Monkeyz comments

Most drug names are written in katakana. I don't think there's going to be much confusion there.

We're talking about people who are giving medicine, taking blood pressure, and turning people over in bed. We aren't talking about brain surgeons--who may need to know all sorts of terminology that laypeople wouldn't know.

I've stayed in a hospital before. The conversations I had with the nurse were along the lines of, "How are you feeling today? Do you have any pain?" Normal stuff. And they still made mistakes with my meds. Even though there was no language barrier.

If nurses can do their job adequately, I'm not sure what the problem is. I would rather have a non-native nurse than no nurse at all.

I feel bad for the woman--if you were pregnant, alone, and scared, Japan is probably one of the worst places to be. Maybe she was homeless, maybe she was single and trying to scrape by, heck, maybe she even still lived with her parents and she was afraid of what they would say. I don't think anyone just says, "You know what? I've carried this baby for 9 months, but when that sucker comes out, I'm totally going to drown it." They do things like this out of desperation because they don't know what else to do or where to turn to.

Have a little empathy. It's a fine, human characteristic to possess.

GIving birth in Japan (and abortion, for that matter) is prohibitively expensive, but the baby's coming out whether you have the cash or not. Generally, women in Japan don't have the social power to properly negotiate sexual situations, and a lot of contraceptive choices remain out of reach if you don't have the cash. Until Japan takes women's health seriously (instead of thinking of it all as a cash grab "self-inflicted condition") and until they start realizing that the result is babies in toilets ... well ... we're going to continue seeing babies in toilets. Baby hatches like the one in Kumamoto would be a good start. A little bit of charity and human emotion wouldn't hurt either.

I think one of the problems is that there's just so much porn out there in Japan and hardly any stigma about going out there and getting what you want that these guys don't learn any sort of impulse control. They want to get their rocks off and want to do it how they want to do it. It doesn't even occur to them that it might be a bad idea or that they might actually get caught.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: The length of the skirt makes no difference. Guys will walk around with cameras in their shoes to get an upskirt pic if they have to. (No, I'm not making stuff up. This is a real thing.) More and more I see miniskirts with little shorts attached or stores selling bloomers that you can wear under miniskirts, so going after the girls in the micros isn't even going to be an option half the time unless you want to see lots of black spandex. The way these guys operate, just about any skirt above the knee will do as long as it has some flare to it.

I've tried just about every time a girl is wearing a miniskirt in front of me on the stairs or escalator to see if I could glimpse her briefs (especially since all the guys on here claim they see panties all the time), and have determined that all of that is just wishful thinking. I have yet to see anyone's underwear. If you're taking pics of it, you're trying to take pics of it.

I had a student who said he had yakuza friends who set up sham marriages (he was a weird dude, so it didn't surprise me). It's a way to get girls from China and the Philippines into Japan "legally" so they can work with no problem. If you're going to have girls working in jobs that will generally get foreign workers deported, it helps to make them somewhat un-deportable, I guess. That's the thinking behind it.

@paul Since you asked and I'm feeling literal today, it's マックフルーリー.

Accidents happen at school and at home. Sometimes people die. Sometimes they don't. You don't necessarily have to be grossly negligent for an accident to happen. One kid shrieks at one side of the pool and everyone's eyes go over there, meanwhile something bad happens on the other side. Just as an example.

And really, are we doing the, "Moms need to stay home all the time" business again? Just from experience I know there are people who want kids but don't find babies or toddlers terribly interesting. Being stuck at home with them 24/7 would have been mind-numbing. If a woman is forced to stay home anyway and winds up abusing or killing the kids (which happens more often than drownings at kindergartens), what excuse are you going to make for why your "being a SAHM is better always" theory?

Good to know that some people are still living in 1950.

