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Posted in: Asians to travel more within Asia as downturn hardens See in context

This helps the Asian economy, for sure, but Japan is still the most expensive country to travel in Asia and one of the most expensive in the world. So, I don't think other Asians will save any more money by vacationing in Japan than in Europe or North America.

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Posted in: Passengers see improvements in U.S. airline services See in context

Well, yes, for whatever it's worth, all top ten airlines of 2009 picked by the World Airline Awards were from Asia and Oceania:

http://www.worldairlineawards.com/index.htm

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Posted in: Kim wins gold, Ando takes bronze, Asada 4th at world figure skating championships See in context

I think the whole Japanese-Korean controversy may have started because the Korean word "ilbu" for "some" or "part" is similar to the Korean word "ilbon" for "Japan". But, neither SBS (the Korean TV station responsible for first airing the story) nor Kim specifically named any specific nationality. During the warm-ups or practices at international competitions there are skaters from several countries who naturally get in each other's way, so it's not a problem only between the Korean and Japanese skaters.

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Posted in: Kim wins gold, Ando takes bronze, Asada 4th at world figure skating championships See in context

"I was thinking about being a champion again, but instead of thinking about that, I needed to have concentrated on completing my elements," said Asada, who had clearly been crying. - The Associated Press, 03/28/09

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Posted in: Kim wins gold, Ando takes bronze, Asada 4th at world figure skating championships See in context

It's also great for both Kim and coach that this even was where it was.

Meaning?

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Posted in: Kim wins gold, Ando takes bronze, Asada 4th at world figure skating championships See in context

I heard that Mao's ankle was tender entering the competition, so she wasn't in her top shape. But, Kim competed injured in the world competitions, in the past, too, and suffered losses to Mao. Kim obviously had the best night of her career yet, while it just wasn't Mao's night. She's naturally Korea's new heroine for lifting the spirit of Koreans after their disappointment from Korea's WBC loss. Congratulations, Yu-na Kim!

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Posted in: Ichiro won't talk about jealous teammates, divisive clubhouse See in context

Anyway, for anyone who wants to jump on me for this, I just want to clarify that I am against ANYONE, ANYWHERE who says, "I won't learn the (target) language, because I am (nationality)", and that goes double for foreigners who come to Japan. Language is a key to culture. Being unable to learn it is one thing, refusing to even try is just plain insulting.

Well, then you should be against most Americans and other English-speaking nationalities who believe that non-English-speaking natives must learn to speak English to them in countries where English is not the primary or, even, secondary language.

Moderator: Back on topic please.

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Posted in: Why I’m bullish on Japan See in context

Maybe being bullish is a bit too optimistic, but, this time around, Japan may indeed recover before other advanced economies, including and especially the U.S.

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Posted in: Geithner unveils sweeping overhaul of U.S. financial system See in context

teleprompter, nope, it's still too early to take that title away from the Bush/Cheney Administration and give it to the Obama's.

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Posted in: Man held for punching 50-yr-old woman on Saitama train over playing games on cell phone See in context

Ando admitted to assaulting the woman but told police there’s not much he can do about the crowded trains.

In other words, he wasn't really trying to punch the lady, but, rather, she got in the way of his arm that he stretched to be more comfortable inside the packed train.

But, surely, the Japanese are the most orderly and well-mannered people on Earth, aren't they? This must have been a rare, isolated incident.

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Posted in: Why I’m bullish on Japan See in context

But every country faces harsh fiscal realities as the cost to combat the crisis mounts. In the end, public debt will have to be paid back by the people and by the returns generated on national assets. Japan’s technology base and its powerful diligent workforce should bring high returns.

But, that's precisely the problem, if those R&D don't translate to exports, it won't do much good for Japan whose econonmic survival is so critically dependent on her exports. How about Japan and other Asian countries investing in becoming more economically self-sufficient? Or, even, becoming less dependent on the West for trades and trading more among themselves in Asia to be more robust against the economic downturns in the West that would hurt their exports?

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Posted in: Japan goes into crisis mode for possible N Korea missile launch See in context

I wonder if Japan has much to gain politically from it's overreaction to NK as NK itself has from the launch. Probably does.

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Posted in: What should the international community do if North Korea launches a rocket? See in context

OssanAmerica, it's hard to believe that of all Korea's neighbors, Japan would not be the one most nervous about unified Korea. While China, Russia, and USA may be concerned from their international power politics perspective, they do not have any real reason to fear unified Korea as an economic threat to any of them. For Japan, however, unified Korea may someday threaten it economically as an even more powerful rival, so it's not the same. In short, Japan is probably the country which would really oppose the unification of the two Koreas more than any other country in the world.

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