Sensato comments

Since this is Japan Today, I will add that of the 85 entries, Japan's entry is titled, "Nagasaki: Memories of My Son," directed by Yoji Yamada.

It looks like a good film. Here is the trailer (1:27): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtXc0oWMUtY

Except he didn't actually say international travelers (which could also mean Japanese traveling abroad), did he?

@Gaijindesu

I would also add that he apologized exclusively to Japanese nationals who he felt were being inconvenienced exclusively by foreign nationals. Us versus them. I am sure there were plenty of foreign residents of Japan on that train who were arguably equally "inconvenienced."

The train operator's inappropriate choice of wording is clearly symptomatic the commonly held victimization narrative in Japan that the good-natured, well-mannered people of Japan regularly suffer at the hands of ill-mannered foreigners (in this case I assume it was mostly Chinese nationals given the huge influx of Chinese tourists to Japan last week during that nation's extended holiday).

What the train operator said about Japanese passengers being caused inconvenience at the hand of foreign passengers, and how he said it, are considered quite acceptable in many circles in Japan, and often used as an opportunity for "us versus them" bonding. I've heard this sort of talk often in Japanese.

Country of origin labeling for many processed food products has very limited usefulness given that the consumer still doesn't know where the many ingredients (many of which are also processed food materials) used to make the final product are from.

Still, when buying canned fruit in Japan (for instance), the items from China are often 1/4 or less the price of those from Japan. Although there have been some shameful food scandals in both countries in recent years, I can see why consumers would hesitate to buy the ones from China.

This is not weird so much as it is buyer beware.

I've heard at least a couple of stories of non-Japanese children drinking alcoholic lemon chuhai drinks given to them by unknowing parents who thought they were buying lemonade. (It might be smart for the drink manufacturers to put clear English labeling on those products before the 2020 Olympics.)

Looks can be deceiving when it comes to Japanese food items.

I've been here so long, none of it seems particularly weird to me anymore — often unappetizing, yes, but weird, not so much.

Still, when freshly off the boat I remember drinking a canned grape juice drink which, unexpectedly to me, had tiny whole grapes floating around in it. That was a bit of a surprise.

Here is a link to the Lighthouse Center for Human Trafficking Victims mentioned in this article: http://lhj.jp/english

Last year, the Tokyo District Court threw out an agency’s bid to extract a 24 million yen penalty from a women who refused to appear in porn films—a rare legal victory, critics say.

I wouldn't call that a "legal victory" by any measure. This would have been a legal victory if prosecutors had gone after the bosses of the agency resulting in substantial prison sentences and hefty monetary damages for the victim.

More often than not the Japanese courts are complicit in facilitating coerced porn by siding with the agencies. In human rights cases, whether it be child abduction, parental custody or sex slavery, the courts in Japan are horrendous.

Duterte is one of the few leaders of "the free world" who is worse than even Donald Trump.

Japan is in the process of giving the Philippines military vessels and aircraft. I seem to remember reading that at least one ship was delivered in August.

Anyway, as long as this nutcase is in power, it might be better for Japan to hold off on its plans to boost the Philippine military.

But of course the Japanese media all conveniently left out the most important details of racist attitude of the staff of this restaurant, abusing their customers. Instead the Japanese press turned it into a wacky news about a restaurant trying to be accommodating to foreigners which went wrong.

@Papi2013

The spin on the story presented in the news article above (and by the official company response) leaves the impression that this was merely a case of kind intentions of the well-meaning manager and his hapless restaurant staff gone wrong — cultural misunderstanding.

That narrative certainly reeks of disingenuous intentions to say the least, particularly after reading what diners wrote about their experiences (snickering among the restaurant staff, bigoted language, etc.). A bit more journalistic integrity is certainly warranted with this story.

You forgot the screenshot

@Strangerland

Sorry about that. For what it is worth, here it is: https://i.redd.it/e5oecebgl6px.jpg

It insisted that the wasabi-laced sushi was a response to many foreign-born patrons ordering extra portions of the fiery green paste used a condiment for the raw fish dish.

What this story fails to mention is that the "foreign-born patrons" in this case were Korean and Chinese.

It looks to me like this is a case of the manager getting fed up with customers from those countries and targeting them with his anger, quite likely fueled by a heavy dose of bigotry. At least one "Westerner" who was visited the restaurant left a positive review.

A news station reported that the manager said something along the lines of "All these Korean and Chinese customers are always saying 'give me wasabi, before eating their sushi.' Here is the Japanese from a screenshot of that quote (韓国人とか中国人とか「お寿司を食べる前からワサビをくれ、」という客ばっかりなんですよ).