I think this is a splendid idea. Last times I flew there were just oodles and oodles of tiny tots, and I wound up spending 10+ hours with babies in my vicinity. I already don't really like babies (noisy, smell funny, etc.) and of course they all had problems mid-flight. One mom had to spend the whole 5 hour flight bouncing her baby around while pacing the aisle. She was only ever seated during take off and landing. The kid just would not stop screaming.

Even a slightly soundproof room would be better than moms changing their kids in the seats and having to soothe the kids in the aisle where there's only enough room for one person to walk around. I bet a lot of people would be happier to fly with an airline that had a "screaming kid" room. Stick a security camera in it and have an attendant pop in every so often ... probably would be fine.

My only problem with any of this is that I flew Malaysian once (LA to Tokyo) and there was a smoking section. If they've gotten rid of that in the last 12 years, maybe I would use them again. Enduring 11 hours of cigarette smoke wasn't so great. So if it's gone, I just need to figure out how to afford first class.

Frungy makes a very good point.

It's something that always bugs me in TV/movies. The assailant strangles/smothers the victim and the victim struggles. The victim goes limp suddenly, and it's assumed that the victim is dead. (Kind of like how people who get shot are automatically dead, someone who gets punched is automatically knocked out, etc.) People don't usually just die that easily. They'll fall unconscious before they actually DIE.

I guess it's possible that he strangled her so violently that he crushed her windpipe. In which case ... well, he deserves whatever he gets.

If he had just smothered her with a pillow hoping to keep her quiet and she'd died, he might have a better case. Of course, it would also be way more likely that she would be alive. But after holding her against her will and raping her, is it likely at all that he would have let her live? If I had to make a guess, I would say that there was no way she was getting out of there alive. :/

How original-the Hate Brigade is out to bash a woman's appearance.

I am sooo shocked.

Because I'm sure Lady Gaga gives a rat's patootie what you think about her.

I'm not a Gaga fan, but I do appreciate what she has done for Japan. I don't necessarily agree that Japan is a great place to be visiting at the moment, but kudos to her anyway.

Oh boy, a lot of "woman driver" jokes. Those were old fifty years ago. I have personally never known a female driver as bad as the male drivers I've known.

Good on Saudi women for standing up for themselves. It's about time that they pick away at these little rules that keep them down. I bet it's hard, though, knowing that you could suffer serious consequences just for driving.

And no, a ban on driving doesn't mean they necessarily have no driving experience. You don't know where else they might have lived. Even my tiny hometown occasionally gets Saudi families coming over to study/work at the local uni. In this area, driving is a MUST. Otherwise you're stuck at home, since there's no public transport and nothing is within a reasonable walking distance. I bet educated Saudi women who have worked, lived, and studied abroad have been able to learn how to drive.

Everyone has a double chin when they hold their head in that position. If you don't, you probably have some kind of disorder and should get checked.

Hilary looks good for her age. Women over 60 should gain a little weight. When you're older, you're more likely to fall and break something, and fat helps to cushion the fall.

Also, SHE'S THE SECRETARY OF STATE. WHO TF CARES WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE?? IT DOESN'T FING MATTER. A woman's worth is NOT based on her looks.

Bread machines aren't magic. Someone has to measure the stuff and fill it, take out the bread immediately, clean it ... and they aren't foolproof.

Anyway, yeah, if the wives just up and left, I wonder how the guys would get along. You think your menu sucks now? Most young Japanese men I know can't make anything more than curry (from roux) or spaghetti. Most likely they'd all end up moving back in with their moms, since that's all a Japanese guy wants anyway.

31 is a cougar now?? Good gravy. If he were 39 and she were 51 no one would be saying anything.

As things like this go, a lot of times the moms don't realize what's going on just because they aren't around much. So often in these cases the older woman is working while the young guy is unemployed. It's entirely possible that she barely ever sees the kids due to work.

And if these cases teach us anything, it's not to ever trust a boyfriend to take care of your kids. Ever ever ever. If he isn't killing them, he's beating them up.

