Marius2 comments

the alleged authentic documents, written in perfect Japanese and signed by Jesus, were found by Kyomaro Takeuchi, who was employed by the mayor of Shingo. At that time, the mayor had been on a desperate journey to promote his town’s appeal to tourists

Of course, this doesn't stop people in believing what they're doing is something old, traditional and genuine:

like many Japanese customs it is followed merely out of respect for tradition

And sadly, this same blind belief can be seen in so many of the festivals, prayers and whatnot here.

Obviously the wild claim in the article attracts a lot of comments and questions of what's real. Wish people would do the same with so much else here, and not take it at facevalue.

"...bleeding from my throat because they’d gripped me so hard.” Such is the life of one of the few Japanese DJs who can earn their crust on the international touring circuit.

Is this article suggesting being robbed is to be expected when outside of Japan? :/

societymike, what I said (and Davin nicely recapped) is that there are a whole lot not reported.

(example: I've 4(!) friends raped here. 1 said police turned her away, the other 3 said they knew they'd get turned away)

Case in point: there's a lot of crime involving "random acts". But the figures makes Japanese (and, from your post) NJ alike believe things are different.

Moderator: Stay on topic please.

I used to wonder if these types of news never shows in Japanese media outlets, since Japanese generally like to repeat phrases such as being peaceful and non-prone to crime unlike foreigners.

After a few years here and being able to read Japanese news I know such isn't the case.

Why do people insist on Japan being non-violent? Are they're stating stats, perhaps? Granted, they are lower. But from both looking at cases, hearing people (for example, raped) being turned away from filing reports, or simply downplaying the crime ("abandoning body" comes to mind). All this, and reading articles such as this one, makes me more and more certain that crime here is just as great as elsewhere.

Or are they just repeating what they've been told, and brought up to believe?

Reading articles like these doesn't only make me sick of the crime (I will pray for this girl to heal tonight, both physically and mentally), but also of all the people I hear smugly displaying some superiority when claiming to be holier and more peaceful than you.

Food carving is Japanese now, and not traditionally Chinese?

The way of the curry...