SaikoPhysco comments

Every country had "victims" in WWII... even the Germans. Since 1945 and the advent of the A-Bomb it may have saved millions of lives because it made WWIII and unthinkable prospect. Pointing the finger of guilt is usually a waste of time. Educating the public is the most important way to prevent the past mistakes.

Had Japan 40 years ago deregulated its markets and made easier for startups to prosper maybe it too would have billionaires like Musk and Bezos... but alas Corporations via extreme coziness with the Govt. legislated an environment where only they kept market share and all new competition was stifled.

Sweden sees the Russian threat... after decades of neutrality they want in. Bottom line to the Russian lovers comments here... they invaded the Ukraine. That is indisputeable. You guys remember WWII... you read about it. For 45 years after it Russia controlled Armenia, Azerbajian, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkemenistan, Ukraine, Usbekistan and East Germany. Over 150 million people were subjugated to Russian control for 45 years. Maybe Sweden, being close to Putin's Russia does no want to take the gamble that history might be repeated.

The hypocrisy bothers me more than anything. No matter where you are in Japan... if you have many bars concentrated in one area, no matter whether it is foreigners or Japanese, you're going to have issues. If it were noisy drunk Japanese causing problems... then nothing is said, but the second a "foreigner" causes a problem, it is practically National News. Quit the blame game and pay for more security in those areas. Bars have security and bouncers in other countries for a reason.

Ultimately Japan is extremely cheap right now due to the weak Yen and the Government setting the tone for corporations to keep wages low for the last 35 years. With the low wages companies are able to keep the cost of goods and services down. Let Osaka enact the tax... but how many of us actually believe the Politicians in that city can be trusted to spend the money wisely? Not me...

Maybe the government is approaching the labor shortages the wrong way. Instead of bringing in more people they should use people more efficiently. Getting rid of the Hanko would probably save ten million hours of work yearly.

"I'm a guy and I'm jealous of his partner"... really? He's not gonna take you out drinking and your butt might be a bit sore in the morning!

Hungary was the last major hurdle vote wise to get Swedish NATO inclusion... so they took advantage of the situation to squeeze money and favors.

Weak... damn, do you have any clue how difficult it is to become an actor / actress in Japan? The power to hire and fire is all at the Top and if you step out of line just a bit your career is over. This Top down power platform permeates througout many organizations in Japan but recently due to the Johnny's sex scandal women are able to speak out more. Of course... this isn't just a Japan problem, Hollywood and Bollywood have, for years, had their problems too. But that said, Japan might be even worse due to its culture of keeping quiet and not causing a stir. This is a sad story... not one of a "weak" woman.

My wife won't have to...

Suppliers say; "They can't say they won't be able to meet production"... OK, but where else can Toyota go? Every company in Japan is facing the same problem, not enough workers and engineers. But yet... but yet wages stay the same. How can you entice college students into engineering programs if the starting wage is crap. Engineers should be starting at a Y7 mil wage versus the average of Y4.3 mil. The average U.S. starting salary is $70,000 a year out of college.

Any that voted "No" is shortsighted in my book. The weak Yen is giving Japan the shot in the arm it needs in order to revive this economy and slowly help many of Japan's rural areas. This country is prime for an increase in tourism and the weak Yen is helping to boost sales of domestically produced goods. If the Japanese govt. can get off of its ass and figure ways to attract foreign workers then it would even help more.

First off... Thank you Mr. Musk! Sure this might be an opportunity to showcase the technology but it is also badly needed and is helping thousands of people.

These Valentine's Day traditions in Japan are just idiocy. It basically means nothing... just going through the motions without any real heartfelt emotions that would evoke any semblance of romance. Valentine's Day is about Romance and showing true appreciation... not giri style gifts for co-workers that leave everyone feeling awkward and stressed out because they now have to give back something.

I kinda think that no other Geionojin over the age of around 50, would step up and take Matsumoto's place as a 2025 Expo Ambassador.

Yes I am optimistic... because tourism is on the upswing and I even bought a beautiful plastic, high quality microwave approved, bowl yesterday that was actually Made in Japan.

You read a lot of articles in Japan about criminals and quite often they give the reason why they committed the crime; so I'm curious as to why the Tokyo Police went after this company so fervently? To the point were one of the defendant's died in Jail and was not allowed bail. I get the feeling that this was personal somehow. That somehow someone at the Tokyo Police Dept. had it in for this company and these 3 individuals. And if that was the case then someone at the Police Dept. might need some jail time too.

What were these guys thinking, 31kg... like almost 70 pounds of drugs? Dumb knoweth no border.

My wife works at one of these facilities and "Larr Flint" is correct. Wages are crap. But we all know, or maybe it is just me, that wages in Japan are somewhat of a double edged sword. The minute you raise them across the board, well, that is when you could start the ball of inflation rolling heavily. But by keeping them low you keep the harmony and inflation slowly works its way through the economy. As usual... there is no real good answer, Japan has so many "hard rocks" and so many "hard places" it is sitting in between.

I think a statement needs to be made... young people, heck, all people need to stop totally going to Shibuya for say 3 months. Stop shopping and stop eating and drinking there. If the govt. there wants a nice quiet small town feel... give them one but be careful of "what you wish for".

Me thinks, Consent Inc... the web design company bringing these numbers to light, may have hired some of the people behind these "dark pattern" sites. These sites are found in every language all around the world... I'd be interested in seeing numbers for each country. Basically which country falls for this crap the most? I'll bet the Japanese rank up there pretty high. A trusting population that does not mind frivolous time consuming work.

I hope very much he realizes every penny of his contract and more because that would mean we'd get to see him perform for the next 10 years. He is an extremely special talent and one that I hope even gets better with age. I play baseball in an over sixty league in Tokyo and I think because of hit talent we're starting to see more and more older Japanese players getting back into ball in their retirement years. Ohtani has been an inspiration to so many... and in Japan he has helped so much to revive the game.

Anyone who believes "people kill not guns"... is ignorant! Why 'ignorant' you ask? Because when you live in a society with guns all around and you see and hear of people being killed with them all the time what is your first thought if you're crazy enough to want to kill someone. And remember, just the thought of killing someone is crazy, but it is happening all around you... so it is normal to want to kill someone... I mean if you're a bit crazy it might become normal. That is the thing... you're surrounded by it. So with all the guns and the violent American mindset... added to mad and crazy, guess what... Bang Bang! Sure a couple of European countries have lots of guns but they are taught to respect them and they properly store them. In the USA any idiot can get one quite easily. If you take away 99% of guns... a whole lot of senseless killings would stop.

Nintendo ain't go balls! Hire some real security... a little contract with the Yakuza for some protection and the event would have run without a glitch.

This is such a joke and it is being played on us. Why, because no where in the article does it mention that Japan's Zeimusho / IRS is investigating this guy. All it says are that there are "allegations". This guy is some sort of a political press sacrifice or target of another party. Always remember people, when someone goes down for something, and that person is a Politician, it mainly means he or she pissed someone off and is being sacrificed as media fodder. Also... when is the last time real investigative reporters found something and went after someone... it is rare. Most of the crap we read is the machinations of the various parties playing chess with each move released to the media as "allegations" for us idiots to read and think that the govt. is actually properly policing itself. Yeah... I'm a cynic.

The Japanese Govt. is at fault as much as the companies involved. The lack of oversight and coziness with corporate Japan is excessive. The Olympic bid process along with its operation will need to be extremely transparent going forward or this will happen again and again.

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.