rzadigi comments

This is long overdue but welcome news. The majority of Japan’s fish stocks have been overfished for years due to unsustainable practices.

I can think of at least three times a year that these sirens blare out and induce fear, and in this case, terror. How about a gentle song, or a prayer, or a group of children expressing their feelings?

Those of us who weren’t affected by these tragedies have little understanding of how difficult it must be for the survivors every year. It seems only just that we acknowledge their suffering and take a few simple steps to minimize their pain.

Kids will be kids and do things they shouldn’t because they’re having fun. There are hundreds of safety precautions that Japan takes to prevent injuries just like this one. It would have been very easy to lock the fence or put a chain around the roller. Both would have prevented this tragedy.

And to those blaming the family or other kids present, I’m sure you’d feel very different if this was your child.

Japan’s population is falling but that doesn’t mean we need more babies. There are plenty of other ways to deal with the problem of paying and caring for the massive elderly population. And in 20 years when everyone receives UBI won’t more babies now just mean greater payouts and liabilities in the future? The perceived benefits of more children may turn into a massive burden down the road.

It seems to me that shifts in social welfare policy should be voted upon by the public. These decisions impact everyone and citizens should all have a say.

Sad to see the daily deaths so high.

Yes it’s quite shocking how many here see fault in the girl’s behavior but not the man, who happens to be an educator teaching young girls and boys how to become responsible, contributing members of society.

@tokyooldman comment is wrong on so many levels I wonder if it’s just sarcasm. Any teacher having sexual relations with a student should immediately lose their job and their license. What parent would be ok with a man like this teaching their children?

Gaijin in Japan love to look at other countries as some kind of model for dealing with Covid. Yet very few countries have fared better than Japan and even now most are in exactly the same position. With 111 deaths in Japan today that is right on par with the US considering per capita. But yet overall Covid deaths in the US are over 1 million while Japan is maybe 60k. We’ve had no real lockdowns here and I’ve been able to live same as always with a few safety precautions. In my mind, we’ve coped better than almost all countries, and even though Japan continues to stumble through it, there’s no where else I’d rather be.

What an absolute tragedy. So many people out enjoying themselves and then suddenly life is over.

I was watching some YouTube livestreams last night of the Halloween party in Shibuya. There were literally thousands of police and security guards EVERYWHERE telling the crowds to keep moving and be orderly. The sounds of loudspeakers were nonstop. At the time it seemed like overkill to me but the Japanese authorities were clearly prepared and proactive.

Why waste all the manpower and tax dollars to transport this criminal? Just stick him in a locked car and let his old yakuza friends come and kill him. Then arrest those guys and follow the same procedure. Repeat as necessary and soon enough all the yakuza will be gone!!

Tell that to my many friends who live near the coast that do worry every time there’s an earthquake. Because eventually one of them will be big enough to trigger a large tsunami and the odds are that all of them will lose their homes. Something that no amount of disaster planning will do anything to mitigate.

@yubaru

is that really the case!? We are long overdue for a tsunami from Hyuga Nada and it’s often discussed in the media. Hard to believe that other area would receive subsidies but not Miyazaki.

Japan has the most restaurants per capital in the world. Clearly there are too many restaurants trying to squeeze out profits while just barely paying the bills. And with many Japanese complaining about even small price increases it puts even more pressure on these restaurants.

I’ve got friends here who have owned restaurants before and they all say they’ll never do it again. It’s a horrible way to earn a living.

I track each and every typhoon in hopes of scoring some good waves. After many typhoons pass it is true that they did not live up to the dreadful forecasts. But this typhoon is of another scale. And recent forecasts have been consistent for days in showing it’s track and strength. And now it is barreling down on us in Miyazaki and many friends are without power and their wives are scared to death. And unlike other typhoons, this one will give us a solid 12 hours of powerful winds, along with 500mm of rain and many landslides.

Those who underestimate the power of Mother Nature are the ones who most often pay the ultimate price.

Good luck to all those who are affected by this monster.

There are adverse affects with all vaccines, and all pharmaceuticals. Thousands of people around the world are now self proclaimed immunologists because they’ve spent time reading things online. VAERS has existed for over 30 years and thousands of reports are submitted every year. If you fear mRNA vaccines then choose Novavax here in Japan. These Covid vaccines have been given to more people than any other vaccine in history and have proven to be very safe. Of course there are complications in some people, but the 20 million lives the vaccines are estimated to have saved are exponentially greater than those who had an unfortunate response to a vaccine.