@whalemeat

Your comment is pretty naive. Japan has a high conviction rate because A.) a lot of people confess suddenly, and B.) the J-cops torture confessions out of people.

In other words, they convict just about everyone they arrest, and that person confesses--whether they're actually guilty or not.

If you read this site much at all you'd see that killers often are the ones who call the cops (part of that spontaneous confession thing) because they apparently don't realize that killing someone will usually cause them to die. Usually it's something like, "I got angry so I strangled her." Trying to escape/running away like Ichihashi did is unusual.

Women are naturally hairy too, and yet ...

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Less hair, please. Thanks.

Sincerely,

A Woman

(The irony of course, is that shaving/plucking/waxing are all painful in their own ways, and yet women are the ones who are supposed to be tough and manly and deal with the pain. Men are supposed to wuss out and just let it grow. What's up with that?? I vote that being hairy is actually more "weak" and that removing hair is far more "tough.")

A lot of apartment complexes were destroyed, and those did not have storm shelters. Also, a lot of people were killed and injured because it didn't just rip apart homes, but a Walmart, Home Depot, several fast food restaurants, a hospital, etc. etc. It hit in the middle of the evening, when people might not have been at home.

There was a lot of forewarning (I think about 20 minutes) before the tornado hit, but the tornado was so large and slow that it just decimated anything in its path.

I know people who died and people who survived despite the building around them being ripped away. It was a terrible tragedy, and basically your survival depended on where you were when it hit.

Legally in Japan you have to have the same last name unless one of the spouses is a foreigner. Then you can keep whatever name you want.

Especially for celebs, keeping the name is part of keeping the identity you built your career on. But as far as Japanese/foreign marriages, keeping your Japanese surname eliminates the problem of people assuming you're a dirty, dirty foreigner when you're applying for jobs or credit cards or whatever else.

Look!! A female!! I've noticed that these sorts of protestors are overwhelmingly male.

And yeah, totally machine translated. I had a student who wanted to be e-pals. I could tell easily which sentences he'd typed himself and which he machine translated, just because of the odd use of "it."

Because they think their power and prestige means that they won't get caught. It's ego and narcissism, plain and simple. (Double the narcissism in the case of the guys who sexually assault/harass, since they're risking way more than a marriage.)

called the police as if he were a criminal (eventhough they were seeing each other for a year)

Right, maybe because ...

Izaki spent several nights waiting in front of her house.

Being in a relationship with someone does not give them license to stalk you. That you think it does is worrying.

For a country with so many sex crimes, committed by both men and women,

Statements like this create the false image that men and women commit sex crimes in equal numbers. Hardly the case.

There are far to many cases like this, where men in particular are falsely accused by witless young Japanese women.

Really? Are there so many? I hear of far more actual groping cases than false accusations. (In fact, I think this is one of the only false accusations I've heard of.) And in other cases if a woman falsely accuses a guy, that doesn't mean she wasn't groped--it just means she may have gotten the wrong guy.

Some do it deliberately, in order to blackmail Japanese men for money. Others do it out of spite.

Or ... because someone DID grope them and they aren't positive who it was.

Listen to some guys talk and you'd think women were making up sexual assaults all over the place. When, if anything, tons of guys are getting away with it without ever being fingered. Far, far more guilty go free than free become assumed to be guilty.

If she's the youngest of 10, I can't fault her for making money in any way possible. Unless her parents were millionaires, her life growing up was probably not so luxurious and it's possible she had no opportunity to make a good living without using her looks. Maybe she needed to support her family or pay for college or whatever. It's not our place to judge, and there's nothing (generally) immoral about hostessing or gravure modeling.

Anyway, it's sad she gave up on life so soon. If she did have depression, working in entertainment--especially a segment that treats women as disposable objects--couldn't have helped. I wonder how many people have to die before Japan gets with the picture and starts to think about doing more than just installing blue lights on platforms ...

Kichigai--strangely, they omit his place of business, but he could work in retail or delivery or any other business that works 7 days a week regardless of holidays.

