mrkobayashi comments

Smith in Japan, reading comprehension :

The loss of Honda is a setback for the second-place Victory, who have drawn their past two matches without their marquee player after winning six in a row in the Australian league.

The former AC Milan player co-leads the Victory with five goals this season, is tied for second in the league with assists (three), and also leads the club in chances created (21).

Interfere is an interesting choice of words. More like elbowed.

gap between minimum wage and the poverty line

Well, they are working on it. Minimum wage has gone up every year for the past several years. In Tokyo it has increased 10% in the last 3 years, from 850 yen to 932 yen. At this pace it will definitely hit the 1000 yen mark before 2020.

striking a Cristiano Ronaldo-style pose in celebration.

Silly me, I thought he was dabbing.

Are there any clean sports?

som14some, Nishikori made around 30 million dollars last year according to Forbes, so I don't think you need to worry about his earnings.

Some4some, this is not Ai's first medal in the Olympics. She's gotten silver before. And she hasn't been competing on the international level for "decades" as she's only 27

Don't worry Smith, as of this morning Japan is 3rd both in gold medals and total medals

Since 1998, Seoul, I think Japan has only out-performed South Korea once (2004 Athens).

Interesting that you are always so keen on comparing Japan with S.korea. Anyway, for the last 3 (summer) Olympic games Japan and S.korea have been good rivals, with Japan getting 100 medals to S.korea's 89. I hope both countries will perform to the best of their abilities and hopefully bring home some medals.

umbrella, didn't you say the yen would crash last year? You were saying something like 140 yen to the dollar? And didn't you say you made "millions" as an FX trader? How's all that going for you?

I thought pokemon was for kids.

Violence is not the answer.

At most festivals nowadays it's just catch and release. It's also a good time to teach kids about the responsibility of being a pet owner.

The stupidity and lack of patience of some parents is astounding. This POS should never have procreated.

Despite knowing that there had been some kind of an emergency

I hope she is fired.

Disgusting. What is the world coming to.

Losing to an unseeded player is always tough. Sure he can bounce back.

Alistair, I subscribe to the Nikkei and I have never seen such an ad. Perhaps you read sports "newspapers?"

Papi : Nittsuu, Yuupakku, Yamato, Sagawa, Pelican, Kangaroo to name a few.

A decrease of 6% compared to a population decrease of 0.2%. Sounds great, especially considering suicide rates are highest in the plus 50 age group. This is a positive trend for Japan

Aaron has his swagger back. Packers will win.

the tournament leaves a bitter taste in my mouth due to the blatant ethics violations by host Japan.

This coming from koreans is hilarious. Remember the mysterious air conditioning incident at the last world athletic championships? How about the ridiculous boxing outcomes?

"If they have the best players". The US team does not. Japan does

Sorry, I disagree. Japan's best players are in the MLB. None of them are playing this time. I seriously don't recognize half the players on the team.

Papi, thanks for the links. Very informative. However, from the links I found that a 1996 study found 4% of female high school students had engaged in some form of enjo kosai (including "telephone club") but I couldn't find the 13% figure. I skimmed through many pages but could you point out which link and which page you got the number from? I appreciate your concern and interest in Japan even though you don't live here anymore.

The only problem I find with Mao is that she often starts off strong like this and then flubs it later

Actually, no. Since 2003, Mao has been in first after the short program 30 times. She remained in first place after the free skate 25 times.

Allowing a baserunner in every inning is not the way to win. Hope SK bounces back. Congrats to the Japanese team.

I also watched PORCO ROSSO once, and that was a nice cartoon too... but... then I felt intellectually dirty and had to go upstairs and read a book

Let me guess .... Da Vinci Code?

I will never, ever take my daughters to India.

First of all, Japanese people do no belong to one single ethnic group. Second, the whole "we cannot easily absorb foreign cultures / people" argument is a cop out.

Smith, your statement is nonsense.

Japan has always been a land of immigrants

Really. The Jomon people are known to have been living here since 30,000 BC. According to a study of DNA among Japanese men, "approximately 43% modern Japanese men carry a Y-chromosome of Jomon origin." It's true that the Yayoi people are said to have come from China and they account for a large amount of the population in the Kyushu and Chugoku areas. Nowadays most Japanese are a mix of Jomon and Yayoi.