OMGhontoni comments

I find children being treated as property as disgusting.

Ah, I think that just answered my question. And yet time and again you support the ones behaving like this and condemn the ones who just want to be able to love and parent their kids.

Japan DOES allow dual nationality of children up to the age of 22. By age 20 you need to have started thinking about what you are going to do, and by age 22 the process needs to have been finished one way or the other.

My children all have 2 passports, and when you apply for a japanese passport for a child you have to tick a box and say where the additional passport is from. Never been an issue for us.

Yuri - simple question: do you think it is wrong for Japanese women to deny their loving non-violent ex-husbands access to their children?

She doesnt deserve to see her daughter, but that would be detrimental to the daughters interests, Mr Garcia recognises this and is allowing Mother-daughter contact because HE IS putting the daughters needs first. Im sure he would love to tell her to take a hike, but that would not be in Karinas interests.

Yuri your blinkered view of this case is astonishing! The Mother brought this entirely on herself. And what kind of person even appeals visitation rights??! She is even being given visitation rights by Mr Garcia in the US despite everything she has done which is FAR more than can be said for her. This has nothing to do with "America" and "money" and everything to do with her breaking the law. Thank God he DID have the money to fight this, otherwise thanks to the Japanese system yet ANOTHER child-parent alienation will have been complete.

The whole announcement by the Osaka court that "she is now settled in America and bringing her back to Japan would not be in her best interests" sounds like nothing more than face-saving to me and is truly pathetic. Face-saving is not important when a childs life (not literally but lifestyle) hangs in the balance. But at least it is done now.

When I read the headline I got excited and thought maybe another case had been given in the LBPs favour but sadly no, just this one still, and as the article says it was an anomaly because the woman was stupid enough to return to US soil. I find it interesting that she didnt want to live in the US, didnt want anything to do with the childs father - but still wanted to keep her green card?! She got greedy and that was her mistake.

I wish they would change the law to allow consensus between doctors and relatives to turn off these machines. If 3 separate doctors and the family agree there is very little chance of abuse.

A relative of ours is languishing in a hospital bed right now with a massive stroke (who the hell puts a patient on Warfarin and then doesn`t monitor them for 10 years anyway??!). There is absolutely no chance of recovery, and she has been there for 4 months now. It is a massive burden on the hospital, the immediate family (our cousins) and I would say the patient herself. Let her go.

The clue is in the title: "Japans FIRST shag bar" - so it cant be the other meaning, there are plenty of those around already!

I wouldnt want this womans job. You could never pay me enough to have smoke blown in my face all night, even if it is apple flavored. At the risk of sounding bitchy too (and I apologise if I do but the article keeps pushing the "classiness" of the place) she doesnt look classy to me, in a tank top and tattoo. Sexy yes, definitely, but not classy.

I am a toy show widow this week!

4 month olds cry in the night. It is what they do. Im sure people will be bleating on about how "stressful" it is being a new parent. Yes, it is. So get on with it, get through it and do your best, like any other normal functioning human being. There is NO excuse for this. None whatsoever. The very thought of that poor baby crying out for food, or comfort, and getting punched to death for his troublesby his own Father just makes me feel sick. There are so many words I want to type, but the mod will delete the post as offensive, so I will just leave it at that

My heart goes out to the family of this little one. I hope they get some comfort at this dreadful time with the knowledge that their selfless actions will have saved the lives of several other people.

after bouts with various ailments

diplomatic to the end.

Don't see the need for this project.

Dont see the...really??! Cmon Godan - isnt it obvious??! Amakudari is drying up in the nuclear field these days after all the bad press, and these boys in Nagatacho need somewhere to play once they are put out to pasture. Those lucrative cushy posts dont come free you know. You have to do a bit of networking here, put in a few good words there, hand over a few heavy industry construction projects to companies to invent what has already been invented, and so on.

Yes, I get that Canada and various other places have already got this technology, but dont you realise that Japanese radiation is differentto western radiation??!

Wrinkly love - sweet.

???!!! They are 45 and 51! Hardly "wrinkly"!

I would add - if a dear old friend of mine was hospitalized, I would be visiting them regularly. Doesnt mean I am shagging them. Just means I am kind and considerate!

Why the suggestion of scandal, using words like "love affair" and "confront"? Are one or both of them married?