I'll say it certainly isn't a good thing to dally with married men, but then again, she's not the one cheating.

Unfortunately for her, a lot of, "Yeah, I'm totally going to get divorced!" is only a line to keep her hanging on, and then, "But you said you were going to get divorced!" sometimes can turn into ... bodies being carried out of apartments in futons. I'm not saying that all men who cheat are potential murderers, but if a guy is going to cheat on his wife and lie to his girlfriend, murder doesn't seem so impossible to fathom. (Speculating a little, but this scenario--lying about impending divorce--happens a lot.)

I hope that all women will take steps to make sure they don't end up like this.

The only steps you can really take to avoid being murdered are to lock yourself in an underground bunker and never come out. If women go out in groups, go out alone, wear oversized sweats, wear sexy clothes, drink alcohol, drink Pepsi, go out in the morning, or go out after dark they can be assaulted, raped, or murdered. The onus is not on women to avoid being murdered or raped. The onus is on men (and it's generally men) to not murder or rape them.

And really, there's no winning. If women are trusting and something bad happens, it's their fault for being so trusting. If women aren't trusting and refuse to go out with strangers, they're horrible bitches for assuming a man would do something bad to them.

Sorry ... just, I get tired of seeing women get raped and/or murdered and then blamed in this way. You don't know that she didn't take every precaution she thought she was supposed to take, but you insinuate that she was careless and wound up dead.

Gotta love how any article about a female celeb doing anything turns into, "But when will you get (re)married???"

I'm no biologist, but I think the animals eat the placenta so that other animals won't smell it and track them down. It's also why cats bury their poo. I'm pretty sure that kitty doesn't go, "Yum, placenta! That's so healthy!"

I was once in a cafe where they had some placenta business you could mix into your drink. It was really expensive and ... just ... no. No no no no no.

I don't really think of myself as being very hot, but I did used to notice sometimes that my coworkers would become extreeeemely dumb around me. And I didn't think gaijin guys liked us non-Japanese ladies so much!

But I've also known guys who expressed that they were attracted and could have very coherent, intelligent conversations. I guess they're a little more evolved.

I think also that Japanese society permits this kind of avoidance of social interaction more than other societies will. Not only is it less peculiar to live with your parents into your 30s, but avoiding other people is pretty much a national pasttime in Japan.

allegedly committed several acts of assault on the infant

So, did he assault her when she was an infant, or is the writer trying to claim that a 2-year-old (a toddler) is an infant?

People who are abused do tend to go on to abuse, but I think the "child of girlfriend" thing doesn't help at all. A lot of people have told me they don't understand how you could love a child not related to you (as in, an adopted child). I would guess it's way easier to abuse a child who isn't yours.

I get that 2-year-olds can be really obnoxious. I do. I cringe at all the people who insist on always calling these kids "angels." But they still don't deserve to be punched or abused or killed. Maybe there should be a parenting class specifically for boyfriends or step-parents. Or mandatory checks from welfare services when there are small children living with single parents. These cases just happen too often.

Safety in numbers.

If you felt too ashamed to report your rape at first, reporting it after 50 or so people have would be far less shameful. And it makes you a little more anonymous. I bet after a certain number came forward, a lot more did as well.

And you have to consider that almost everywhere in the world, culture blames and sometimes punishes women for being raped. Some people believe only a "certain kind of woman" can be raped, that women secretly want to be raped, that if only she had done X or Y it wouldn't have happened, and so on. This not only can lead to rape itself (where men justify their behavior based on these factors) but also leads women to avoid reporting their rapes because they know that they will just be looked down upon and treated poorly, particularly by the police.

The reason men rape is not sexual frustration, but domination and power. Apparently this man was taking advantage of women who were in a more vulnerable position. (I'm not aware of any sociologists who think rape is about sexual frustration ... that would be a pretty outdated idea if there were one.)