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It is terrible how a person gets five years for robbing a 7/11 for 10,000 but a person stealing 100,000,000 yen from a financial institution or evades tax is given two.

White collar crime is treated too weakly, that is why we have places like Panama doing what they do.

This guy doesn't have to worry about the reactors as he is the governor of Tokyo. I wonder how many nuclear power stations there are in his prefecture- probably zero.

Feel sorry for the governors of Niigata and Fukushima- they have to deal with this mess while Inose goes all the wonderful celebratory parties.

watch how the streets of Tokyo be paved with gold. watch out how over budget they go and how much of the spending is hidden. i wonder at what stage the nuclear reactors in fukushima- will they be taking the rods out around then?

what a ridiculous title...

Work to satify your own needs, not the needs of others.

The Japanese word "shigoto" has two parts one is "serve others" and the other is "thing". I think that it is a good example of how our lives are dictated to by others around us and the social values we are expected to conform to.

When will people realise that having lots of things will not make us happy. Modern humans may be pyhsically healthy but how about mentally?

OzKen. The so called left wing nuts were all fired about 20 years ago. What is left are those who are prepared either to sell their souls or are already right wing. I often wonder if the ABC is really all that left wing either. Murdoch has been pulling the strings of too many politicians for too long and firing those real journalists until what is left is a very sorry state.

no surprise....

Another decision for whom no-one will be at FAULT when something does happen, except the general public that is. the general public will have to pay for the FAULTS. "Has been 120,000 years since the last movement"- sounds like time for a FAULT to move.

There are also a lot of kids who have serious problems with computer games. It is very sad to see the at the park sitting on benches with their heads down playing. Do we need to have computer game parks? Sad. But it doesn't only apply to Japan.

I feel sorry for the locals but does this warrant 15 minutes of prime time NHK news? There are much greater problems out there to cover.

And some people call this culture which needs protecting. I wonder what UNESCO would say.

something Japan can be proud of. all things can be improved but hope they don't go too far.

yippee. prices up and salaries down. might influence my wife to leave the place sooner rather than later.

People from every country carry the burden of the history and hence the cultures of the countries in which they were born. The amount of cultural burden which they carry varies from person to person. Japan is a country in which individual values have been supressed for hundreds of years for the sake of the group. What has emerged as a result is a person who has much of the values which are described in the article above. This individual is not a natural person in which there is no difference between the external and internal. This individual openly acts as a responsible member of society to get acceptance and various rewards but inwardly may have values which are actually on the contrary. The greatest trouble I have with Japan is that the gap between the outward individual and inward individual is so great. Many of the traits described above may be true but there always seems to be a very big BUT to each one.

VAIN- why do they always have to compare themselves with China. be happy in who you are. outer beauty is more important than the interior. REGIMENTED- have been disciplined in the military way since they were children and explains the lack of individual thinking and how they follow the herd

this guy needs a shoe up his private parts!

Get a life! Japan could NEVER defend itself. If a war came it would be either carved up between Russia and China or become a vassal state of another country other than the US. It has no resources, and is reliant on being supplied by sea. It has to sell its' soul by having American marines in Okinawa. The Chinese miliary may be big now but wait see what would happen if it came down to a real fight. Germany found out at its' expense when they took on Russia. Japan would find out the same thing if they tried to take on China. The status quo, although it might not sound great and Abe may have to put away some of his pride, is the best. It doesn't mean that Marines have to be in Okinawa, however.

By the way there are no winners for the general populations of either countries when war does happen. Just losses for everyone- human losses.

what does Tommy Lee Jones think of smap. they are only part of a marketing bandwagon.

why read this news- we feel sorry for Tommy Lee.

the ad would be better off without them in it. makes me sick just thinking about it.

this company has people with a long history of lies and denial- the biggest one is that the Japanese nuclear industry would never have an accident. wonder what the next one will be.....

The leader of the Catholic Church is the leader of an organisation with a terrible record of hiding child sexual abuse. The leader of China is the leader of a one party state. The leader of Mexico is the leader of a country will thousands dead through drug violence. The leader of Japan is the leader of a party trying to destroy indvidual rights.

It doesn't matter what the leader thinks. What matters is how the organistion acts. The Catholic Church and Mexico may be trying to change things but I see little from the other two.

A true leader doesn't seek to impose his ideas on others. He rather listens to the people around him and makes the RIGHT decisions. Not decisions based on nepotism, greed, and self interest but rather those based on the interests of society as a whole both domestically and overseas.

I don't see how Abe fits into this leader category at all. Only history can tell and right now this article is far to early.

It is easy to be cynical about this but at least they are prepared to accept the courts decision and get on with things. There may be a treaty but it doesn't mean that things are written in stone.

Love your quote Samurai Blue "Another point to point out is the comparison between Japan and the Nazis, Japan did not have any systematic genocide program against any race and did not target any race in particular." They just wiped out anyone who they came across as they though that they were superior to all races and this was sufficient excuse to wipe out any one who opposed them. Take a look at Wikipedia and what it says about what has been referred to as the "Asian holocaust:

"the Japanese slaughtered as many as 30 million Filipinos, Malays, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Indonesians and Burmese, at least 23 million of them ethnic Chinese."

There are many cases, such as the "Manila massacre" in which at least 100,000 people were killed, of which most people are unaware and have been conveniently swept under the carpet to allow for trade relationships.

the same thing is true of many Japanese corporations and their window dressing of their annual reports. Look at the sad case of Nikon(?). The board hid billions in debts through dodgy deals. It also applies to the bureacrat world I would assume.

have seen the light twice and never thought that it was anything religious. Knew there was an explanation for it all along. Am glad I know what it is.

Says a lot for the future of rice consumption in Japan and the future of the rice industry. People just aren't eating rice like they used to. There is a lot more choice out there than there used to be. Why have rice three meals a day when there are plenty of other foods which taste just as good. Variety is the spice of life. Wonder what spices they will be putting on their pizzas?!

does this make the crime news level?

was a while back but still recall the red eyed bus driver taking them to stay awake. seems there is a fair bit of local demand unfortunately.

millenia would be more appropriate. it also describes how long it will take for tepco to get out of their holes and take responsibility.

A Japanese person told me that the military is really to control the citizens of a country and when I see countries like China, N Korea and now Egypt I understand his reasoning. What does Japan have that is worth attacking. It has little resources- perhaps rice?

One wonders just how sincere the apologies which the Japanese have given are as such.