mikemiro comments

I'm an insulin dependent diabetic living in Japan & have been using a glucometer for over 25 years. I don't get what is so special about this meter. I use a Freestyle Lite manufactured by Abbott Labs & my meter has several features/functions that are great - such as it measures by blood glucose level in 5 seconds & it requires very little blood to measure your glucose level. I don't see either of these qualities mentioned for this meter - only that it is made by a Japanese pharma co. I hope doctors don't start prescribing an inferior blood monitor just because it is made in Japan. Japanese companies are much further behind in diabetic treatment innovation than Euro/ N.Am pharmas are. I worry that the med community will adopt a "well, its Japanese, so it must be better for Japanese people" mentality. Kind of like, "Olympus is Japanese, so it must be being run properly" way of thinking...

I'm not sure I understood this... TEPCO will charge 10,000 yen per meter in order to reduce TEPCO's workforce & reduce TEPCO's costs?

I am glad that they are hitting up the corporations with an increase. How often do I pass shops in Tokyo with the AC blasting & the doors wide open cooling the sidewalks & streets outside? That & all the neon blazing everywhere is such a ridiculous waste of energy, I think its about time these senseless Japanese businesses got hit in the pocketbooks. I just hope that household consumers aren't hit up with an increase as people seem to be careful about energy use, though I'm sure an increase is also coming for them unfortunately.

Today its a Namahage (Ogre) costume... in 20 years she'll be wearing a maid costume. It's part of the natural progression from childhood to adulthood in Japan, don'tcha know.

what a lousy article! Nowhere does it state Japan's sovereign debt rating (which is S&P / Fitch AA- & Moodys Aa3) already below that if the US & France) to give readers a way to compare where Japan sits relative to the EU economies Noda is referring to. Half-arsed journalism to match the arsed-govt bureaucracy we residents have to deal with. What gets me is that Noda puts the repayment burden on all taxpayer's - including low income earners - and has absolutely no plan to cut the massive spending currently used for the huge govt bureaucracy & continued pork-barrel construction projects.

why did the idiot "admonish" the guy? He's probably like the old guy that got his head done in after giving another guy grief for crossing on a red light. People should keep their mouths shut - else they'll end up with a fist in it...