solarbuster comments

I'm not a fan of ABS braking systems to start with. Any system that works by taking brakes off will go wrong at some time and leave a car with no brakes. Plug these and every thing else into a central computer and boy you are asking for problems. There is more buggs and viruses in software now than at any other time in computing history and from what I have heard Toyota is not the only company with same problems. Just Toyota has more cars on the road to go wrong and be noticeable.

The question should be; Does Japan know which is the right road to recovery? Because they have been doing a lot of off roading for the last 20 years with Toyota and the other motor manufactures dragging the country behind with their 4WDs.

Yep, its a great recovery; more people losing their jobs every day, companies going bankrupt every week. It is so obvious that no recovery is taking place yet the idiots still try to spruke up the market. Until the bottom is hit there is going to be no recovery, spruking is just prolonging the suffering of the people out of work as unrealist targets are set. People lose trust in the media to the point that some people are wondering if there is a swine flu pandemic or is it just governments trying to cause a diversion from economic inaction by government. The WHO are even changing set rules for a level 6 pandemic by keeping airports open because of the economic crisis so who do you believe? Is it a pandemic or a cover up to make more excuses for drops in the "recovering" economy.

Will Pakistan become like Afganistan? I doubt it, India will nuke them if it even looks like Taliban is getting control.

From the peom I can assume Ryukan was from a rich family and Ryokan was begging from the wealthy, as in his time the poor in Japan ate maize they never ate rice. His grass hut and 3 bowls of rice a day was also a luxury some never had, I can understand his nicknamed the "Great Fool"

The police are right do gooders do more harm than good. It is like people feeding birds they lose the ability to fend for themselves and decome dependent on handouts. Very few homeles people in Japan beg for money like they do in Australia, in Australia even after collecting their government hand outs and extra money and food from charity organizations (which they often sell to buy more booze or drugs)they are on the streets asking for more money to feed their habits. In Japan some homeless groups are very well organized and care for each other by making money from recycling as a group. There is a difference in Japan between those who choose that life style because they don't want to live in a controlled society and the other homeless, some of these people are doing a wonderful job in looking after the mentally ill that drop through the health system onto the streets. Those that say Japan is a hard uncaring society are wrong they just have a different outlook on Caring. Those Christian do gooders need to study the lessons Jesus gave about charity. He supported the Jewish concept that charity should never be seen to be done and should be provided by always giving work before food. That way it allows a person the retain their respect and dignity, while encouraging them and giving them the confidence to work. Too many charity givers do it to make themselves feel good instead of thinking about the effects of handouts on people in need.

Only one way to get rid of buggs, eradicate them

Is it a matter of courage or common sense holding onto restrictions that stop another rise to power by militaristic elitists. All kinds of warlike propaganda is starting to raise its ugly head around the world, I think the Japanese are showing courage and intelligence to stand up against it. Promotion of fear is quite obvious in this article with words like "Unlike China’s double-digit defense spending growth, Japan’s has remained flat for years. China has for years outspent Japan—$70 billion to $49 billion in 2009." and "serve as a counterbalance to the growing military strength of China." How much of that Chinese defense spending is really just soaking up the unemployed in China as China's biggest fear at present is a government backlash from the unemployed, not an attack from outside? And more fear promotion with; " from a potential attack by its unpredictable and often belligerent neighbor, North Korea." This article could have been made much more relevant about Japanese Taking a more global role without the inclusion of this paranoid war mogering garbage.

The Chinese also released a new model electric car they expect to be a winner at cheaper prices than Honda so more competition expected.

Capitalism, Socialism and Communism have the same self destructive flaw "exploitation" and because of this no ideology being based on materialism can succeed.

Only humanism which puts peoples rights and freedoms first negating exploitation can succeed.

Another popinjay like Koizumi is some thing Japan does not need, forgive the olde English but it fits better than any modern word. Leadership is a skill, yes Japan needs a skillfull leader not a "strong leader" a strong leader is only required for stuborn assess so they can carry the load without thinking about the ass who has refused to carry it.

