Posted in: Eyes on Bank of Japan as unions announce big wage hikes See in context
Taking inflation into account, wages for MOST workers here have been in decline for years. When it comes to the news, personally, my preference is for the unadorned truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
1 ( +1 / -0 )
Posted in: Extension of Hokuriku Shinkansen line opens, boosting tourism hopes See in context
Japan builds infrastructure; America wastes its wealth propping up unconscionable regimes abroad at the expense of doing good at home.
0 ( +12 / -12 )
Posted in: Soccer player Ito sues accusers for ¥200 mil over sexual assault claim See in context
Being falsely accused of rape is an extremely rare event (compared to the actual number of rapes)
As opposed to being truthfully accused? Then why not just say so?
1 ( +1 / -0 )
Posted in: Man gets 20 years for killing woman, dumping her body in Miyagi mountain forest See in context
the crime involved confining the woman for a long period of time in order to force her into prostitution
There a special place in hell reserved for these evil doers.
11 ( +11 / -0 )
Posted in: Nikkei ends at highest level since March 1990 on tech buying See in context
This is telling us that the yen is extremely undervalued and needs to appreciate to sub 100.
5 ( +6 / -1 )
Posted in: Kishida vows 'ceaseless' aid as snow hampers quake relief See in context
Kishida had said on Friday that his government would tap 4.74 billion yen of budget reserves for reconstruction efforts.
It had better be ‘ceaseless’, because the woefully insufficient $35 million he’s just promised, itself less than the paltry $37 million offered to the Ukraine, needs to be ramped up by a factor of ten if there is to be any hope of an expedited recovery.
How about liquidating some of Japan’s vast US Treasury reserves; taking both the huge profit on their purchase cost, and ensuring some much needed currency appreciation to bankroll relief efforts.
-1 ( +0 / -1 )
Posted in: One-third of Japan's unmarried adults under 50 have never dated See in context
23.7 percent of men said having a romantic relationship is a waste of time and money
What do you expect with this kind of utilitarian attitude. It’s not all about YOU, and it’s not all about MONEY.
-2 ( +4 / -6 )
Posted in: S Korea's top court orders 3rd Japanese company to compensate workers for forced labor See in context
1965 agreement Korea. The agreement is clearly a lump-sum settlement agreement with respect to claims arising from Japan’s annexation of Korea from 1910 to 1945.
The 1965 agreement was a travesty from the start. Analogous to the long running joke about the LDP being neither liberal, democratic, nor a party, the 1965 document provided nothing in the way of individual compensation and nix for Korea north of the 38th parallel. The South Korea of 1965 was a vastly different place from now, presided over by a quisling strongman negotiating from a position of weakness.
The seeds of genuine reconciliation are there already and Japan can take partial credit for the flowering of a democratic civil society. Looking at it as a work in progress would be a face saving alternative to the current stubborn intransigence and one-sided insistence that everything was resolved nearly 60 years ago, which it patently was not.
-8 ( +1 / -9 )
Posted in: S Korea's top court orders 3rd Japanese company to compensate workers for forced labor See in context
By forcing it to confront its historical amnesia, Korea is doing Japan a huge service. Japan will fight it tooth and nail, but holding it to account for its depredations on the Korean Peninsula is exactly what Japan needs to normalize.
-11 ( +3 / -14 )
Posted in: Japan’s Revolutionary Alliance of Unpopular People holds anti-Christmas protest in Tokyo See in context
So long as it’s just harmless fun and not a triggering event for desperate and dateless incel types to hurt others. The whole idea of these himote sharing quality commiseration time, as if it’s their preferred status, reeks of cognitive dissonance.
-5 ( +0 / -5 )
Posted in: Japan to spend ¥164.7 bil on 2025 Osaka expo amid public skepticism See in context
We have constructed wooden pyramids, in honor of our escapism.
