SaikoPhysco comments

How many pills can be purchased at one time? I mean like, is this a "walk of shame" type thing? Every time a woman has sex without protection and does not want to get pregnant, does she need to get to the pharmacy right away or can she stock up a bit.

At the very end of the article it mentions the number of retailers the can sell tobacco products would have been cut from 6,000 to just 600. So lets do the numbers... NZ population around 5 mil. Number of smokers is at 8%, or 400,000. Works out to 1 location per 667 smokers. The incoming govt. was worried about a Black Market arising and they could be right. I believe they should modify the bill as opposed to scraping it entirely. Perhaps also bring down the number of retailers over time, like the age limit, versus doing it all at once. The major concern is tax revenue and a black market forming which could wipe out tax revenue and also increase crime.

If what they report is correct, basically user names, age, gender and some usage details, well... then guess what? If you've been surfing the web and making purchases online, everyone and their brother already knows who you are and in detail. As much detail as that which was leaked. If bank related info was compromised that is a different story. I don't see this as a big deal, but yes, of course they still need to tighten security which may prove to be difficult since they share systems with other companies.

He should have moved to Los Angeles, CA, many prominent people have move there in the past to get away from heavy media coverage in their own countries. Go there for 2 or 3 years until things calm down. Now that said, if he truly wanted to be married, that is what he should have done. I think he is using the media as an excuse.

When? When have you ever seen, where something can be copied and sold at a decent profit, has someone or some company in China not done it. The Chinese aren't sitting there and appreciating all the Koi they've imported over the years, they are breeding them. As Ian pointed out from my first writing, when China first started importing Koi, and the Japanese govt. being fully aware they'd breed them, Japan would only allow it if China agreed to not export them. Those export agreements expired last month! Now... in order for China to save face and use a Diplomatic tit for tat type reason they cited Fukushima as an excuse... the played the Fukushima card. Now... all the importers of Koi around the world will have another big supplier and the price of Koi will most likely drop going forward. This is all about greed... probably some politicians in China will get a nice cut of the money made.

It is China! They probably don't need more Koi because they are most likely breeding more there than Japan does at this point. I'll bet they out export Japan in Koi soon. If there is money to be made... you can bet the Chinese will be all over it!

He wanted to "meet" someone, maybe PM Kishida. Inflation possibly digging into his pension too heavily. Does not say if he had the gun legally but it probably was. You can own guns in Japan but must pass rigorous licensing.

Turns out that the same amount of people, percentage wise, end up in divorce no matter if it is same sex or opposite... so I'm inclined to go with the flow. Let them marry and let them figure out the name between them. If they can't agree on that then they probably shouldn't do it in the first place.

What are the real statistics? What I'm asking is... how many times in a year are people refusing to pay a taxi driver and some sort of a confrontation ensues? If in one year this happens around 1,000 times, with 980 times it being regular domestic Japanese and 20 times foreigners then... hmmm, that would be about equal to the proportion to foreigners vs Japanese in the country. But, if this happens 1,000 times and 200 of the incidents involved foreigners then there is a problem. What the hell are the numbers.... don't throw this crap up without giving us some sort of proportion.

Why? Why do the Japanese govt. and the Japanese themselves, always fixate on keeping things the same when they really need to increase capacity for everyone. They complain about "manners"... screw off! If you want tourism you absolutely cannot expect every one to act Japanese. It is insanely laughable that the Japanese want everyone to change the second they enter the country. Perfectly good people... people with the same or better morals than the Japanese are stared at because they talk too loud in public. Or they leave trash laying around. Went back to the USA last week, for some reason there were public trash barrels everywhere... didn't have to litter because there was a place to put it. And when those Japanese tourists at the Soccer game picked up trash and threw it away... you know why they did it, because they didn't have to bring it back to the Hotel... there were trash bins all around the stadium. The idea that they could pick up trash and be able to throw it away in a bin... it was like Christmas. You don't see Japanese people picking up trash at a park in Japan... yeah, no place to put it.

Good, hopefully the price of fish in Japan will become more reasonable and the country can get back to more traditional meals that include more fish.

