Saxon Salute comments

Posted in: Dominatrix arrested for practicing medicine without a license See in context

The really weird thing is that you can rent DVDs with this sort of stuff on, along with rape videos and peeping at ladies on the toilet in my local Tsutaya, but you can't view genitalia. That really is messed up.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: Court rejects naming firms where employees died due to overwork See in context

At least five women in my section of Japanese company (out of twelve) log at least 80 hours a month of overtime every single month. Three of them log up to 120 hours of overtime a month, of which all but the first 35 hours are paid. These women just have no life and won't go home. I don't know why the company lets them do it. They are permanently worn out and almost everything they do is wrong, but they won't go home. Karoshi is death by overwork, not death by hard work. The Japanese work long, but they don't work hard, and they are often not being forced. Try some of the legal firms if you want the worst numbers.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

Posted in: Fashion model proposes violent punishment for people who smoke while walking See in context

alimel, I agree with you. I like the occasional cigarette, but I wouldn't smoke walking along a street, or in a restaurant. I think it should be permitted in nomiya staffed by smokers and in designated areas, but not in other public places. There seems to be 2 sets of laws in Japan, one set that is enforced and another set that isn't. This seems to be in the non-enforced category, along with jumping read lights, using mobile phones while driving and following Labor Law.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Posted in: Measures to beat power crunch new norm for corporate Japan See in context

ThonTaddeo, absolutely. The Japanese definition of "cold" appears to be any temperature below 27 degrees where I work. 25 is seen as cold enough to cause illness. If it's 26 at my desk, there will be women in the room wearing scarves and/or hoodies. This power-saving on A/C only applies to cooking us in the summer. Having the office heated to over 28 in the winter is normal here. It has nothing to do with power-saving, and everything to do with the preferred temperatures of women who spend all day hanging onto a mouse staring at a spread sheet without moving. I feel your pain.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: Yoshinoya to grow rice and vegetables in Fukushima See in context

Bloody awful stuff anyway.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Posted in: Abe says Japan has no choice but to hike sales tax See in context

I love the way it says "to ease the debt burden" and is being introduced alongside an additional 5 trillion yen of debt, most of which will make its way to Abe's friends in right-wing construction companies at the expense of domestic consumers. Meanwhile the Japanese people will tighten their collective belts from April, and we'll be in real crisis by next summer. The yen will fall further, so the 14% of the economy that is export-based will gain, and the rest of us will lose. Abe's Reverse Robin Hood policies continue.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Posted in: Abe says Japan has no choice but to hike sales tax See in context

There were really no months of uncertainty. Abe was always going to go ahead with this tax hike, but wanted to give the impression he was reluctanct.

14 ( +15 / -1 )

Posted in: Japan business mood hits nearly 6-year high See in context

He has to increase the slaes tax in order to keep borrowing costs down. That's what happens when you're in massive debt, which is really ballooning under the LDP of course. The only boons of currency manipulation are for those jmporting profits back in yen. Before a large tax increase, people naturally buy items before they get more expensive, so there will be a short-term lift from this policy. Some wealthy Japanese have more income through increased bonuses (again the result of currency manipulation), but the rest of us face rising prices for basic commodities, especially for foods and fuel, so have no more money to spend. Abenomics will start to crash next year when taxes increase, inflation sets in, and wage increases don't happen. It is impossible to increase domestic spending in the long-term if people have less money to spend.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Posted in: Consumer prices at 5-year high, boosting Abe's deflation fight See in context

ThonTaddeo, yes it's idiotic to claim this, and is in every article. People do not put off purchases due to very slow falls in prices. People put of purchases of brand new electronic devices because they know prices will plummet within a year, but that is an entirely different thing. No one decides not to buy bread until next year because of 0.5% deflation. To claim so is ridiculous, but everything about Abe is ridiculous. Some parts of the economy obviously benefit from currency manipulation, but everyone else pays more for fuel etc. which leaves them with less to spend. So Abe's plan is to increase taxes, lower disposable incomes and expect an aging and shrinking population to spend more, when most companies will refuse wage increases. It's obvious nonsense. Japan is picking up a little as it recovers from Fukushima and the world economy slowly recovers from Lehmann etc. but it is despite Abe, not because of him. So far he has been incredibly lucky.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Posted in: The Education Ministry plans to reintroduce Saturday classes starting on a monthly basis by the 2017 academic year in an effort to improve students’ scholastic ability. What do you think about this? See in context

What are the falling standards they identify? Most adults I speak to know pretty-near nothing about anything. They know nothing about history, including their own, they know nothing about geography or religion. Many Japanese believe Israel is Islamic. Ask a few. They struggle with arithmetic, don't understand basic biology, are generally hopeless at English, clueless on science, economics and politics, and have very poor communication skills. Why on earth do they think even heavier doses of the same thing will be positive for the next generation? It's absolutely nuts.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Posted in: Abe pledges global focus on women's rights in U.N. speech See in context

I see, this from a man who is PM of a country ranking 101 for gender equality.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Posted in: The Education Ministry plans to reintroduce Saturday classes starting on a monthly basis by the 2017 academic year in an effort to improve students’ scholastic ability. What do you think about this? See in context

Insane. Not only will it do nothing at all educationally, it will prevent families spending weekends with their children, which appears to be what 80% of Japanese families want. I am not following this.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: 1 in 3 Japanese women want to be housewives: poll See in context

Well, I think women mean they want a man who will give them a child, a free house and 200-300,000-yen spending money, mainly on the condition that once the child is born she makes him a cheap bento, allows hom 30,000-yen spending money (approx one-tenth of what she gets) and absolutely no physical relationship. That's what so many see in their own families, so it's natural that they would want the same.