Human rights can only be corrected internally the Chinese people have to change the thinking of the government. Interferience from outside of a country only unites the people within and the hard liners making life even harder for the people you try to help. When all the people shouting about human rights, provide their own people with humanitarian services like free medical services and house all their own homeless and provide EQUAL protection by law, then they can show by example how the rest of the world should live.

Too expensive to make films in Japan, NZ is much cheaper

Well, read this four times and I'm still quite unclear as to what the author is trying to say.

Got me as well, it tends to confuse issues. Maybe the authors suggesting Japan should just become an American State, that is the only way to get "total alliance"

Job losses will just bring in the next lot of bank problems as people fail to make payments. Charmaine Decena has already made the best decisions, better to cut and run if income is lost than stay in an expensive area that will eat up savings.

I witnessed a traffic accident in Nagasaki where a very old guy (well over 75) did a sudden right turn and hit a car from the side just like kamikaze pilots, and then kept driving without a brake! Not only his vision, but also all his senses were numb!

I seen an 18 year old girl do the same thing, she stopped because she ended up sitting on top of a high curb with 2 drive wheels off the ground still reving the engine. An old guy turned the engine off for her, her sense were also numb it is called shock. Some people get it other don't.

Another girl in her 20s came right through the red light opposite me laughing and talking on her mobile, she did not even notice that a car crossing hit her back end, she just kept going.

Problem is there are drivers of all ages who should not be driving because their co-ordination and reflexs are not good enough. Many people if they had to take their driving tests in manual cars would never pass. Age has little to do with it apart from discrimation, like the report about the 80 year old. If it had of been a 20 or 30 year old it would never have made the press, 100s in the 20 to 30 year group cause multiple accidents every year but you never hear about it. The guy who caused an 80 car pile up in England was obviously not over 60 as his age was never mentioned in the media. I personally think all drivers should have a medical which includes reaction time and co-ordination every year. After having worked in the aquired brain injuries area and seen how disruptive to life a road accident can be.

There is nothing to be gained safety wise by picking on older drivers when some at 80 are much more responsive and healthier than some people in their 20s. The medicals that most countries have introduced for older drivers recognise this and are very general. The media practices age discrimination to sell their products that is why they target very young and older drivers, you guys in the middle are simply not newsworthy as so many accidents happen every day in your age group.

tmarie, under 25 year olds cause the majority of accidents that is why their insurance costs are so high. PuffinMuffin must be living in an old folks home as most of the idiots on bicycles are teenagers every where else in Japan. But I must agree older Japanese 30+ do expect you to give way to them when riding bicycles, including the times you are trying to reverse out of a drive way with no chance of seeing them. In a culture where respect is expected this is not unusual and if you can't stand the heat in the kitchen you can always leave.

Before knocking and stirring the pensioners you should remember they were the ones who provided all the money and built all the roads you are driving on. If they charged you for using them they would not need a pension. So instead of paying pensions money, governments should just charge all the young people who use the roads and other resources the oldies built a toll and give that money to the pensioners. The pensioners would all be millionairs then and could afford chauffers and would not need to drive their cars among impatient dickheads.

The extreemists are not only Palestinian, and the Palestinian extreemists are not the only extreemists who have their own agenda in Israel and Palestine. Can Israel be sure who's extreemists are doing what?

Elephantman your right they run out of cash first but they go bankrupt when they can't repay creditors, running out of cash does not always lead to bankruptcy other options are some times available. Rewording the time line is a sales strategy used by people selling loans suggesting if people take out loans it stops them running out of cash.

hakujinsensei, it is not jumping on smartpartner it is jumping on the borrowing mentality and you have hit the nail right on the head with " going down big is way more fun then just disappearing unnoticed so borrow as much cash as possible" Yep, you go down big BUT how many other people do you take down with you? I just hope you are stirring on this one but many business and accounting students actually graduate believing it to be the clever way to go.

