Suginamiguy comments

Maybe he's thinking of getting a job in one of those neko cafes.

Imagine the furball he gets if he does this regularly. Japanese police seem to have a high rate of weirdos in it.

Sounds like emotional blackmail to me. If you really care about Japan, you`ll give us the Olympics ...

Personally Id like Turkey to get as that part of the world doesnt seem to have held the Olympics much - not that I`m very knowledgeable about the games though.

I wanted to take the same picture on Monday, but I decided that crane would have spoiled the view.

From what I've heard of American Insurance companies I'd be happy if they keep themselves and their shoddy business practices out of Japan. It's not like insurance in Japan is crazy expensive. There is a lot of competition already, prices are low and service is superb.

The usual dogma.

I think it`s just rather ignorant to throw everyone into the bucket by using, "gaijin". It shows a remarkable laziness and lack of courtesy not to find out where the person is from and really does bring out the stereotypes which Japanese seem to focus on. But when I met many Japanese at university (in my home country) they hated being mistaken as Chinese or Korean or even being called Asian.

Where I come from it is so rare to hear the word, "foreigner", if we talk about Japanese we say, "Japanese", Chinese are, "Chinese", we don`t just call them throw them all in the same group and call everyone we meet an Asian. But in Japanese there is very little effort to find out where a person is from, the conversation usually starts out with, "What part of America are you from?". The majority of Japanese have a bad habit of thinking, "foreigners", are all the same.

Too bad for the producers, but at least in Japan, they keep it limited to a product. Americans jump into the most extreme diets. Sunday, you see them with their KFC and pizza greasy cardboards, and Monday, they are on master-cleanses (a spectacularly expensive way of starving), or raw vegan diet (they will eat only bananas and chia seeds), or wild dog diet (only meat), or only baby formula (slim fast, muscle milk, you name it)...etc. I had coworkers that really did all that, and obese they were, obese they are, as even if any of those fakir experiments made them lose 10 kg, they never lasted, and they regained more.

You think Japan is that different? Walk into any book shop here and youll see all kinds of crazy stuff. Watch tv and youll see the same garbage. And its a well known fact that the Japanese are becoming just as obese, it wont be too far in the future when they`ll be the same size as anyone in America or Australia. It was only this week, that for the first time I saw a fashion show for the grossly obese on the nightly news here.

I think the article is spot on, suckers are born for this stuff every day. Anyone remember the natto diet a couple of years ago that was aired and all the results had been fudged. Luckily they were caught out and the program was cancelled.

Once again the negative people here can't wait to pounce on the opportunity to express their frustration living here. What I see are millions and I mean millions of people daily passing through in and around shibuya station in Tokyo, one of the busiest in the world, and NOT one smoker. Maybe because nobody is standing around, or maybe they are hiding somewher under stairways, but the fact is, less than 1 % of Japanese people are rude.

The sign is clearly no-smoking sign. Maybe you think the rules dont apply to Japanese smokers, is that it? There is no problem complaining about this problem, because it clearly is a problem. Not everyone smokes, some people hate it, people dont want their own health ruined by or don`t want it near their children - maybe other people could add to the list.

The rule is in place and people are blatantly ignoring it. I live in Suginami very close to Takaido station. Close to the station there are signs plastered everywhere that smoking is allowed and anyone caught doing it will be penalised 2000 yen, but that doesnt deter anyone. At any time of the day you will see people walking up and down the street to their hearts content.

You should get off your high horse and realise the Japanese are the same as everyone else in the world, you`ll find just as many rude/ignorant people mixed in. And it is purely subjective to say that 1% of Japanese people are rude.

Personally I think the difficulty of Japanese is greatly overrated.

I had a salesman in my house the other day, as we were doing the contract he actually he asked me how to write several kanji as he had no idea how to write them. I honestly think the illiteracy problem in Japan is understated if anything.

Did I read the article correctly? A child of 4 entered the contest! The future of Japan is looking darker and darker.

Not as bad as say hot dog competitions etc that you get in the states.

Hot dogs or soba, it doesnt matter. These contests are all equally bad. When youre eating this much food, it doesn`t matter what type of food it is - a pig is still a pig.

I think the staff should just cooperate with the suspect, hand over the money and avert eye contact. Just do everything they can to keep themselves and the customers safe.

I think people tend to forget that a lot of these, "manufactured" groups have always been annoying. When I was at school, people like Rick Astley was roundly disliked due to that manufactured image

In my own case, I dont dislike AKB, I just view them as one of the many pop groups in the world that I have no real interest in. How many pop groups have "real" talent? After all it is pop music, which means popular music - that doesnt necessarily mean talented.

The only thing disapprove of is their fans. Watching men in their 30s and older who are publicly drooling over underage girls (yes, I know not all of them are underage) is creepy beyond belief.

to reword parts of the proposed bill on raising the consumption tax in order to reach a consensus

That really covers all bases nicely doesn`t it.

You`d think a doctor would have more sense.

Instead of these fancy, expensive fighter jets, how about just making some inexpensive roadside / remote controlled bombs? They kill and maim just fine.

Excellent idea, but you have to wait for an enemy to get inside you territory - which is not an excellent idea.

I'd say cancel this contract anyway. There are several other aircraft which fulfil Japan's requirements anyway such as the Eurofighter and other even slightly older aircraft.