Shaolin74 comments

I think the distinct lack respect for a three year old being shown here by some of the posters is absolutely disgusting to be honest.

You have no idea if the child was hot, tired, hungry or whatever. You just cast assumptions that it was a ‘screaming brat’. Three year olds don’t have to respect anything. They’re THREE!

Being brutally honest, some of you that post here as so quick to jump on fathers and mothers that throw their kids to the floor, or hit them ‘because they wouldn’t stop crying’. Rightly so. They’re monsters. However, you willing to overlook an old woman hitting a three year old about the head. Why? Double standards. Because she’s old, she must be right? The kid was bad? If the child sustained injuries, what would you say then? Change your tune methinks.

Abuse is abuse. If that were my son, damn straight I would have her arrested.

Oh, and meant to type “wrong” in my initial post. Just in case the grammar police set the dogs on me.

Also, interesting to see my initial comment downvoted. Is that a commentary on how foreigners think in Japan now? Sad.

@ James

Wring story, wrong newspaper? Seriously??? You DID read the news, right? Another example of someone not reading print properly!

https://news.tbs.co.jp/newseye/tbs_newseye4093343.html

Just for you. I’ve lived in Japan for over 20 years. I’m pretty sure I know the difference between Okayama (岡山県) and Shizuoka (静岡県). Please stop proving me right. I welcome criticism, but not even reading the mainstream outlet articles, then compounding it by not reading my post properly is very disappointing.

A lot of presumptions from readers.

The Japanese media reported that the girl was 10代, or a teenager. No age has been given.

There is absolutely no mention that she went to the same school, just that she lived in Okayama. The same goes for the previous late teen that he was dating and was alleged to have threatened.

There is no mention of it being a love hotel. It may or may not have been. It could have been a city hotel. Regardless, it seems that many are not reading the article properly.

The media states that, after dinner, she got in his car whereupon he took her phone, drove to a hotel and forced her into his room before assaulting her.

Regardless of whether some of you believe it was six of one, half a dozen of the other, this teacher deserves the book thrown at him. Hopefully not some out of court settlement, and he moves on to a different school keeping his license. For those laying some of the blame at the mother or girl, stop and think about what you’re saying.

Culture, permissiveness, compensated dating, how teens dress, these are all meaningless. A 35 year old teacher shouldn’t be messing around with teens. If that’s his fancy, get another job.

And although I respect readers opinions, ‘readers’ should ‘read’ articles properly before giving an opinion.

What some seem to have left out of the conversation was that the staff actually said to him “We understand you don’t want to wear a mask, so we’d like to offer you a different seat.” He was given the choice of a new seat or wear a mask. He didn’t want to do either. Just another example of a monster customer. Defend him all you wish, but he was given a choice.

This is an argument between morals and ethics, and no one is going to win.

Is he morally just for refusing? Of course. We all have freedom of choice. The airline SHOULD have made masks mandatory, thus ending the argument right there.

Ethically, he should be wearing a mask even for a short flight. He may be presympomatic/asymptomatic. He wouldn’t know. He then innocently aerosoling virals onto surfaces for others to come into contact with would then create yet another cluster we would then have to trace and deal with.

I’m not fussed which side of the fence you want to sit. From a prevention point of view, unless you have a debilitating condition that prevents you from wearing a mask, you should at the very least just don one for a 50 minute flight rather than create all this fuss in the first place.

As I said before, I think the airline should be changing their requirements, but the passenger should be taking some responsibility in this. If kids can wear masks for a full school day, he can wear one for 50 minutes. In a pandemic, your freedom of choice must be weighed against the safety of the population period!

It seems that almost every time I read a COVID-19 article here regarding masks, there is always a group of SJWs trying to champion a cause that shouldn't be defended in the first instance.

I wanted to clarify certain misrepresentations of facts that are being propagated here before it gets even more out of hand. I'm a virologist here in Japan tasked with COVID-19 research. Originally I worked as a S.O for the British government, so I believe that my opinion, and that of my peers should carry at least some weight.

