 25000k in gift cards is anyone's guess, how they knew about it is even more interesting.

I think there is some confusion about this train, an Utsunomiya line train wouldn't pass through Ageo, it was likely a Takasaki line train.

The procedures are difficult to learn since train companies refuse to discuss them, but I have been told they may seek damages up to a million yen.

Remember that it happens nearly every day and that each incident affects 20 000 - 50 000 passengers and causes damage to both material and personnel.

We don't know if the kids wore helmets, but if they didn't, this is negligence, though she'll probably get a suspended sentence.

The riding around in traffic with 2-3 kids on a bicycle without helmets needs to stop and since police aren't motivated to hassle people unless they are middle school students, it's up to the courts

It says there is a dash cam in the taxi so it will obviously show whether the car accelerated before or after the driver re-entered it.

It's not always obvious when people are drowning, they don't scream and splash. Many people aren't aware of this

People do the mad dash to reach the train despite there coming one 3min later because they have a connecting train further down the line with a two minute window, if they miss that, the next one isn't an Express and their work commute becomes 20min longer.

Sure, get up earlier you say, but people aren't paid for commuting time and most people prefer to spend as little time riding the tincans as possible.

zichiMay 30 07:35 pm JSTLast week JR East apologized for a train leaving 25 seconds early.

And so they should. A delay usually has some kind of reason, but leaving before the scheduled time is carelessness.

Lately there are lots of delays that aren't necessarily suicide related, Saikyousen has a couple of minutes delays nearly every morning. There is usually a peak in accidents in May and September in connection with the end of holidays but I don't know what causes the general minor delays.

I hadn't even heard that they were making this.

In Thailand you are required to possess a permit even for nonfunctional weapons.

The mine is probably considered weapon parts unless it's actually permanently disabled (rather than just have the charge removed), same with magazines, especially if they are for military weapons.

In my area too the cops will usually sweep by and chase them off if you call. It's amazing they can't impound their bikes though, very few of them are street legal regarding noise levels and probably emissions.

Same with cars, I know people who have been asked to take off illegal mods before shaken and leave them by the door to put back on afterwards. Everything with traffic matters here is a joke.

PerformingMonkeyToday 09:21 am JST

These articles never include a medical explanation of how overwork leads to death.

There usually isn't one, suicides also get recognized as death by overwork.

I agree with what some others are saying that you can't be and aren't actually forced to put in these hours, but the peer pressure is rather strong and refusing will probably end your career progression, and that's a huge deal. It's not certain the family will be understanding if you decide to jump off the rat race train, changing work places often looks bad on your resume and starting your own business is often seen as rash and irresponsible.

MarkXToday 07:19 am JST

She was set up. The Yaks found out she was working in a section that had information on them, targeted her, got some Romeo type guy to pursue her, she fell for it, and boom, her career is done. Many people might say, what was she thinking, but if she was lonely and made to feel special, she never thought she was being made a patsy for the Yaks.

I find it really hard to believe someone would bother "setting up" a fresh officer to end her career. Evidently she was groomed and later blackmailed with the hopes of obtaining information or have an inside source, but I seriously doubt this is part of an organized effort to wittle down the constabulary by seducing them one by one.

WakarimasenToday 10:02 am JST

More nonsense. "Laundered" how exactly? Until you can change any of these back to real spendable money it is all smoke and mirrors.

It's explained rather thoroughly in the article. They don't need "laundering" because there is no papertrail and the coints themselves can be used directly or converted to other coins or regular currency with the amount deposited on a paypal account.

Dango bongToday 07:20 am JST

ie. Japanese companies have not cornered the market for this product yet, allowing a monopoly on the domestic production before foreign companies can be shut out

That is BS, foreign holding firms control vast amounts of the grocery market in Japan, especially processed food in general but especially processed dairy ("cheese"), condiments, soft drinks and all kinds of detergents and soaps for house cleaning and personal care.

I thought Nintendo sued these guys? They must really love the free PR from Luigi road raging on cyclists.

