Mookoo comments

Another kitchen knife incident?! They need to stop selling the ones with the pointy end, and start replacing them with the kiddy cook knives with the rounded blunt end, and the cute Miffy the Bunny images.

Instead of cash-for-clunkers, Japan could do cash-for-knives...

The cops probably didn't expect much, or any, resistance or fight from a guy in his mid-70s. Likely they got took by surprise.

The application and interview process for police officers in Japan favor those with strong right-wing political views. Not your quiet, run-of-the-mill sheep that you normally find in daily life. The vocal minority. Shared politics with the uyoku, and a lot of connections to the underworld. While some of the more embarrassing failures have made the news lately, there are still plenty who could take on a gang of JT keyboard jockeys with one hand tied behind their back!

The onlookers were other bosozoku and chimpira...not like they're gonna help the police!

Well SM, most folks only have the option of watching the interpreted version of NHK News, or reading the stories here, which tend to be real light on details (as are the source Kyodo News stories). So, they mouth off without having much info at all. Seems to be human nature. In gereral, I sure like the police here a lot more than I do back in the old country.

Since the gangs here are linked to politics, and thus the police, things will not change. The gangs are every bit as in charge as the cops are.

Funny thing is, her homeroom teacher at school will probably be held more responsible than the parents. Teacher is always called first when kid gets into trouble, whether it's the police calling or anyone else. Guess those morality classes can't replace a good home environment...

There are local laws in most areas of Japan that make it a crime for an legal adult (those of you 20 and older) to have carnal relations with anyone under 18. Remember that.

He's in for it now! Ruined their nap-on-the-job box...

Many of those "kids" are 14-going-on-24. They know they can get away with minimal repercussions should the excrement hit the senpuki.

In Japan, Rohypnol does not include the dye used in other countries. It is routinely prescribed to those who want a strong sedative to help fall asleep (as a sleeping pill). You can ask for it by name, and get a prescription filled very quickly and easily.

Vegetarianism beyond the budgets of many Japanese?!

Tofu, miso, nattou, and many other soy products are plentiful and cheap.

The moral of the story is to listen to Bob Barker - have your pets spayed or neutered.

PETA kills animals like any other shelter. The sad fact is that shelters take in far more animals than they are able to place in new homes, or rehabilitate and adopt themselves. Go to any animal shelter in any country, and unfortunately they get more strays and abandonments than they can possibly help. Sooner or later, severely injured or traumatized animals must be put down. It is a terrible thing for those in care of the rescued animals, but there are constantly more and more rescues coming in, and limited space and resources. Animals in extremely poor condition from a whole host of factors will have to regrettably be put down. It is a real testament to the volume of animals coming in constantly and never-endingly.

I think part of the problem is that people want a lot of very cheap meat, and are now used to that being reality. Industrial agriculture needs to treat animals like units of production, rather than living beings, to make lots of cheap meat available. This means treating them very cruelly, and making their short lives nothing but suffering. Nothing wrong with a little meat in the diet, but with diets now full of meat, the methods needed to keep the mountains of meat coming are completely inhumane. And the various growth hormones and antibiotics used to maintain the unnatural volume plays havoc with our health.

Local supply of meat using more traditional methods of raising and slaughtering animals, while not as efficient in terms of factory farming production, is both healthier for the consumer, and kinder to the animals.

Did the factory that makes the plastic food for all the restaurant windows make these lettuce bikinis, too?

Mittsu's pun is better if you imagine someone saying it in a thick Scots accent...think groundskeeper Willie.

Yeah, this kind of thing has happened before...taxi driver agrees to take people halfway across the country, without checking if they can pay. I'm kind of surprised the taxi companies don't have some sort of limit on distance they will travel. Perhaps these stupid and greedy drivers are independents?

Hey Sarge! With a name like that, they ought to let you on base!

Good for you! But, you see, "You" doesn't include the vast majority of JT readers. Let us know if you see Bud for less than 200 yen a can off base, will ya? Thanks.

I've seen it at major supermarkets and liquor store chains for anywhere between 180-198 yen per can. :)

You can sometimes get 24 Bud for $12 on base. Real beer for half the price :)

I doubt many here have practiced or played with knives, either. You can stick or slash someone pretty fast if they are unprepared or unskilled. Being cut dozens of times in an encounter of 10 seconds is rather common. These officers did very well under the circumstances. There are likely few among us who could have done better.

Am going to assume the speedy response was due to the fact that this is in Ginowan which isn't too far away from a number of US bases. An 8-person response is pretty impressive for one liqour store you have to admit.

The speed was due to an alarm installed with the assistance of the police, which suggests setting off the alarm would alert the police directly. If there was a koban or police station near the liquor store, response would naturally be fast. If there were partol cars in the area, response would naturally be fast. There is very little traffic at that hour. Optimum conditions for quick response by the police.

Mookoo, this didn't happen in Tokyo....it happened in Okinawa. And if I'm a cop, amd I see soemone slashing a buddy with a knofe, trust me, the perp is going to get a bullet somewhere so he'll remember it. But, as mindovermater stated, these aren't real cops....more like Keystone Cops...

Yes, Okinawa is quite crowded, too. No need to be firing guns. Yeah, good idea, shoot while the target and your buddies are in constant motion. That'll help! The cops should have perhaps had their batons at the ready, but were good enough to prevent the larger tragedy of losing one of their own or killing the suspect. Kudos.

It's not like the movies where you can shoot a moving target in low light in a densely populated area in just the spot you want and have no collateral damage. Looks like those officers earned their pay Monday morning!

No, it's on a belt of cloth wound around his waist.

Until the parents act responsibly, the children never will. The roots of this problem is in the homes...

Yeah Mittsu, I saw the website. There was a list of around 60 lady politicians from developed countries. As I understand it, the web community in Japan got organized and staged a voting campaign to get their gal to be number one (maybe via 2-channel). No other group of citizens got organized like the Japanese. So, internationally, she's virtually unknown, but in Japan extremely popular (at least as some eye candy).

A lot of flights from Tokyo on JAL. Only three daily flights from Nagoya, and four from Osaka (five if you count the one daily from Itami).

Oh, those who do not like the consul general don't like the way he talks either?! Wow! Newsflash!! I bet those who do like him also like the way he talks...(I'd roll my eyes here if I could). You sure are a master logician...not.

However hard of a time you have believing the economic stats, they are acknowledged by both Japanese and American politicians and academics who work on these issues. The NK problem is nationwide, and has nothing to do with Okinawa specifically. Just a cheap gambit for a losing argument.

Sicilian is dead wrong.

Japan has held Okinawa as a possession since the early 1600s. There have been mainlanders on Okinawa for 400 years. More came in the late 1800s when Okinawa became a prefecture. There are people with mainland surnames that were born and raised in Okinawa. We don't know this man's family history, and assumptions based on his name are likely false.

Okinawans do not have a dislike for the Consul General because of his Japanese ability. Some dislike him as one of his jobs is to put a positive spin on US military activities here. To try and spin the crime associated with the US forces. To coordinate with the embassy in Tokyo. Other Okinawans like him precisely because he can communicate in the local lingo, and does not need to leap to conclusions based on very limited English news clips.

The 5% in the prefectural figures are widely quoted in various reports on Okinawa. They most certainly do include the construction on bases. What do you suppose the category "Tatal (sic) revenues from military-related transactions" on the prefectural website means? Tatal revenues from military-related transactions