Mind you, if japan cannot even break into the world's top 100 countries in terms of gender equality, why on earth would a majority of women want to face the workplace. They get treated like crap on the whole.

http://www.japancrush.com/2012/stories/japan-101st-in-global-gender-equality-rankings-reactions.html

2 ( +9 / -7 )

Posted in: World watches American TV, not always legally See in context

Why doesn't HBO (for example) have its own international paid torrent site with a 1:1 share requirement. Then we could all use our own bandwidth to download and share their allowed content. HBO wouldn't even need much bandwidth that way, people could legally download their content, and HBO could increase its own takings at the same time. I would happily pay for such a service, especially living in Japan where the legal domestic alternative is to watch little known tarentos watching people eat things, whilst making daft faces in silly little boxes on the screen. No wonder American TV has taken over; the USA makes a whole load of excellent programs to suit almost every taste, and generally at high budget.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Posted in: Fukushima town protests Abe's global promise on crippled plant See in context

Abe is a serial liar. He wanted the Olympics so that he and his buddies had free reign to give huge amounts of tax money to his friends in right-wing construction companies in Tokyo. He doesn't give a toss about the people in Fukushima, and lying is business as usual in Japan. His so-called economic policies are only ways of redirecting tax money from regular people to his friends in business. Last time he was PM he was proved to be a lying, clueless, extremist moron, who couldn't even control his own bowels. Leopards don't change their spots, but this time Abe is popular with the people (probably because the controlled media insists he is a genius and the DPJ was staggeringly amateur) so Abe will be in power for a few more years yet I'm afraid.

11 ( +13 / -2 )

Posted in: Abe orders 2 Fukushima reactors scrapped; pledges safe Olympics See in context

Well, incredible. TEPCO has been allowed to claim for 2.5 years that reactors surrounded by staggering levels of radiation are an asset on their balance sheets. No wonder the crime rate in Japan is so low; almost nothing appears to be illegal here.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Posted in: Japan balked at steps to control Fukushima water in 2011, memo shows See in context

I don't understand why on earth anyone is surprised by this! Woefully predictable, and somehow the story didn't get out for 2.5 years...

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: Tokyo police advise women on how to stay safe while in elevators See in context

tmtmsnb, I think this gets ridiculed and downplayed for several reasons. One is that western chaps like me have met more neurotic, insecure, self-obsessed, paranoid J-girls than you've had hot dinners. The idea of these nut-jobs freaking out very time they are alone in a lift is too painful to contemplate. Another is that we cannot imagine anyone attacking a girl in a lift, because none of us would ever do anything like that. Finally, we probably think that the kind of girl who believes we would attack her in a lift is a mental case who needs help, not a realistic modern woman taking care of her own body space. People should be more aware of what goes on around them, but encouraging the borderline neurotic to freak out does not seem helpful to normal men who don't abuse women. That is why some posters downplay this, but some others are just what we in the UK refer to as dickheads.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Posted in: Sales tax hike will add Y6 tril to household burden: gov't panel See in context

Dog, yeah, both were lifestyle choices, but not many dogs are going to enter the workforce and pay taxes for 40 years. If no one has dogs, we have less crap to tread in. If no one has kids, you won't get the pension you're currently paying for, but you're an economist, and you know that. Yeah, I agree, Japan's overall taxes are not low, and supermarkets in the UK are far cheaper than Japanese ones despite minimum wage and a 20% VAT, even for goods with exclusions. People with children get more benefits, but it's not our fault than we are all part of a ponzi scheme making us reliant on the next generation for things we are paying for. That's the same the world over, but it's the elderly that cost most money, and on average they already have most money. That's what seems most unfair to me.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Posted in: 'Black companies' exploiting foreign trainees See in context

SunnyMorning, you are a bit wide of the mark about union membership. Berlitz and Nova had/have large unions and their instructors are often members. None of them are employed full-time the way their Japanese co-workers are. Trainees would not be able to join unions, but there is no necessity to be employed on a full "shaiin" basis for union membership, certainly not nanbu anyway. I cannot join one because I am a manager in my company, but other one-year contracted staff I work with are in unions, no problem. But unions are not the answer for the exploited. All the unions really want to do is make sure non-Japanese employees are on shakai-hoken. There's no interest in exploitation because the main victims of exploitation in the workplace are Japanese. Labor Standards states that no one can be forced to work more than one hour of overtime per day and stipulates one paid day off per week as a legal minimum. Neither the laws nor the unions are able to enforce Labor Standard Law, which is quite frankly pathetic. Men like Kato should be in prisons, not left free to make fortunes out of exploiting foreigner workers.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Posted in: 'Black companies' exploiting foreign trainees See in context

Lowly, good for you, but I've never met you, nor anyone else in your position in 20 years working in business here. I've met high school teachers who thought they were shaiin and I've met people lie me in business with so-called full-time contracts on the proper systems, but the status has always been fudged, and none of them are truly "employed" on the same basis as their Japanese counterparts.