The concept of affordability can easily be dispensed with when you know that those who are ultimately paying for the boondoggle have been conditioned since birth to be inured to deprivation in all its guises. Kaching kaching; for however long it takes.
-2 ( +2 / -4 )
Posted in: Dogs, antennas and honey for Japan's big bear problem See in context
A bear was reportedly spotted with his waders dangling from its mouth.
Bear 1 Human 0. The next rubber, humans will be out to even the score.
2 ( +5 / -3 )
Posted in: Biden believes U.S. Steel sale to Japanese company warrants 'serious scrutiny' See in context
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Biden’s merely copying our masterful hosts and their second to none record of subjecting to the closest scrutiny foreign economic penetration in all its guises. Japan Inc., we salute you.
-7 ( +2 / -9 )
Posted in: S Korean court orders 2 Japanese companies to compensate wartime Korean workers for forced labor See in context
The people, Government of Japan, today are not responsible, are not remotely accountable, answerable, neither born into, or in any respect the nation recognisable as the Empire of Japan.
Its’s not the people who are being held responsible, but firms with a direct link to that time which profiteered from slave labor. Firms that were cosseted, aided and abetted by politicians then and now, whose myopic inability to see true rapprochement as anything but a zero sum game, does a gross disservice to a nation that is capable of doing so much better, but is held back from doing so.
-12 ( +1 / -13 )
Posted in: S Korean court orders 2 Japanese companies to compensate wartime Korean workers for forced labor See in context
Tens of billions of dollars available to buy up US Steel; yet not a cracker to compensate Korean labourers stiffed during a 50 year occupation of their country. Contrast Japan’s mealy mouthed response to Germany, which has paid, is still paying, and will happily continue paying compensation because it cares about its reputation and the importance of making amends.
-20 ( +3 / -23 )
Posted in: Nippon Steel head says U.S. Steel deal will help Japan's economic security See in context
"The United States has without doubt taken the worldwide lead in securing its economic security," Nippon Steel President Eiji Hashimoto said at an online press conference.
I tried to imagine the situation in reverse, a Japanese steel giant being bought out by the Americans, and the absolute certainty that any Japanese hearing these same words would see nothing but Black Ships, humiliation, and abject surrender.
-3 ( +0 / -3 )
Posted in: Nippon Steel to buy U.S. Steel for $14.1 billion See in context
Remember when America was afraid of Japanese industry taking over the US? Many likely do not as that was a long time ago and a completely different economic era.
If the boot was on the other foot and US Steel was the one wanting to take over a major here……………dream on.
0 ( +0 / -0 )
Posted in: Japan eyes record ¥7.7 tril defense budget for fiscal 2024 See in context
includes outlays for domestic long-range missiles
After last year’s unprecedented 26% increase, now this. A billion here, billion there; pretty soon you’re starting to talk real numbers. Also on the Made-in-USA shopping list, Raytheon Tomahawk missiles and delivery systems, and F35 stealth fighters. I sure hope the peons appreciate what’s being done on their behalf and don’t begrudge another year of sacrifice.
0 ( +0 / -0 )
Posted in: Japan eyes record ¥7.7 tril defense budget for fiscal 2024 See in context
So, let me get this straight. Back in 2017, when Japan’s finances were in much better shape than today, any request that it stump up a greater contribution to the cost of its defence was pilloried as the height of fiscal irresponsibility.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
-4 ( +3 / -7 )
Posted in: 3 ex-SDF members found guilty of sexually assaulting female colleague in landmark case See in context
The court opted to make the best of a bad situation with this face-saving compromise. No penetration means she can still hold her head high when she heads down the virgin road. Although whether that’s as the groom or the bride is open to question.
-10 ( +6 / -16 )
Posted in: Seoul says Japan inaction means 'comfort women' court ruling upheld See in context
In developed countries, the constitution is freely interpreted according to national sentiment, and the Supreme Court judges appointed by the president are able to make decisions as they please. This is not considered a proper judiciary in developed countries.