I'm not here to discuss the moralities of what this customer did, or the actions of the airline company. Both are morally compromised to some extent. What I am going to defend is the wearing of face masks. So many comments on here from people claiming that there is no empirical evidence that face masks work, and some posting links to defunct or underpowered research that shouldn't be posted in the first instance.

Regarding COVID-19, people are most infectious in the initial post-infected phase where most show little to no symptoms. Therefore, we have to assume that anyone could be infected.

Bae et al conducted using COVID-19 positive patients, different face coverings and then examining viral loads have deduced that the wearing of cotton masks can yield a 10 fold reduction in the viral load expelled from the subject.

Van der Sande et al also stated that ALL mask regardless of type reduced aerosol exposure.

Milton et al found a 3.4 fold reduction in the influenza virus being transmitted in a sampling of patients.

Johnson et al found that N95 and surgical masks appeared equally effective in blocking the transmission of influenza virus in sampling of patients.

Cochrane review found that through studies masks were the best performing intervention across populations settings and threats.

An observational study in Hong Kong on SARS (49) found that “frequent mask use in public venues, frequent hand washing, and disinfecting the living quarters were significant protective factors (OR 0.36 to 0.58)”. An important observation was that “members of the case group [infected with SARS] were less likely than members of the control group [not infected] to have frequently worn a face mask in public venues (27.9% vs. 58.7%).”

And one more for the cheap seats; One case report describes a man who flew from China to Toronto and then tested positive for COVID-19. He was wearing a mask during the flight. The 25 people closest to him on the plane and the flight attendants all tested negative. Nobody from that flight has been reported as acquiring COVID-19. Another case study involving a masked influenza patient on an airplane found that “wearing a face mask was associated with a decreased risk for influenza acquisition during this long-duration flight.”

My point is, there is a reason why we aren't seeing the huge explosion of numbers here in Japan as opposed to what we are seeing the the UK or the US. Irrelevant of testing numbers, the custom of wearing face masks when you are ill here has aided in restricting the spread of COVID-19 through the population. So you can defend this customer all you wish, but if you and everyone else in the world wishes to see an end to this pandemic, you'll suck it up and wear a mask for a short flight, and bury your pride. Please stop posting anti mask comments on here unless you have the relevant RECENT studies, background and data to back it up.

Best regards and stay safe.

(A very tired virologist)

Clarification for those interested in actually listening.

I’m a virologists tasked with working on COVID-19 here in Tokyo. Saying that children have low or zero chance of getting sick or transmitting COVID-19 is utterly false. Both myself and my colleagues here in Japan, and also the Institute of Virology in Berlin and the RCPCH in London can all attest to the virus having low risk of serious illness in children. However, there is EXACTLY THE SAME chance of children passing COVID-19 to other children or adults.

Asymptomatic carrier rates in children are higher than in adults, thus an unlimited opening of schools at this time is not recommended. Governments around the world should be doing more to help support studies, but allowing an opening of schools at this present time in Japan is dangerous.

Due to the extremely low testing rate here in Japan, we are still struggling to get a grasp on the real numbers of infected. We don’t want to enforced strict lockdowns, but PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE exercise caution and observe social distancing. Also, be aware if you have children and don’t allow them to go shopping with you, or to play in areas with lots of people.

Apologies for the spelling mistakes. Working and reading don’t always mix.

irrelevant to me

This enabled the virus

As a virologist that has studied many infectious organisms over a long career, it seems to be rather irrelevant to my as to why this question is even being asked.

Whilst actively working on nCoV2019, we have been sharing our research globally Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to a panel of experts that this virus can survive outside of the host body on surfaces ranging from metal to glass and plastic for between 4-5 days, and sometimes up to 9 days.

Add this information to the layout of a cruise ship, and you have your answer. The only way to positively address the infectivity rate would have been to confine all (passengers AND crew) to quarters for the 14 day quarantine duration.