SmartPartner, I did read the article but debt is debt and a sure way to come unstuck when income drops. We are not looking at short term glitches in markets, if a companies sales are dropping now the emergency has already hit they are only going to get worse, I agree it is to late to borrow. However, borrowing before an emergency only increases costs and if you expect an emergency you should be cutting costs now not creating more. I can understand borrowing in a small recession that is expected to be short term so you have time to recover, the logic is good but not now. The logic now is "Why do companies go bankrupt?" Answer; because they can't repay debt.

Look at the mess caused by the book writers and readers already, if they had stuck to basics to start with you would not be writing now. I don't dissagree with all of your suggestions which are basic but you counter all the savings you suggest with more borrowing. Don't forget you pointed out your new friends business is err, interest collection, so yes, they also sound like pretty good salesmen.

ppayne Don't be so hard on jeancolmar, if you were a share holder who had lost their pants, your feeling would be the same and even Obama is having a go at CEOs, dont take it personal. Your company is doing fine, great. On the commentary however, I don't draw much faith from the advice, it still has that borrowing mentality that will send a lot more companies broke in the coming months. Every company need to have scenarios planned to cover costs cuts at each level their market may get hit. Each market and business is different so I guess ppayne who is doing fine, will already have all his scenarios worked out just in case his market vanishes overnight,

If Fujitsu was a good company it would sell to employees at cost. But obviously they don't when asking employees to buy their products, so this is just exploitation of their workers. Manager who thought up this idea should be first one sacked as it has already damaged Fujitsu's reputation just getting in the news and that is the last thing Fujitsu needs.

Communism is State Capitalism, the state owns every thing yet still exploits the workers. The Japanese Communist party can never achieve that or power because of the collectiveness of the Japanese culture. The Japanese Communist party needs to forget Marxism which could never work in Japan and adopt Humanism as their ideal. Humanism as a non-exploitive idealism would fit into Japanese culture better than socialism or communism. A Humanist party would be welcomed by the Japanese people who already hold all the values of humanism and its pyramid of needs. The true values looked for by "Communist" reformers who were against exploitation where never in communism and had the Humanist ideal been know to them, they would have adopted that instead of communism. The Japanese "Communist Party" flies under a false flag and needs to change if it aims to help Japan into a new brave future.

Contract work for individual workers stinks under any name as it is just exploitation. All individual contracts between companies and employees are an unequal arrangement that only benifit employees above middle management levels. Best name for them would be "Buy Temporary Slave Cheap" because in most cases this is what most companies are trying to do.

When companies are loosing 50% of their contracts thousands out of work are to be expected. With Japanese politicians just hiding their heads in the sand or should I say, in meetings to arrange meetings, to arrange other meetings to start thinking about arranging meeting to.......eventually think about some action, instead of being proactive and doing some thing positive it will get a lot worse.

Russia just turned to protectionism and has pushed up the price of imported cars. Obama will do the same as protectionism is the quickest way for nations with plenty resources to right their economies and pull down unemployment. Import replacement eats up unemployment and stabilises an economy faster than any other method Obama would be a mug not to use it. Dropping the US plant was a big mistake for Toyota they will lose their market share as Detroit pushes out eco-models at cut prices and imports get slammed by extra taxes.

Politicians are empty bottles by nature, they make lots of noise but lack the ability to see further than the polling booth. They can never define or fix problems because they can never see them until they are in a panic. Even with fortune tellers backing them up with gloomy predictions they can never look away from their little glass balls focused on the next election. The question is, can we use the gloom to get rid of politicians and have a rosy future.

Osamu Suzuki is right about the tsunami but I think it will travel much faster and hit before the end of May, possibly by March. Jobs are being lost all over the world, you have to be a fool to buy a new car when your job may be next to go.

Push bikes are cheap and a lot better than cars for getting around if you live in the cities. I never did more than 8,000km per year by car in Japan some times only 3,000km. Often I used taxis as they were more convenient because finding parking is often difficult in Japanese cities. I just drove to work as it was quicker than busses but only by 15 minutes or so and parking at work was no problem. Definately not cost effective though so I can understand Japanese not being interested in owning cars.