@mirai: ideal in theory, often not possible in practice. For starters, what if there are no family living near you? What about all the many cases of child abuse we hear about at the hands of the childs own Mother or Father? What about Mothers who simply need a break from being on call 24/7? Yes, I "throw" my 2 year old into daycare for 2 hours, once or twice a week. So sue me. I like to be able to pee by myself, have a cup of coffee, relax and recharge just once a week. Not really too much to ask given that my husband is out the door at 7am and not back till 10pm plus every day, is it?

It does sound like you lived next to a bad hoikuen though. I have never ever in my 8 years of experience seen a teacher in our daycare even smelling of smoke, never mind actually smoking.

Poor woman must have been terrified. Glad this one ended relatively peacefully.

Well said Christina. Im all for free spech, but not cowardly hiding behind annonymity to spread slander and cause emotional distress for nothing more than kicks. There is a world of difference between "I hate the government" and the example I posted above (a genuine comment from a news report of a child mauled to death by a dog). And at the moment news websites and social networking sites are doing very little about it and need to be made to take more responsibility.

@paulinUSA - what is it referring to then? Because if comments like "Your brat deserved to die, I know who you are and you and your family are all scum" (for example) are not trolling, then I dont know what is.

You got it realteacher!

Daycare (in my experience) are fabulous, but the approach in kindergarten is different and much more "preparatory" for elementary school. In my sons old daycare kids of 5, 6, nearly 7 years old are still made to have a lunchtime nap! It is convenient for the teachers, but absolutely not age-appropriate for the kids. Combning the two would have meant that the older kids would have been treated more like, well, older kids. This will happen too late for my kids anyway, but am disappointed. :( Although not entirely surprised.

Good. I read yahoo UK news often, and some of the comments on there just fill me with disgust. No-one is safe, not even children who have tragically died in accidents. There are some very sad low lifes out there.

When you have over 300 of those videos that must go beyond titillation and into the realms of addiction. Whatever the cause, I agree - man should not be working with children. Do they have a register here? In the UK these days you can barely walk your own child to school without getting police clearance first.

The very fact that they are deporting him before the retrial shows they know his innocence.

Now I am interested in who the real killer is, AND whether the guys that perverted the course of justice and stole 15 years of this mans life are going to be punished at all.

Real teacher you remind me of me before my kids entered the system. I used to say exactly the same things. Just wait until they are there, and then decide. My kids both love sports day and have a fabulous time. Of course, being one of over 2000 parents armed with recording equipment and crammed into a not-fit-for-purpose schoolyard for 7 blisteringly hot hours with armed PTA rottweilers on patrol is a whole other matter...

@kwatt:

.....This kind of crime happens very often. That's why Japan is a very dangerous country.

Ah, ok, my mistake. I thought you were just being sarcastic in your first post!

I feel so sorry for the crowds who must have witnessed this. What a horrible, traumatic thing to have had to see. Is there any news on the victims? I am guessing the 42 year old was maybe a husband and father of young children? Perhaps the woman in her 60s was a Mother and Grandmother? How awful for the families that their loved ones were cut down so randomly and viciously like this.

You go to a party with a gun and start an argument, you are obviously planning to do something. if you cant get hold of a gun you will find something else to use instead. This Pandoras Box was opened when guns were invented in the first place, and there is no putting them back in again now.

What a tragic loss of young life this is over a "female". Like there is ever a good reason to kill someone, but over a girl??! These kids were like 20 years old! What a terrible waste.

Zen Student - I think kwatt was being sarcastic actually and having a dig at people who would say things like that!

I dont think Japan is necessarily any better or worse than anywhere else in the world in terms of crime, but I do think the support for mental illness is very lacking. But even if they did provide the very best of care and treatment, they still have to remove the stigma of even admitting there is a problem in the first place and going for help. Unfortunately as has been seen many times over, you can deny deny deny there is a problem, but it has to come out, and one way or another it will, sometimes with tragic consequences.

If people actually walked/rode around like they werent in some kind of bubble, none of this would be necesary in the first place.

What % of this guys life to date has been spent in sole control of his childrens childcare reins? Just curious...

To have gone through everything they have, only to be wiped out like this. Very sad. RIP

Great ideas, bring it on!

carpboy - I understand your frustrations, but in the last few years they have at least managed to get restaurants to segregate smoking and non-smoking areas, albeit not very well in places. Baby steps. This can only be good news.