Quite apart from the tautological contradiction implicit in your formulation, it’s laughable to suggest that president endorsed judicial appointment is somehow qualitatively inferior to Japan’s Cabinet recommended and then ratified at election time by voters who largely haven’t a clue about who they’re being asked to rubber stamp.
-5 ( +0 / -5 )
Posted in: Seoul says Japan inaction means 'comfort women' court ruling upheld See in context
Korea's relatively free judiciary?
What part of ‘comparatively freer judiciary’ don’t you understand?
Japan’s justice system is even more beholden to the machinations of its elite class.
https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a06803/
-7 ( +0 / -7 )
Posted in: Seoul says Japan inaction means 'comfort women' court ruling upheld See in context
Basically it's the South Korean court making a political message violating the core principal of separation of power in which judicial system MUST be free from any bias to maintain a fair trial.
Basically, it’s Japanese sour grapes at the invidious comparison afforded us by Korea’s comparatively freer judiciary and the home team’s own hostage justice system beholden to political machinations.
-13 ( +0 / -13 )
Posted in: Japanese firms pick kanji for 'change' (変) to describe turbulent 2023 See in context
Japan, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
-3 ( +1 / -4 )
Posted in: 9 referred to prosecutors on detainee's death at Aichi police station See in context
Fall afoul of these people at your peril.
0 ( +4 / -4 )
Posted in: Japan's biggest ruling party faction allegedly pooled secret funds, sources say See in context
They threw the funding impropriety book at that Tohoku interloper Ozawa Ichiro, who had the temerity to canvas ideas beyond the pale of what they were prepared to accept. Yet they have zero hesitation in employing the same 金権政治 strategies when they deem it expedient, read stonewalling anything that poses a threat to their oligarchic stranglehold over the nation.
0 ( +6 / -6 )
Posted in: Kishida grilled over alleged gifts to IOC for Tokyo's Olympic bid See in context
Just a fraction of that huge discretionary slush fund would signal, better late than never, that when it comes to priorities, Japan’s heart is in the right place. Sadly, instead of considering the bigger picture, unlike Germany with its open ended reparations and principled rejection of statute of limitations evasiveness, Japan continues to invite opprobrium upon itself.
-4 ( +0 / -4 )
Posted in: Locals use big-city thinking to bring Gunma onsen town back from brink See in context
Some of these dumps, they couldn’t even give away, that’s how bad they are. There needs to be a Government department tasked with restoring the natural environment of these places. With so many eyesores to choose from, Japan could be a world leader in reversing the ugliness that blights its scenic places.
-3 ( +7 / -10 )
Posted in: Japan complains over S Korea's 'comfort women' ruling See in context
Incidentally, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who married a Chinese man…..
Were it even remotely true, his wife of 40 years would definitely have something to say about that.
2 ( +2 / -0 )
Posted in: Japanese workers took 62% of paid leave allocation in 2022: gov't survey See in context
So that means 38% of workers still just don't take paid leave.
No, that’s not what it says at all! It’s saying that, on average, across all companies which responded to the survey, the amount of paid leave actually taken was 62% of the annual entitlement. Even that miserable 62% is a distortion of the true picture. No prizes for guessing that an appallingly low leave entitlement take up was one of the reasons many firms failed to even respond to the survey. Also, as the article says, the 62% average figure disguises a much lower take up of annual holiday entitlement in specific industries such as food and accommodation.
Other countries need to get wise to Japan’s disguised method of maintaining a competitive advantage by stiffing its workers in the way this survey makes clear.
-1 ( +2 / -3 )
Posted in: An expanding NATO uses its diversity as strength
Posted in: An expanding NATO uses its diversity as strength
Posted in: Bank of Japan ends negative interest rate policy, opting for its first hike in 17 years
Posted in: Japan prepared to host and then travel to N Korea for back-to-back World Cup qualifiers