Posted in: U.S., Japan fail to close gap on rice, auto parts trade See in context
Very reasonable of Japan to expect the US to wipe the crippling 2.5% tariff on autos while dropping the tariff on US beef to a tiny minuscule 27.5%. Perhaps other countries should impose export tariffs on food sent to Japan to compensate. Better still kick both Japan and the US out of the TPP until they play fair.
0 ( +2 / -2 )
Posted in: Japan stands tough against rice imports in trade talks with U.S. See in context
Isn't TPP supposed to be a free trade zone that includes 10 countries that are not called Japan or the US? I don't think free trade can include special tariffs and restrictions on farm imports into Japan or special access for US rice into Japan. Maybe Japan should be asked to leave and not try to come back until it has grown up and take the US with it on the way out.
4 ( +5 / -1 )
Posted in: Abe pledges new 5-year plan to rebuild from 2011 disaster See in context
Just shows how little the ruling hundred thousand care about the hoi polloi. In an idle moment I compared NZs response to the Christchurch earthquake (occurred about a month before Fukushima) and the Japanese response. You need to do the sums yourself for verification but as I recall the cost to re-bulld Christchurch and compensate people whose homes and livelihoods were destroyed were about 25% of NZ's GDP - Fukushima less than 1%. Christchurch is moving on - Fukushima still has people living in refugee camps. Disgusting really - and Abe claims he is bringing people out of the darkness.
7 ( +8 / -1 )
Posted in: Japan eyes MI6-style spy agency See in context
Isn't this what the Sogo Shousha are doing very successfully anyway? Rearming the military and bringing back the Kempeitai seems a strange way for Abe to lead Japan out of the darkness. I strongly suspect he is a few sandwiches short of a picnic - maybe been spending too much time with Australia's Abbott.
9 ( +10 / -1 )
Posted in: Indonesia delays transfer of convicts for execution See in context
Drug smuggling is stupid and these young kids were stupid - no question about that. The issue is that there were three similar appeals to the same court in a row - 2 for Australians and 1 for an Indonesian. The Indonesian had 11kgs of meth and was selling it to Indonesians, the Australians were transporting their drugs through Bali to Australia. The Indonesian got his death sentence commuted to 15 years as it was an infringement of his constitutional right to life, the Australians had their appeal rejected. Lawyer for the Australians has now claimed that the judges asked for a bribe which the Australians couldn't pay. Judge on the appeals court was later fired for taking a bribe from the Australians lawyer. The Indonesian Government is very noisy about the rights of Indonesians on death row overseas but can't see the hypocrisy in this case. Jokowi is trying to show he is tough on drugs as he can't be tough on Indonesian corruption due to it being the life blood of Indonesian society. He has now gone from being a hero in the eyes of the small majority of thinking Indonesians who elected him.
1 ( +1 / -0 )
Posted in: Japan runs short of butter as dairy farms dwindle See in context
Japanese Government protecting the farmers? No way - they are protecting the parasites who live off the fat of the farmers. 2 JA parasites for every 3 farmers in Japan. Having JA advise farmers is the same as having an Afghani opium lord in charge of the methadone program. If the Government is really protecting farmers why is it that it is only African and Japanese farmers who live in tin sheds?
1 ( +2 / -1 )
Posted in: Japan's looming benefit cuts an unspoken, unsettling election theme See in context
How about cutting back the amount of welfare paid to unemployable imbeciles working for the Government? How much time and money is wasted on meaningless bureaucracy? I recently had to spend 2 days shuttling back and forward between a J-Gov department and Foreign Gov mission to get some meaningless piece of paper correct in order to get a registration done by an arbitrarily decided deadline. 5 people in the J-Gov department were working diligently to decide if my piece of paper was correct and at 5 mins before closing decided to accept the paper as had been agreed on a Gov to Gov basis. Spastics the lot of em!
