shallots comments

Reading this makes me physically ill.

"And that may actually still work, particularly if Japan happens to get a big medal haul."

Komiya-sensei, that's a whole lot of cynicism and contempt for the people. Say it ain't so!

An elite problem for the privileged few: "to press conference or not to press conference"; "to pick up the phone when Michelle Obama calls - or not." For many people, especially Americans, and she's basically an American, the issue is access to quality (mental) healthcare at all. It's generally very expensive. I hope she gives some of her riches to charities in this area.

BYOC

@Strangerland

point taken. She’s mentioned it a bit in interviews. But she doesn’t speak up loudly about when, arguably, it’s very apparent in her experience. As for her country, yes, she can be whatever she likes since she’s rich and famous. Japan will take her as Japanese because of that. My only point is that she could do a lot of good in speaking up about Japan the way she speaks about the U.S. - especially considering how awfully she’s been treated in Japan.

There's some paradox here. She's Japanese but doesn't speak the language and hasn't lived here. Maybe she's rightly American in terms of what culture she's from; she's lived in the U.S. all her life. She criticizes the U.S., as is her right, on the issue of racism and is considered an activist. Her family suffered deeply from Japanese racism but she never criticizes Japan at all. Her success in Japan is monetary; she makes a fortune from Japanese companies. Maybe she has not once criticized racism in Japan.

She should retire from tennis, and focus on social justice. She's already mastered tennis, and she has enough money to work towards whatever social justice she wants, and all the internet whiners can do is whine.

What do you think would happen if she turned her attention away from the U.S. and towards social justice issues in Japan? Would she achieve success? It's interesting that she hasn't said much about the country for which she chooses to play and identify, especially when she herself has been the target of racism in Nihon. I wonder why. Anyway, who knows what goes on in people's psychologies. To be as good as she is, she has to have been striving for it non-stop since toddlerhood. I guess that in itself could have caused implosion. Maybe she was pushed into it by her father, like Agassi. That could make one miserable. At least she's so rich that she can 1. relax in amazing mansions and 2. hire around-the-clock therapy teams to help her cope. I hope she does come out about it and find a way to help people who aren't so privileged but also have depression and anxiety.

@obladi

I like the story as much as the next guy, but what is this style of writing? It sounds like a trailer for a tv series. Is this a translation from a gossip magazine?

This writer and "SoraNews24" have been awful for many years now. I guess it's on purpose. I guess there's a paycheck in it? But, yeah, it stinks.

Anyone with kids will feel sick reading such a headline. We all benefit from a certain amount of moral luck. I try my best to ALWAYS be watching and to make no errors in judgement. But, there's always some luck involved in life. I'm scared to death of the way OTHER people drive around where I live. As for this mother: I feel sick for her. I'm not sure I could go on living if I were her. There is nothing that matters more than my wife and kids. Nothing. Maybe there is nothing that matters without them. I do think that people who feel that they want to exact retribution on this mother are missing something important in their emotional lives. This news item is a horror that never ends. Never. Be thankful it ain't you.

I rarely see young people doing anything shifty. Old people, on the other hand...But forget the street. My job responded to the state of emergency by sending us all into work the day BEFORE the first golden week holiday. THAT decision wasn't made by a young person. It was made by old geezers whose pals ARE the government.

People drive very dangerously and recklessly where I live with my wife and children. I've written down some license plate numbers to keep a record but I hesitate to do anything. It's pretty bad though.

I disagree that Mori could retain his power if she went up against him. She’s much more popular a name now and he’s unknown globally. If she called for his head, he’d be sunk. He she be taught what it’s like when a powerful woman REALLY speaks up. That’d serve him right.

I'm sure the industry has to change. On the other hand, it seems like a step backward if we're saying sex is off limits in cinema. There's a kind of repression that's come from the hyper-sensitive zoomers and Knightly is going with the flow. But it's an interesting psychological turn that we're seeing: hypersensitivity, denial, resistance and fear. We are closing ourselves. That's not to say that higher ethical standards aren't called for, just that free expression is a precious thing.

I just moved to a new city (HigashiOsaka) and I'm appalled at how much worse the driving is in my new location. It's terrible. I was cut off riding with my son on a bicycle by a motorcycle and came very close to being knocked off. Lots of people drive recklessly here.

Sounds like the woman is in a dangerous line of work probably exacerbated by the coronavirus. It’s a sickening violence. Lock him up forever.

Enough about the see-through toilettes already. Japan comes up with the oddest distractions.

This is also about the academy and journalism. If you have the "wrong" point of view, you may find yourself fired and employable in the future. This is not about the big names on the letter but the people who can't risk signing such a thing. Well-known professors like John Mcwhorter can get away with criticizing BLM but many lesser-known people cannot. When something is beyond critique, then it becomes a sort of propaganda. Of course this is not black and white and there are obviously some things that are out of bounds, out and out racism, antisemitism, pedophilia, etc. But those should be the exceptions that prove the free-inquiry rule.

We should learn how to address mental illness, from which shut-ins generally suffer. Leave aside people who just work at home.

Voluntarily? He should be kept in solitary and away from his wife, a coconspirator. Why keep in on the street?

I don’t know anything about rivers but I see these deaths from time to time. How exactly do people die so quickly in rivers and what are some rules of thumb to avoid danger?

Everyone is quick to blame but in truth, there is something called moral luck and bad luck. having kids is hard just like driving a bus involves microsecond decisions. People make errors every day, even people you will say have spotless character. This is sad for everyone involved, even the bus driver who also has to live with something horrible beyond imagination.

Ah Tokyo. Never been there. Meanwhile Osaka endures but I’ll look elsewhere for news of it.

I wonder how many parents didn’t send their kids.

This was bound to happen.

Beyond the fact that this guy is an animal, I wonder if a change in expectations as well as life coaching in schools could prevent morons from doing this. I mean young men learning parenting skill. What can you do to comfort a crying baby? Well, several basic things. Perhaps it’s asking too much for fathers like this to utilize a brain cell or two.

What’s a weekend going to do? I’m no expert; I’m just reading the news. From what I gather, you need a few weeks to make a dent in this and buy time. Seems to me we do not get daily reports here in Osaka but I hope the government is reassessing daily. I fear we will be in lockdown soon but it’ll be too late to control it.

This is the kind of news that really depresses me. Once famous people start getting it I can’t help but thinking it’s just out there and there’s going to be a an uptick and we’re going to end up on lockdown.

Hmm...#4 is a little iffy. How is “gender” in Japanese? If you’re talking about “sex,” then I doubt you could complete a medical degree with this restriction. I suppose if “gender” is very clearly referring to a social construct, it might do. Yet, can’t we talk about it? Can’t we discuss it?

Mia Farrow is a child abuser. Shockingly, she's still a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. Heavens forbid we hear the other side of the story. Ronan Farrow is a journalist, yet he's got a funny idea about speech.

There has to be a restorative aspect to the response with these young perpetrators. People might mistake that for "being lenient." It is not. It means they should have to do more to understand and work towards righting the wrong they did. People don't really change their moral selves for the better through punishment alone. They may behave better but even that won't lead to a deep or lasting improvement in society. Restorative approaches aim to do more.