15 ( +17 / -2 )

Posted in: 'Black companies' exploiting foreign trainees See in context

Nessie, I've seen a so-called contract drawn up by one of Japan's top four legal firms, and it is entirely illegal. If the government and the lawyers don't bother with the law, there is no hope for anyone else eh.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Posted in: 'Black companies' exploiting foreign trainees See in context

Well, following on from the above, I am a manager in a Japanese company, and have been one for 15 years on renewable one-year contracts. All Japanese staff are full time (shaiin) from day one, but western management is not. Article 3 of Tokyo Labor Standards Law says there can be no discrimination based on "race, creed or colour", but I am yet to meet a non-Japanese (employed in Japan) who is truly employed on the same shaiin basis that all Japanese staff in my company are.How can any country be this discriminatory towards foreigners when it has laws governing their employment? All companies are "black companies" when it comes to non-Japanese workers and none of them are forced to follow the laws of the land when non-Japanese workers are involved. We can even win cases using Labor Standards, but nothing happens to the company apart from a tiny fine. The "compensation" money we'll receive for our abuses is derisory, and almost always comes with the proviso that we have left the company in question. If this is how western managers from the UK and USA are treated, what hope do Chinese "trainees" have?

25 ( +26 / -1 )

Posted in: Prison uses cuddly mascot in image makeover See in context

They should get it walking up and down the corridors waving at the prisoners. That would really make people think twice about committing crimes that could see them end up there.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: TEPCO exec tells DPJ Fukushima plant not under control See in context

The waste water is the biggest problem, but for a worse reason than people think. The biggest problem is that the ground around the plants is now wet enough for liquefaction and the buildings could collapse. This means they want to freeze the ground, largely to protect against subsidence, and start removing the spent fuel rods. This is normally done by computer, but the Japanese will attempt it manually, despite the fact that no one can approch the spent fuel for more than a few minutes because of the incredible radiation levels there. This plant could still go bang, either due to subsidence, or to an error in the extremely difficult process of moving the fuel rods. Mr. Abe stood up and told the world that this situation is "under control", when it quite clearly isn't. Mr. Abe is a serial liar though, and this was just his most recent whopper.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Posted in: 'Lighten up,' French magazine tells Japan after Fukushima cartoon complaint See in context

pochan, quite right. It was hardly a reference to Olympic decapitation and Japan's natural advantages in this area or the introduction of biological experiments as an Olympic event in 2020. It was satire about a current world event, and one that Japan is steadfastly refusing to tell the truth about. Japan used Fukushima as a trump card to win this bid, but can't take a satirical joke about the events there. This is quite frrankly pathetic. The Japanese can't take a joke about Japan ever, but are happy to openly criticize and laugh at other countries and cultures on a near-daily basis. TIJ.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Posted in: Abe to raise sales tax on schedule, media report See in context

He has never for one second really thought to not do this. He ha always planned to hike this tax. If he wanted to soften the blow, there would be exclusions for necessary food items, children's clothing etc. But he doesn't want to do that, he just wants to pass more stimulus money to his buddies, which our children and grand children will end up repaying.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Posted in: Abe, Inose discuss how to make Tokyo more visitor-friendly See in context

Train announcements in English and interpreters in the main stations need to be considered. Even long-term residents struggle with the keigo when the transport system is upset. I know we get, "the next stop is...the door on the right side will open", but when someone jumps in front of a train on day one of the Olympics, tourist commuters will be lost with Japanese announcements in keigo.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Posted in: Japan on high alert for disputed islands anniversary See in context

China won't attack these islands. The government may incite anti-Japanese riots and cost Japanese industry another fortune, but they won't risk getting their arses kicked for at least another 10 years.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Posted in: Abe orders economic stimulus measures See in context

Abe still thinks the increased revenue from Japan's export companies, achieved by yen manipulation, will make up for tax increases in the domestic economy. Abe has a very lucky man so far. He is benefitting from an improvement in the world economy, recovery from Fukushima and now the Olympic bid, but this has little to do with his economic policies. Will domestic companies really pass on higher profits achieved by changes to corporate tax rates (which are too high here) to lower paid workers? Meanwhile the real problems Japan faces, which include aging population, declining birthrate, increased health costs, bust pension system and debt at around 250% GDP are not being addressed. Neither is it being explained how a population being hit by tax increases and inflation will be able to increase domestic spending if their salaries don't rise. Families I know here are getting ready to tighten their belts even further.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

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