I figured the races were mostly closely monitored photo ops with most of the actual rental races done on closed roads. I had no idea they routinely let people into traffic. I don't think I'd ever drive one of those things next to full size cars.

sir_bentley28Today 09:08 am JST

This sentence doesn't make much sense. Wouldn't it be easier to charge him anything along the lines of a peadophile and get him off the streets? He is old enough to be her father and he was hoping to "get with" a 16yo?

Read up on what the term means so you will be less confused in the future. She is 16, that makes him creepy, not a paedophile.

sir_bentley28Today 09:14 am JST

So how is this different from those old people who were told that they were too old to drive but drove any way and caused accidents resulting in death? They don't face any jail time at all or at least we don't hear anything about it. These laws seem to change to fit certain situations.

It's different because it's not illegal to drive just because you're old but to hide a diagnosis is.

I don't agree with this verdict. I definitely don't think this a criminal offence for the psychiatrist and should at most be a civil penalty.

This will put a chilling effect on how psychiatrists medicate everyone in future as they now know they can be held personally responsible for other peoples' actions. Very poor decision to say the least

You are mixing up the case, the psychiatrist didn't medicate anyone but himself and he was the one who plowed into the store.

Japanese prisoners hardly interact with each other at all, even when they eat together conversation is banned and those rules are strictly enforced. Violence between inmates is almost unheard of, he will be fine.

I have also heard that that violence in American prisons is highly exaggerated, the times a child abuser is somehow killed in prison or by vigilantes it's all over the papers, but I can only remember one case in the past year where this happened in a prison.

Samit BasuToday 09:47 am JST

I can see both of vehicles involved in this accident are kei cars.

Japan needs to abolish kei car, or at least apply same crash safety standards as regular passenger vehicles, like Koreans do.

Ever wonder why Korean kei cars cruise American and European highways while Japanese kei cars are nowhere to be found?

Americans don't generally favour small cars, but Suzuki and Daihatsu kei cars are common in Europe, of course the Kei category doesn't exist in Europe though.

englisc aspyrgendToday 12:49 am JST

There is no reason... there is an EXCUSE, but not a reason.

Actually there is invariably a reason as Strangerland said though not neccessarily a rational one, but there is no excuse.

Actually what strangerland said was a reason that JUSTIFIES the action, I don't know about you, but I can't come up with a lot of things that justifies beating a woman to death in a hotel

I don't watch it on tv, but Yahoo! Weather is nearly always spot on for Kanto. They're saying snow next week, I'm fairly sure they'll be correct.

Isn't this starting to become an uncomfortably regular occurence?

lostrune2Today 09:39 am JST

But what do they do after the Infinity War and the culmination of the Infinity Stones/Gauntlet

They just reboot again of course :P Or make another parallel time line, cross over with Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings, you have it :P

I remember seeing a thread on a "foreigner forum" about some guy running a restaurant here and his surprise at the complete lack of health and safety inspections once his place opened. You can tell from the ventilators in kitchens though, they are often entirely encapsulated in grease and this by itself could cause a fire.

Having a grill restaurant in a wooden building without a sprinkler system sounds unreal, but I rarely see any safety precautions of any kind so it's not really surprising.

StrangerlandToday 07:32 am JSTWhile stealing his goods is unacceptable, and she deserves the relevant punishment, I feel for this woman though, she's one of the working poor. If she was making a living wage, she could have had her own place, and then would not have been in a position to be tempted to steal from her boyfriend.

Have to admire your confidence and sympathy for this larcenist who quit her job with included housing arrangements.

browny1Nov. 21 12:44 pm JSTMagnus - any links to your statement "practically all schools have both" - and we're talking about toilets freely available for all students to use.

No link, but about 20 years ago I had the pleasure of attending a public high school in Ibaraki, over the year visiting many other schools for sports events and festivals. I never saw a toilet without a western toilet.

Regarding new constructions there isn't any cost benefit to choose honey buckets vs seated toilets, but it's a bit of a moot point as schools are generally demolished rather than built because of the lack of students in the rural districts.

Practically all of them have both types. Usually there will be one or two western style stalls and several of the traditional type.

The squatting toilets are still popular and I don't think they're really refurbishing all public schools for the sake of ALTs. :p