You would think the journalists covering this story would do some basic investigative journalism on and find out how many deaths there were on the same floor of this hospital during the same roughly two-month period in previous years.

Because this is a hospital for terminally ill patients, I would assume the number is somewhat high to begin with. Still, it sounds to me like the reporters on this story are merely reporting what has been spoon fed to them by the hospital's PR team.

This notion of mom-and-pop firms dying out is particularly evident with respect to the family-owned dairy farms in Japan. Thus the frequent and chronic butter shortages which are growing conspicuously worse every year.

Aging Japanese dairy farmers have been retiring in droves, particularly over the last decade. There are 66% as many dairy farms now in Japan as there were in 2008, and the number those farms has long been dropping by about 4% per year.

Here are some numbers from Japan's Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food. in 1963 there were 417,600 dairy farms in Japan. The number was 25,400 in 2007, and dropped to 17,000 in 2016. The number of dairy cows in Japan is also dropping precipitously.

Here are the stats if anyone is interested (second to last page): http://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent%20GAIN%20Publications/Livestock%20and%20Products%20Annual_Tokyo_Japan_9-10-2016.pdf

In Japan, the volume of homework schools give particularly during summer vacation and other extended holidays is absurd, and substantially impinges on what should be time for developing fond memories with family and building character.

Years ago, when I would go back to my country with my family for some time with grandpa, grandma and other relatives, my wife (Japanese) would be cracking the whip, screaming at the kids most of the time, panicked that the kids might not finish their reams of summer homework. It completely ruined the vacation for all concerned. What could have been precious memories, stolen. (Yes, I'm bitter about it.)

When it comes to all organizations in Japan — schools, employers or otherwise — an overriding goal of those in charge seems to be that of occupying long stretches of people's time with pointless tasks and long after-hours meetings for work or clubs. With schools in particular, I think this mentality of monopolizing people's time is culturally used as a means of keeping students out of trouble and off the streets. Still, I resent it.

Here are some photos of Yumiko Tsukakoshi, taken on the station platform: https://goo.gl/iWO11B

The Bank of Japan's strategy of quantitative easing doesn't work; it doesn't achieve the goal of boosting household spending.

It is a trickle down approach with very little trickle down. That much should be obvious to them after so many years of failed QE outcomes. It puts money into the hands of the rich (through near-zero rates of borrowing, free money welfare for the 1%) at the expense of everyone else, and drastically widens the income gap.

The only way the BOJ will fuel household spending is if they put money directly in the hands of the public through monetary policy, without going through government/fiscal channels.

This even applies to Japan's taxis and buses.

Japanese public buses in particular don't stop at crosswalks without traffic lights, and run red lights soon after they have changed to green with impunity. I see it all the time.

Japan's dairy industry is a mess. There is still sufficient milk on the shelves, because Japan's subsidies and agricultural policy are geared to favoring milk production over other dairy products. It's not only butter that is in chronic short supply, but also sour cream, cottage cheese and other dairy product.

A huge factor behind the increasingly chronic shortages is that aging Japanese dairy farmers are retiring in droves. There are 66% as many dairy farms now in Japan as there were in 2008. The number of dairy farms has long been dropping by about 4% per year.

Here are some numbers from Japan's Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food. in 1963 there were 417,600 dairy farms in Japan. The number was 25,400 in 2007, and dropped to 17,000 in 2016.

Here are the stats if anyone is interested (second to last page): http://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent%20GAIN%20Publications/Livestock%20and%20Products%20Annual_Tokyo_Japan_9-10-2016.pdf

Do you mean Kent Gilbert? He's still around. I regularly see him on one of the more right-wing talk shows.

@bullfighter

Kent Gilbert is in pretty deep with Japan's right wingers and the anti-Okinawa peace movement brigade.

His very public views are along the lines of "Texas Daddy" who generated a raft of negative comments when an article about him appeared in JT. Here are Kent and Texas Daddy on the cover of Japanese nationalistic magazine "Japanism": https://goo.gl/gBrpsh

Here is a video on his YouTube channel titled, "The Truth about the "Peace Movement" in Okinawa(Kent Gilbert)" complete with scare quotes around "peace movement": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T3MG5YJiRQ

I have two passwords for everything. One personal related and one work related.

@gokai, etc.

If your private/professional computer use requires passwords on many sites and portals, it is impossible to use one or two passwords for everything.

For one, some portals that I have to use require that I change my password every so often. That's a big pain because I sometimes type in a no longer valid password, only to have to dig through my records to find the most current one.