Unfortunately, passengers were allowed out of their cabins for short periods of time. This enabled to virus to spread via handrails, handles etc.

It would be hoped in the future that advice from us, and other knowledgeable bodies, that is passed on to government is heeded.

As a virologist working on this pathogen at present, I’ve been reading comments posted here and just wanted to clear things up.

Wearing face masks can reduce infection via emission (from the infected via coughing) from 33-100% depending on how the mask is worn. Ensure the mask is flush against the face, and DO NOT touch your face after removing it unless washing your hands rigorously with sanitizer and alcohol.

As the transmission of this virus is not fully understood as yet, wearing masks is a good preventative measure, albeit not 100% effective. Please bear that in mind.

Arguing that masks are not an efficient barrier to infection is counterproductive. They can be an aid to prevention, but good hygiene manner, and regular hand-washing HAVE to be observed.

If you need information on the efficacy of face masks, please check this study.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3306645/

easy enough to catch this scumbag with all the cameras in love hotels.

@ Vince Black Not sure what love hotels you visit, but my wife and I have been to a fair few and none of them require calling the front desk to unlock the doors when you leave. You unlock them yourself and just hand the key in at the front desk when you leave.

@Norman

I move to counter that argument. I don’t know, or have never heard of mother’s OR fathers for that matter, not just hugging but physically pushing their kids to the floor and then straddling them (keyword just for you there), before forcibly kissing them.

The little boy was physically assaulted BEFORE being sexually assaulted. An adult male straddling and forcibly kissing a 10 yr old boy NOT sexual assault? I think yours is the world I’d rather not live in. If anyone did that to my little boy I’d be taking their remains to court and pushing for sexual AND physical assault.

Trying to justify your view in this not being a sexual assault because genitalia were not involved is quite frankly ludicrous.

First of all, burning charcoal in an enclosed space here in Japan,be it in a car or home, is only done for one purpose and one only. Living here for over 20 years, it’s very easy to see that it’s a preferred method of suicide for many women who don’t want to suffer. Therefore, this certainly wasn’t an accident.

Secondly, whether the father was a ‘weekend dad’ as was suggested or not, since when has that been a justification for murdering three little kids? Whether there were mental issues at play or not, a mother under pressure only needs to go to the city hall to get help and advice. I can never get over this ‘gaman, ganbatte’ attitude here.

Mothers and and fathers are gods to their children, and you reward their trust and love by snuffing our their lives because of selfishness? It’s good to see more and more parents being reported for child abuse, and greater transparency, but until parents here stop treating their kids as accessories and more like human beings, this crap will never end.

I hope you three little ones are at peace, but you’re in a place you should NEVER have had to go to. My son will get a big hug from me when I get home this evening.

As I understand it (coming from someone very close to me who owns a delivery health shop in Uguisudani), the Thai girl was working as an escort for a delivery health shop in Nippori and the guy was a customer of hers.

They’d both checked into a love hotel in Uguisudani. There could have been language problems, she may have refused to do some things he wanted etc. She was definitely working illegally. However, none of this condones killing the poor girl.

I know that the shop she worked for has been closed due to hiring girls without visas. Let’s hope that this guy gets everything that’s coming to him regardless of whether the girl was working legally OR illegally.

Very late to this discussion...However,

There are two schools of thought here. One is that she should be free to exercise her constitutional rights. If she didn't want to stand for the anthem, then it's within her rights not to.

Here's the question. How many of the JT readers here stand for their country's respected anthems at a football match? Or how many of you rise when a judge enters a courtroom? Or at a wedding? A funeral? Just because it's within your rights to not do so, following proper etiquette surely takes precedence here? There's no mention of her being forced to sing the anthem, in the same way that many sports players don't sing their anthems before matches, or at medal ceremonies. We stand because, as part of ceremonial rite, we are required to do so in order to pay the proper respect to said ceremony.