If every Japanese politician visited Yasukuni on a monthly basis after about 6 months all those countries that complain about the visits would just give up. And once the stop complaining Japanese politicians would probably stop going because it would serve no purpose.

Because he understands that it wasn't the average Japanese citizen that was at fault for the war... as usual it was greedy power hungry politicians along with corporations which only sought profit and never though of the consequences.

"Fearing a potential second accident".... rescue is about risk, that is why it is called rescue. They should rename the unit to "Recovery Team".

Wait... so are they saying that no one, none of the rescuers even tried, on foot, to aid the hikers from Sunset until 6AM the next day. Sunset is at around 5:30PM, that is 12 hours. Even with heavy winds, they should have plowed on in the night with the rescue. Why... because each rescuer should be equipped with GPS, reserve batteries for flashlights and be in tip top condition. This didn't have to happen... so if you're out hiking and around noon time someone in your group falls and cannot move... don't expect help anytime soon from Japanese rescuers. You'd think, with all the 10's of thousands of elderly hikers in Japan, that they'd have rescue teams skilled enough to do the rescue under windy conditions.

Zero will come of this... Japan will not offer anything meaningful to Russia because Russia does not deserve to get anything of value from Japan. If anything... Russia needs to put up something of value for Japan.

They probably tried to do it "clean" without any bribes but chances are a bunch of people came out of the Olympic woodwork with their hands out.

It is kind of curious the you never read about an American Serviceperson ever being the victim of a fight whereby someone else started it and the Serviceperson suffered an injury. I've read about it happening in Germany and the U.S. but never in Japan.

As usual... all the haters of the USA gleefully come out of the word work to castrate this guy. This could happen to any of us. We don't know what actually happened... do you really think this kid just all of a sudden pushed this guy for zero reason, it is doubtful. I've gone over the statistics... the number of incidents involving U.S. Military personnel in Japan is well below the average involving two Japanese nationals. Heck... even Japanese police get into more off duty scuffles than U.S. Military but we hold the Americans to a higher rate of personal conduct.

If Banks in Japan would fully lend all home loans regardless of the age of the house then it might become a "good investment" but sadly after 30 years banks consider the structure of the home to be worthless.

I'd be willing to bet that all off those 80 arrested women were not affiliated with a Yakuza group. Also, the Yakuza does not want prostitution to be fully decriminalized / legalized because they would not easily be able to control it if it were.

The person that did this absolutely needs to be found because it is unlikely he or she will stop there.

Then run the tests... quit the BS conjecture and do something. Start a group... get some funding and pay someone to test the soil. This is the 3rd time I've read the same story in the last 4 years. Do something.

Setting up a "Team" of professionals, people that are well indoctrinated into the "Japanese" way / system, to me will yield weak results. We need radicals as part of the team, people that are educated but not afraid to clearly expose everything and implicate all the guilty. These 3 will not do that... they'll placate the masses and achieve little.

"Where there is smoke there is fire". A lawmaker that owns and races horses, too close to a sport with heavy gambling and nefarious folk. Our company had a guy that often bet heavily on horse racing... I warned our operations head about it but he did nothing. A year later we found out the guy had embezzled Y200 million from us. Any lawmaker or person with access to financial accounts, if they show a proclivity towards gambling should be heavily monitored.

Far too often a woman will get a threat and report it... the Police then arrest or warn the guy to stay away but often he does not. So what can be done? I say put a GPS collar on the guy and give the woman an application that would warn her if he comes within 1km. If you're gonna threaten to kill someone then you deserve the collar.

I think this is stupid... wearing fans. Keep your body well covered with lighter clothing, wear a large hat and stay hydrated. Your human body will do the rest to keep you motoring along.

What Travis wants is to be the center of attention and not have to work. But the guy is a total dope... I don't think he really thought his actions through.

Then make the law's easier to adhere to. The break them because they're too complex and strict to begin with. The country needs labor but the government is unwilling to make it easy to get people.

And it isn't just the re-hiring of retired employees... there is the "Silver" jobs offered by municipalities all over the country. Silver employment is a God send for thousands of Japanese in that it gives them something to do, helps supplement income and keeps the community going at a lower cost.