10 ( +11 / -1 )
Posted in: Scarecrows outnumber people in dying Tokushima town See in context
Don't worry about the depopulation of rural areas. The LDP have this firmly under control and are "protecting" local areas from re-vitalisation by having laws and regulations in place to stop outsiders trying new business. Outsiders can't buy farm land and forestry is tightly controlled to protect local areas. Dying towns and rural depopulation can't be happening because they are being "protected" - surely this town where locals are being replaced by scarecrows must be an anomaly. Forestry is a joke in Japan. Price paid to local owners for spruce around ¥10,000 / m3 - international market price paid by importers for overseas spruce ¥20,000. Cost to replant in Japan using forestry association¥700,000 ha - cost overseas without subsidy ¥200,000 ha. Average return on forestry in NZ = 14% p.a. - in Japan 1% p.a.. I heard # of forestry workers in Germany = 1,000,000 whereas the # in Japan is only 50,000. But don't worry the Government is "protecting" rural workers.
2 ( +2 / -0 )
Posted in: Man arrested for taking 'normal' picture of woman on train See in context
This is anti nuisance law is a very good piece of legislation and I want the Keystones to strenuously enforce it.
I was innocently driving my car on a country road and had my picture taken by an organised group of pervs who then passed it onto some of their other kinky and dangerous friends. I never gave any approval for having my picture taken nor was such approval asked for.
The kinky and dangerous friends then started sending me extortionate letters demanding I attend their office to be abused and humiliated and pay them large sums of money to stop the harassment. I couldn't get them to stop and had to give into their demands to pay what they quaintly called a speeding fine and to further their kinky jollies they also took my driving licence off me.
This unauthorised use of speed cameras is an invasion of privacy and a major nuisance and needs to be stopped now.
-1 ( +1 / -2 )
Posted in: Fukushima residents unsure of return to no-go zone See in context
The whole episode just shows how little empathy Japanese people have for their fellow man.
In an idle moment I calculated the percentage of GDP vs the reconstruction cost of the 2011 NZ Christchurch Earthquake and compared it to the 2011 Fukushima Earthquake.
NZs GDP $134 b reconstruction cost $25 b = %19. Japs GDP 5.964 trillion cost of reconstruction 16.9 billion = %0.28
The majority of the residents in Christchurch have been compensated for their losses through direct government payments and have managed to get on with their lives to a certain degree.
Fukushima residents are living in refugee camps, trying to live on ¥100,000 a month and being criticised for living off handouts.
Well at least the Fukushima residents can be happy in the fact that Tepco are making profits, Tokyo has the Olympics and that some idiot salaryman has said that the worst affected areas are classified as only difficult to return.
There are lot of things I want to say about the situation but my language tends to be politically unsuitable when it comes to describing unrepentant encyclopaedia salesmen turned politicians and their treatment of their constituents.
2 ( +3 / -1 )
Posted in: The Japanese government remains cautious about addressing the population decline and labor shortage by accepting immigrants. What do you think are the pros and cons of Japan accepting more immigrants? See in context
Unless you are talking about Asian slave labour (trainees) local workers are prepared to accept less than any self respecting foreigner would.
I've been researching agricultural workers from the Philippines and there seems to be a reluctance to come to Japan because of low wages and lack of renewal of visa after 3 years. Why would they come to Japan to be treated like as Untermenschen when they can go to NZ with their family, get a decent wage (higher than J-workers) with career path and PR after a certain period?
Sorry Oji Chan and Oba San I think the only hope for Japan to remain pure is to follow Australia's lead and put your retirement age up to 80.
3 ( +4 / -1 )
Posted in: China angered by Japan's U.N. bid for kamikaze pilot letters See in context
I totally agree with the Japanese push for the suicide bombers letters to be registered and then next can we include Al Qaeda's suicide notes to be registered?
-2 ( +13 / -13 )
Posted in: Cambodian trainee to sue farm manager in Japan over repeated rapes
I used to actually live up on Mt. Fuji at one of the US military bases up there back in…
Posted in: Price to climb Mount Fuji will double, trail gates will close earlier if new plan is approved
If this lady was a Japanese woman, at the end of her shift she will just make it to the…
Posted in: Cambodian trainee to sue farm manager in Japan over repeated rapes
Posted in: Japan, U.S., S Korea affirm close ties amid Yoon's martial law chaos