Also, different portals/sites have different requirements. Some require special characters, some disallow them; some require a mix of capital/lowercase, others single case only; some require over a certain number of characters in length, others a limited number; and the list goes on.

I have many dozens of passwords that I use no less than several times a year. I make note of all of my passwords as soon as they are created or updated. The notes are "encrypted" to make it more difficult for a potential hacker to use them if found.

Peter Barakan has long been my hands-down favorite Japanese celebrity. I first became aware of him in the late 1980s when he hosted the Japan broadcast of the American investigative journalism program 60 Minutes. He would give his take on the various segments after they aired, and put the stories into perspective to make it easier for the Japanese audience to relate.

He has continually and consistently conveyed his intelligence and maintained his dignity during his many years on Japan's small screen. That is no small feat in a Japanese "tarento" environment where producers egregiously set themselves to the task of othering the non-Japanese they portray on film.

Add in the respect Japan usually shows for senior citizens

This is yet another one of those longstanding and often repeated positive stereotypes of Japan that does not pan out in reality — Japan is the country of Obasute Yama (姨捨山, "dispose of granny mountain") for heaven's sake. Having lived here for many years, I find that in some instances this may be true, but in many other instances the reality is quite the opposite. I also find that there are many countries where elderly citizens are shown much more respect and kindness than in Japan.

Anyway, this 高齢運転者 > terrible driver gaffe has been all over the Japanese press and Twittersphere, and is even popping up in the news overseas. I wouldn't want to be the "translator" who is credited with this work. My guess is that it was a disgruntled employee who thought nobody would notice.

That's why Atsugiri Jason, or whatever his name is, was so successful.

@smithinjapan

Good example. Obviously Micaela's producers were looking for a much more overblown performance that fits their image of what all foreigners are supposed to act like.

The producers obviously seek something more along the lines of Atsugiri Jason, who plays the over-the-top gesticulating foreigner stereotype to great fanfare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u44nj0ckVRc

When it comes to "exotic" non-Japanese celebrities and aspiring TV talent in particular, the Japanese TV industry is run with a hostess club mentality. The same applies to AKB47-type girl groups; and yes, often even to English conversation teachers to a large degree.

Micaela’s example of being told to act like she was awed by the convenience store bentos was one good example — titillating the audience by catering to their preconceived notions about what foreigners ought to find impressive about Japanese culture. Its a continually repeated worn out script, but it never seems to get old, particularly among Japan's older generation.

Also, I always have to laugh at how they parade famous foreign celebrities visiting Japan out in carbon copy press conferences, and at the voices used in dubbed foreign movies. The Japanese voices of the female characters are invariably high-pitched and excessively "girly" while those of the male characters are at the opposite extreme, gruff and excessively "manly." Very few are portrayed with what I would consider to be a normal sounding Japanese voice, and most often the voices they use don't match the character.

Generally mystery meat is something to be avoided, unless you’re talking about Cup Noodle brand mystery meat.

Still, something to be avoided.

Single mothers, who make on average 150,000 yen a month, get limited support from welfare programs.

Why just single mother? Don't single fathers under similar circumstances also get support from these welfare programs?

Now if only the banks would offer me a negative rate on my mortgage...

The commercial here was well done. What an intriguing concept, but somewhat creepy at the same time.

We will be seeing many more clever applications for Pokemon Go-style augmented reality in real geographic space over the coming decade.

Plus, he is in his 50's so perhaps he needs to relieve himself frequently so he didn't want to let the control center know. ("What?! You need to go again?!?")

@DebTok

That or something along those lines seems very likely.

The company said drivers are supposed to inform the control center in advance that they need to go to the toilet.

Sure, JR has a policy in place for public consumption, but I the driver doubtlessly knew that if he were to follow those procedures he would be guilt-tripped and put under heaps of pressure. He would surely be told it was his fault for drinking too much liquid before starting his shift.

I have seen this happen in Japan on very many occasions with respect to illness, where a person is unable to participate in an event after getting sick, and then are later chastised for having allowed themselves to fall ill because ostensibly they hadn't gargled sufficiently or taken other health precautions.

The witness reported the incident to station officials.

I hope this "concerned" citizen feels horrible about causing what effectively amounts to a demotion for this driver, who probably has a family to support and other life pressures.

It looks like the "hands-on" e-mote (Emotional Motion Technology) girlfriend gizmo is now on the blink (for whatever reason). Somebody has attached an "out of order" sign to it: https://goo.gl/e0E4hG

The Tokyo Game Show organizers might want to brace themselves for a deluge of deeply disappointed fanboys. Not a pretty sight.