If people want to live on top of a mountain outside of society then I care not what they do. But if they choose to live in modern society with all the benefits that each of us enjoy then they need to lose their obsession with individualism and realize that their decisions have implications. Not getting vaccinated or even getting vaccinated and then behaving irresponsibly can end up causing sickness or even death. Like the person I know who went back home, caught Covid immediately, then went to a wedding and infected everyone there. That is hardly the type of society that I want to live in.

Defeatist attitudes are not the solution to Covid. They allow the virus to mutate and infect more people, ensuring never ending pandemic pandemonium.

As long as people travel internationally the variants will find a way to survive. This is now the 7th wave and more will surely follow. Allowing oneself to catch each variant is clearly not a viable strategy. I don’t claim to have the answer but being safe and following precautions seems to be the only way forward.

Other than Italy I can’t recall any countries having any empathy for one another. And although Japan has been a bit arrogant occasionally, the deaths per capita stats do show that they fared better than almost all countries in the world while also having no strict lockdowns.

I can’t think of another country besides Japan that I would’ve chosen to ride through this Covid madness.

Many people were upset for months at the lack of testing here in Japan. And now that they are testing the numbers are probably the most accurate they’ve been. Whereas the US is hardly testing at all and people have that defeatist attitude that catching it is inevitable, as many posters here also believe.

But the most telling stat is the number of deaths per capita. And Japan is still ranked in the bottom five or ten globally. So all those people that continue to think they have the all the answers can just continue to ignore the damming evidence. Don’t let data get in the way of your beliefs.

Gee…..what a surprise.

it seems like the only people wanting to hold the 2020 Olympics were those receiving bribes.

Does anyone know if the Novavax vaccine is available as a booster here? A couple months ago I read that it was approved for use but haven’t seen anything about it since.

I’m lucky in that my gym no longer requires masks. Although when they did I wore them with no complaints. It definitely helps vo2max.

Interestingly I’ve had three friends recently travel overseas, two to England and one to the US. While in Japan they always wore masks because everyone does. But back home they didn’t wear masks, and two of them caught Covid on their first day. The other friend took a week to catch it. Here in Japan none of them had caught it. Make of it what you will.

What’s the point of military spending if the US military is here to protect Japan? Isn’t the national debt high enough already?

Does anyone know if the novavax vaccine is available as a booster here in Japan?

A recent Lancet study determined that the vaccines prevented 20 million deaths. Thankfully those 20 million weren’t taking the advice of all the “experts” on this message board.

Here in Miyazaki the schools are all closed, yet there is no rain or winds. This happens for almost every typhoon.

At least the students and teachers can get a break

Having had Covid does little to protect against getting it again. Million of people have had it more than once. In America 60% of people have had Covid while in Japan it’s only 10%. Japan’s safety protocols must have something to do with it.

Record numbers again in Okinawa and Miyazaki.

So this happened back in December and it’s just now making the news? The prefecture where I live did not get the message. Here all of the ALTs live in apartments managed by the city. Which means that the city has a key to each apartment and can enter freely. There is only one black ALT this year and she must’ve been shocked when she noticed that her apartment had been searched while she was working. No other apartments were known to be searched. Imagine having to continue working and living here after that. The poor girl…

it seems that those who say Covid is endemic are also those who choose not to take any precautions whatsoever. The new variants are already driving a surge in cases with predictions for another very difficult fall and winter. These variants are so different from the original omicron that previous immunity from an infection or vaccine provides little protection.

Here in Japan we’ve had relatively minor restrictions compared to most countries, due to the fact that the general population can follow the advice of experts. Unlike those in western countries who believe wearing masks make them suffocate and demand to live a ‘full life’ in those windows between lockdowns and swamped hospitals.

It may sound like I’m worried but that’s not the case at all. Because I follow simple safety precautions I’ve been able to stay healthy and live well.

So scrapping all of the restrictions that kept many people safe since the pandemic began is now seen as a good idea?

I would love for things to return to normal but that will not happen until the variants stop mutating or a vaccine is made effective. In the meantime is it really that hard to wear a mask or social distance?

After each and every major holiday in Japan the Covid cases have boomed. Although today’s numbers are just half of yesterday’s which are double the day before. Let’s hope the numbers stay down.

Those Okinawa numbers are the highest I’ve seen down there.

Since the pandemic started after each and every big holiday in Japan the numbers have boomed. I can’t think of any reason things will be different this time.