Many here are jumping on the imperialist Japan soapbox here. As much as I agree with her not wanting to have anything to do with the imperialist past (who would!), it's a ceremony and, as such, not standing demeans the poor kids that turned up to graduate.

Also, for the record, people in wheelchairs OF COURSE are not required to stand! That's just a stupid comparison. If they could, they would along with the rest of us. Next time you slam the court for rebuking her, think back to all the times YOU refused to stand during a ceremony of any importance when asked to.

Interesting as 'she' actually used to be a 'he' before undergoing gender reassignment. Hence the level of violence in this case.

Here's an idea for the opening ceremony....Maybe we should have Takata in his fundoshi and hachimaki playing a Wadaiko on the veranda of Kiyomizudera and shouting 'Minna, dette koi ya! ...cue fireworks, Ms. Hart screaming at the top of her lungs and rolling her R's...Minnasama, Tokyo Olympics he YOKOSO!... athletes marching, a thousand taiko drums beating, samurai and ninja fighting...(was one of the best memories I had of the Pride FC....not the ninja and samurai thing lol)...Then clam it down with a bit of shamisen and some buddhist monks chanting while sakura blossoms fall from the sky....I'd pay to see that!

Way to go Matsuko! I can't for the life of me understand why some of the posters on here have a problem with a transvestite (I'm a big fan of Eddie Izzard), ESPECIALLY on that speaks their mind! Also, for those saying that she would be an even bigger embarrassment, she wasn't putting herself forward, or even saying she would be a better choice. She was saying that Japan should showcase the 'real Japan'.

I still haven't gotten my head around this term 'idol' either. Isn't an idol someone whose reputation and image endure throughout the ages? Not someone (or in AKB's case, the many mindless minions of some sleazy Japanese producer) who will be forgotten in a year or so. Wouldn't false idol be more appropriate? Too many pro-AKB posters on here think that most of us antis are bashing the poor little girls. I personally don't care for, or about them. I just have a problem with the lolita image marketed to guys in a country that only recently outlawed child porn.

I think you may also find that this group's fan base isn't made up of teens. ALL the teens I know in my family, extended family, friends families etc cringe when I ask them if they like AKB. I think you'll find that the majority of their fan base is made up of single, socially inept, insecure, terrified of any contact with a female, stuck indoors on their computer playing 'Final AKB Fantasy', 20, 30 and 40 year old guys.

So, good on you Matsuko. It's a breath of fresh air to have someone with the nouse to say to the Japanese public what the majority of us foreigners think (and I say that because the majority of the posters here agree with her!....KUDOS)

**First of all, my condolences to the family of Kenji. My heart goes out to you. No-one should have to witness the murder of a family member, especially in such a barbaric way.

I do, however, take exception to one post by couversaka... **

Englanders should be ashamed of themselves for producing murderers such as the "star" of this video. What the heck is wrong with your country and its educational/social systems when your people are turning toward ISLAMIC EXTREMISM of all things? Pull it together, England. Shame on you.

You, my friend, have absolutely NO IDEA what your're talking about. As an English guy living in Japan for the past 20 years, I'm utterly disgusted with your comments. Do you really think that my country's educational and social systems are to blame for Kenji's death? One guy with a British accent kills someone and suddenly we should all feel ashamed? Why should I feel ashamed? That cockroach probably wasn't even born in England! Maybe he was just educated there? Maybe he was influenced by his family? Maybe he always had radical ideals? However, to blame my country when hundreds of people are flocking to join those ISIS devils from many countries (the US, Australia, France and...dare I say it....even Japan!), shows just how misguided and ignorant you truly are.

My countrymen and I truly feel for Kenji and his family, totally condemn any and all violence perpetrated by the ISIS, but we won't apologise for the actions of one radical, won't change our love of democracy, free speech, school systems etc for you or anyone.

If you are going to comment in the future, think more thoroughly before putting finger to keyboard.

R.I.P Kenji and all the other poor souls slaughtered by these foul beasts.